Up to 500 Dead in Uzbekistan

Up to 500 Dead in Uzbekistan





Protesters in the Uzbek town of Andijan cover up the bodies of men who died of soldiers’ fire. Human rights groups say that up to 500 people were killed in the turmoil. Photo by aljazeera.com

Politics: 14 May 2005, Saturday.

Up to 500 people have been killed in the recent turmoil in Andijan, an eastern Uzbek town, human rights organizations said Saturday.

Meanwhile, President Islam Karimov accused a radical Islamic group of starting the unrest to spark an uprising.

On Friday, soldiers opened fire on the crowd of about 2,000 demonstrators in Andijan.



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http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=47703

Rumsfeld added a picture of himself shaking hands with Karamov, the dictator of Uzbekistan, to his Saddam photo op from 1983, when he visited him last year, despite Human Rights organizations' warnings about the cruelty of his regime towards his own people.

The Bush administration has increased the money being given to Uzbekistan, but held back $10 million, until they improve their human rights record.

Azerbaijan, headed by another human rights violater, is also on the US government payroll, last time I checked.

I wonder how long it will be before we need to invade Uzbekistan, because we have to remove the dictator and liberate the people of Uzbekistan.

Needless to say, our media mentions nothing about Karamov's vile reputation, nor do they explain why these uprisings are taking place. I'm surprised it took so long, considering the horror stories coming out of that country.

I don't think this administration ever met a dictator they didn't love.

Islam Karimov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Islam KarimovIslam Abduganievich Karimov (in Uzbek actual Islom Karimov) (born January 30, 1938) is the President of Uzbekistan (since 1991).

Karimov was born in Samarkand and raised in a Soviet state orphanage. After studying engineering and economics in Tashkent, he became an official in the Communist Party.

He came to power as the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On March 24, 1990 Karimov became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He declared the independence of Uzbekistan on August 31, 1991 and won elections held on December 29 of that year with 86% of the vote. The elections have been called unfair, with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk (http://www.uzbekistanerk.org) (Freedom) Party, Muhammad Solih, had a chance to participate. Shortly after the elections, a harsh political clampdown forced opposition leaders into exile, while many have been issued long-term prison sentences and a few have disappeared.

In 1995, Karimov extended his term until 2000 through a widely criticized referendum, and he was reelected with 91.9% of the vote on January 9, 2000. The United States said that this election "was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choice" <1> (http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/election/uzbekistan/bbu260100.htm). The sole opposition candidate, Abdulhasiz Dzhalalov, admitted that he had only entered the race to make it appear to be a democratic contest and that he had actually cast his own vote for Karimov. On January 27, 2002, Karimov won another referendum extending the length of presidential terms from five to seven years; Karimov's present term, formerly due to end in 2005, was subsequently extended by parliament, which scheduled the next elections for December 2007.



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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov

This cannot be good for the Bush administration, riots in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan also. How will they ever build that pipeline? I guess shooting everyone who gets in the way, is a solution.

AIRC, for the millions of dollars we are giving Karamov, he allowed US troops to use military bases there. All this is to protect the path to the Caspian Sea oil reserves.

I did read that the race to the Caspian Sea would be very violent and bloody. It looks like it's beginning ~

I like to mention Karamov and our support for him to freepers, this way they can't pretend they didn't know that Bush et al supported him. It was news to them when they heard about Saddam's friendly relationship with Reagan/Bush ~

are good buddies too.

what a sick joke this admin. is.
They have also backed away from their condemnation of genocide in Sudan and recently entertained one of the major war criminals in DC.
:puke:

I had one tell me the protesters are of the same "vein as the Taliban." Of course, their religion and skin color makes them very much radicals...and it's fine if our allies kill them.

Racist bastards

Uzbekistan on the brink as clashes spread

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Sunday May 15, 2005
The Observer

The violence that has reportedly killed hundreds of protesters in eastern Uzbekistan appeared to be spreading to neighbouring towns last night, raising fears that the volatile Central Asian state could erupt into a full-scale revolution.
As human rights workers in the flashpoint town of Andijan warned that the death toll there could reach 500, an official from the neighbouring country of Kyrgyzstan said sporadic rioting had broken out in the border town of Karasu, with government buildings and police cars on fire and military helicopters circling overhead.

One local official was reported by the Russian Interfax news agency to have been heavily beaten by rioters. The Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, claimed that troops had opened fire on protesters in Andijan only when they were advanced on.

Visibly angry, he told reporters in the capital, Tashkent: 'I know that you want to know who gave the order to fire at them ... No one ordered to fire at them.' He said 10 soldiers were killed in the clash and 'many more' protesters.




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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1484252,00.html

right?



:wtf:

Uzbek border town set ablaze amid fear, riots
Los Angeles Times

Sunday, May 15, 2005

MOSCOW — Thousands of residents fleeing a bloody crackdown against protests in an eastern Uzbek city gathered Saturday in a nearby border town where rioting erupted amid fears of another assault by government troops.

Police stations, tax offices, the prosecutor's office and the customs terminal were set ablaze in the town of Korasuv, on the border of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

About 5,000 people had fled there Saturday from Andijon, 30 miles to the west, it said. Hundreds more fled to at least one other border-crossing site.

The violence in Korasuv was apparently triggered, at least in part, by anger that the border had been officially closed.




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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/world/epaper/2005/05/15/a3a_uzbek_0515.html

CHRONOLOGY-A history of violence in Uzbekistan since 1989
15 May 2005 11:23:29 GMT

Source: Reuters

ANDIZHAN, Uzbekistan, May 15 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people are feared to have died in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan when troops cracked down on protesters and rebels in the eastern town of Andizhan.

If casualty figures are confirmed, the Andizhan unrest would be the worst violence in Uzbekistan's post-Soviet history under the rule of autocratic President Islam Karimov.

Following is a chronology of major political events in Uzbekistan since Karimov assumed leadership of the Uzbek Communist Party in 1989:

1989 - Islam Karimov, the orphan son of a Tajik mother and Uzbek father, becomes leader of Uzbek Communist Party.




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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1543394.htm

Uzbekistan lashes out at Straw
15/05/2005 17:06 - (SA)




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Tashkent - Uzbekistan on Sunday firmly rejected foreign criticism of its troops' bloody suppression of an uprising in the east of the country, denying that the soldiers had opened fire on demonstrators.

Witnesses said hundreds were killed on Friday when soldiers fired on protesters outside the local administration building in the city of Andijan.

The Uzbek foreign ministry issued a statement expressing surprise about critical statements by British foreign secretary Jack Straw, "who, being thousands of kilometres away from Andijan, was so well aware of the details of the clashes in that city."

"From where has Jack Straw learned that law enforcement had 'opened fire on demonstrators' if that did not take place at all,"' the ministry said.




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http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1705362,00.html

people...

Shot down, ‘like rabbits’




Relatives of a victim carry his coffin in Andizhan. (Reuters)

Andizhan (Uzbekistan), May 15 (Reuters): Families of hundreds killed in Uzbekistan when troops opened fire to quell protests buried their dead today as witnesses told of bloody mayhem in which women and children were shot “like rabbits”.

In a single incident in Andizhan on Friday, witnesses said soldiers had fired on a crowd including women and children and their own police comrades who were begging them not to shoot.

Hundreds of bodies lay overnight outside the eastern town’s School No. 15 after the massacre until they were removed in the early hours yesterday, the witnesses, who did not wish to be named, said.

Islam Karimov, autocratic President of the mainly Muslim Central Asian state, said troops were given no order to fire in Andizhan. He blamed the violence on rebels belonging to the outlawed Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Hizb ut-Tahrir denied involvement.




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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050516/asp/foreign/story_4745340.asp

The crushing grip of a ruthless long-time ruler

CALUM MACDONALD May 16 2005




LITTLE has changed in Uzbekistan since the collapse of communism and the break-up of the old Soviet Union, least of all the man in charge.
Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's autocratic president, has dominated the central Asian republic since 1989, when he took over as leader of the communist party.
The following year he became president and has since retained a firm grip on power.
The orphan son of a Tajik mother and Uzbek father, his rule has been characterised by oppression, torture, human rights abuses and a failing economy.
Mr Karimov, 67, is from the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan and is an economist by profession. During the days of Soviet Uzbekistan he served as finance minister, one of several senior government posts he held.




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http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/39344.html