By Syed Arif Hussaini

  May 27, 2005

Chaos and Killings in Uzbekistan

After 16 years of the ruthless rule of strongman Islam Karimov, after a series of civilian protests and the success of some armed protestors in breaking into a prison and setting free 23 wealthy businessmen under trial for alleged connection to an extremist Islamic organization, along with a couple of thousand of other prisoners, and after the massive massacre of hundreds of protesting, unarmed civilians in the eastern city of Andijan, Uzbekistan appears now headed towards an implosion, unless the egocentric President quits and people’s grievances are attended to.
President Karimov, 67, is a staunch ally of the United States in the war on terror and has provided a base for the stationing of US troops. But, he has made little progress in improving the economy despite the fact that Uzbekistan is rich in mineral resources, including oil and gas. Poverty, unemployment and a reign of terror are rankling the people. They have reached a stage where they are more interested in making a living than in pursuing any particular ideology.
Almost 90 per cent of the 26 million Uzbeks are Muslim with a past that they can be justifiably proud of. Great commanders and empire builders such as Taimur and Babar were from Farghana province where Andijan, some 300 miles east of Tashkent, the scene of the May 13 massacre is located. The famous silk route connecting China to the Roman empire went through this central Asian state with the cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent, flourishing as seats of learning and culture along the route.
Uzbekistan produced great intellectuals and writers too. Interestingly, Karimov is also a writer, although his fame or notoriety is based on his ham-handed rule.
“I am prepared to rip off the head of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to maintain peace and calm in the country…If my son chose such a path, I myself would rip off his head”, he is quoted as asserting. But, he has no son, only two daughters. His elder daughter, Gulnara, is said to have built an extensive business empire. He has been ruling the country, the largest Central Asian state with a population of over 26 million, since it became independent in 1991 and has banned or stifled opposition parties.
In the May 13 massacre at Andijan, the Uzbeck government has put the number of those killed at 169 - a figure below the 200 whose heads Karimov would gladly rip off for the sake of peace. Independent sources have, on the other hand, estimated that as many as 740 persons including women and children were indiscriminately shot. Soldiers rushed the bodies to mass graves while some corpses were removed and buried quickly by relatives as required by their religion. Exact figure of the dead is thus unavailable, but even conservative estimates put the number at 500.
Five days after the massacre, the Uzbek authorities allowed a team of UN officials, some foreign diplomats and journalists to visit the site. But they were not allowed to visit the school area in Andijan where the crackdown took place. They were given no chance “for security reasons” to speak to the local people lest they found out what actually happened. “There are too many criminals around,” they pointed to the group.
But in this day and age, it is impossible to suppress the smoke while igniting a fire. The Washington Post of May 18, for instance, carried a detailed story by its correspondent on the horrors experienced by families caught in the crackdown. “The refugees accounts of the violence and their escape, which could not be independently verified, paint a picture of a peaceful crowd of ordinary families unexpectedly caught in a nightmarish ordeal”, the Post reported.
Uzbek attorney general, with President Karimove at his side, told a press conference, “Only terrorists were liquidated by government forces”!
He forgot to add that they carried placards saying “We are terrorists, kill us”.
Even the US State Department which normally stands by its allies, felt constrained to fault the Uzbek action. White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said: “We have had concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison.”
The 23 under trial persons set free by a rebellious crowd are reported to be wealthy businessmen who financially supported a charity that might have had links with Hizbut Tehrir, an organization banned on suspicion of being Al Qaeda-friendly.
The accused and their followers, according to a press report, were holding a demonstration to protest against the false implication of the businessmen in terrorist activities, growing poverty, unemployment, corruption of the President’s family and friends, and the frequent breakdown of electric power supply. The crowd was expecting the President to visit them to listen to their grievances; instead the soldiers came and started firing at them.
President Karimov’s contention that they were Islamic extremists bent on acts of terrorism on the dictates of Al Qaeda is not supported by available facts. He has been labeling the opposition to his regime as having been sponsored by terrorists. And, he has banned opposition parties.
Craig Murray, Britain’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, quit his job in October 2004 after criticizing US support to the Uzbek rulers. “I think”, he said, “the US policy is ridiculously myopic in Uzbekistan; by supporting Karimov we are creating an Islamic terrorist threat to the West that did not exist before”. He further pointed out that the Uzbek government was eager to produce links between Muslim opposition and Al Qaeda to justify the flow of US military aid and to imprison thousands of people opposed to Karimov as being pro-Al Qaeda.
New York Times correspondents who investigated the situation in Uzbekistan and neighboring Kyrgystan have in a lengthy dispatch to their paper, published on May 17, recorded eyewitness accounts of the one-sided violence and the indiscriminate firing at unarmed civilians including women and children.
The report quoted Asam Turgunov, member of an opposition party, as saying: “He (Karimov) lied brazenly to his people. He will go down in history as a bloodthirsty tyrant.”
No matter what the verdict of history on the character of his regime, the time has come for him to quit and for the West, the US in particular, to make him quit. The earlier he goes, the better it would be for the biggest Muslim state in Central Asia and for its neighbors including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Uzbekistan is a partner of Pakistan in ECO and the two countries have enjoyed exemplary relations in the past. Even a week before the massacre at Andijan, President Musharraf of Pakistan, on a visit to Tashkent, assured Karimov “Pakistan will not allow the use of its soil by any terrorists from Uzbekistan … and we will act against them”. He signed an agreement with Uzbekistan on fighting terrorism. But there was no commitment to support President Karimov in his maneuverings to retain himself in the seat of power by hook or crook.
(arifhussaini@hotmail.com May 19, 2005)

 






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