Please find attached some documents that provide information related to the KGB and the state security apparatus in Uzbekistan. Response to Information Request SUN9512 of 9 October 1991 states that the KGB of Uzbekistan was reportedly replaced with a national security service subordinate to the president of the republic (IRBDC 9 Oct. 1991).

According to a reseracher with Radio Free Europe in Munich, the KGB of Uzbekistan basically underwent a change in name (from State Security Committee to National Security Committee) and, instead of being headed by a Russian as before, it is now headed by an Uzbek (6 Oct. 1992). The KGB officials in the different republics of the former USSR tended to be professional security men who were nationals of, or indigenous to the republics they worked in (Ibid.). Many of the members of the Uzbeki KGB seem to be currently working in the National Security Committee of Uzbekistan, and are apparently committed to protecting the Uzbeki government (Ibid.).

The attached article "Crackdown on the Opposition in Uzbekistan" states that the Uzbekistan "state security apparatus" was granted "more powers to tap telephones" and its agents "were sent as far as Moscow and Baku to bring in Birlik activists for questioning or arrest" (RFE/RL 31 July 1992, 23). It is not clear from the article, however, if the "state security apparatus" is the National Security Committee or if its agents belonged to the KGB.

Helsinki Watch reports that in 1990 a total of 98 KGB candidates were elected to the Uzbekistan soviet or legislature (Apr. 1991, 103). The quoted section of the Helsinki Watch report, also attached to this Response, contains additional references to the KGB and its relationship with the former Soviet republics.

Additional and/or corroborating information could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC.

Helsinki Watch. April 1991. Glasnost in Jeopardy - Human Rights in the USSR. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Immigration and Refugee Board Documentation Centre (IRBDC), Ottawa. 9 October 1991. Response to Information Request SUN9512.

Radio Free Europe Research Section, Munich. 6 October 1992. Telephone Interview with Researcher.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 31 July 1992. RFE/RL Research Report [Munich]. Vol. 1, No. 31. Cassandra Cavanaugh. "Crackdown on the Opposition in Uzbekistan."

Helsinki Watch. April 1991. Glasnost in Jeopardy - Human Rights in the USSR. New York: Human Rights Watch, pp. 31, 101-105.

Immigration and Refugee Board Documentation Centre (IRBDC), Ottawa. 9 October 1991. Response to Information Request SUN9512.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 31 July 1992. RFE/RL Research Report [Munich]. Vol. 1, No. 31. Cassandra Cavanaugh. "Crackdown on the Opposition in Uzbekistan."