Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia. It is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, Turkmenistan to the southwest, and Afghanistan to the south. Slightly larger than California at 447,400 square kilo-meters (172,742 square miles), it has long hot summers and mild winters, and is semiarid.

As of July 2003 Uzbekistan's population was estimated at 26 million. The prominent ethnicities are 74.3 percent Uzbek, 5.5 percent Russian, 5 percent Tajik, and 3 percent Kazakh. The prominent religions are Sunni Muslim at 85 percent followed by 9 percent Eastern Orthodox.

The region that became Uzbekistan was annexed by Russia in the late nineteenth century. There was resistance to Russian rule, and in 1917 the region was taken over by the Bolsheviks. In 1924 the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. Uzbeks were very supportive of the former Soviet Union. Nevertheless, in June 1990 Uzbekistan was the first Soviet republic in Central Asia to declare its sovereignty; it...