ABSTRACT
Uzbekistan has enjoyed political stability since attaining independence in September 1991. There have been no major incidents of ethnic violence, and it has remained insulated from the ethnic-and clan-based political eruptions that took place in neighboring Tajikistan. And yet, despite this surface semblance of stability, there is a pervasive sense that ethnic and communal violence could easily erupt. Uzbekistan was the scene of several particularly nasty rounds of ethnic violence in 1989 and 1990, the first major outbreaks in Central Asia during the Gorbachev period. The political and psychological legacy of this brutality has been used to justify authoritarian government in the name of avoiding violence, and the government's domestic concerns center on preserving stability.
