"Oil and gas ensure that the US backs the Uzbek dictator to the hilt"

[Bluebear]

Craig Murray
Monday May 16, 2005
The Guardian

The bodies of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Uzbekistan are scarcely cold, and already the White House is looking for ways to dismiss them. The White House spokesman Scott McClellan said those shot dead in the city of Andijan included "Islamic terrorists" offering armed resistance. They should, McClellan insists, seek democratic government "through peaceful means, not through violence".

But how? This is not Georgia, Ukraine or even Kyrgyzstan. There, the opposition parties could fight elections. The results were fixed, but the opportunity to propagate their message brought change. In Uzbek elections on December 26, the opposition was not allowed to take part at all.

And there is no media freedom. On Saturday morning, when Andijan had been leading world news bulletins for two days, most people in the capital, Tashkent, still had no idea anything was happening. Nor are demonstrations in the capital tolerated. On December 7 a peaceful picket at the gates of the British embassy was broken up with great violence, its victims including women and children. So how can Uzbeks pursue democracy by "peaceful means"?...

Karimov is very much George Bush's man in central Asia. There is not a senior member of the US administration who is not on record saying warm words about Karimov. There is not a single word recorded by any of them calling for free elections in Uzbekistan.

(more)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1484631,00.html

[leftchick]

1. Craig Murray is such a Hero!

Such a brave man....

<snip>

Take the 23 businessmen whose trial for "Islamic extremism" sparked recent events. Had the crowd not sprung them from jail, what would have awaited them? The conviction rate in criminal and political trials in Uzbekistan is over 99% - in President Karimov's torture chambers, everyone confesses.

But the torture by no means ends on conviction. In prison there is torture to make you sign a recantation of faith and declaration of loyalty to the president. And there is torture to make you sign evidence implicating "accomplices". It was at this stage that the infamous boiling to death of Muzafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov took place in Jaslik prison in 2002. I expect the government will take care that the 23, if not already dead, die in the mopping up.

You may think I exaggerate. Read the 2002 report by Professor Theo van Boven, the UN special rapporteur on torture, in which he denounced torture in Uzbekistan as "widespread and systemic". Human Rights Watch last year produced a book with more than 300 pages of case studies. One of the uses of Uzbek torture is to provide the CIA and MI6 with "intelligence" material linking the Uzbek opposition with Islamist terrorism and al-Qaida. The information is almost entirely bogus, and it was my efforts to stop MI6 using it that led ultimately to my effective dismissal from the Foreign Office.

[Swamp Rat]

2. Who's on Survivor? Did you see the latest Anna Nicole Show?

Meanwhile, the killing continues...

[ps1074]

3. I am disguisted with this administration

BushCo cares about freedom as much as I care about the runaway bride.

'Freedom is on the march' is just one meaningless phrase for the sheepie.

All BushCo cares about is OIL and dictators that can secure it for him.

[DistressedAmerican]

4. Thanks For Posting On This Topic Bluebear!!!

As you can see from this related post I started yesterday, I am quited pissed off over this massacre.

It sickens me the way the so many things about our governemnt has a hand in do!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3659630&mesg_id=3659630

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

A New Graphic I Made Yesterday:

[Bluebear]

5. The American media is very silent on this one too!

nt

[Bluebear]

6. .