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The face of modern tyranny
The Karimov regime has played a major role in the Anglo-U.S. fight against Islamic independence groups -- misnamed "the war on terrorism."
Eric Margolis
05/22/05 "Toronto
Sun" - - VERDUN, France -- Revolt against Uzbekistan's brutal communist regime erupted last week. Troops and secret police slaughtered hundreds of protesters in the important but little-known nation. French sources say as many as 750 were gunned down.
On my first extensive trip across Central Asia in the 1980s, I was struck by how closely its then-Soviet republics resembled the U.S.-dominated states of the Mideast. I began calling the region "Moscow's Mideast," and its despotic communist rulers "red sultans."
This was a sound analogy. In both regions, corrupt, oligarchic elites, kept in power by their armies and ferocious secret police, exploited natural resources for their own benefit, and that of Moscow. They crushed human rights, kept the Islamic faith under the control of their KGBs, and denied all political activity to non-communists. The biggest difference: The Mideast states supplied the U.S. with cheap oil; Central Asia supplied the U.S.S.R. with cheap cotton.
Kazakhstan was the most advanced Central Asian state, and Uzbekistan, with about 22 million people, the most repressive.
Its grim Stalinist-style capital, Tashkent, was the nerve centre for Soviet control of the vast region and the 1980s war in neighbouring Afghanistan. Discovery of huge oil deposits in the western Caspian Basin made post-Soviet Uzbekistan of prime strategic interest to the U.S.
Rebellion against Uzbekistan's red sultan, Islam Karimov, has simmered for over a decade, particularly in the strategic Ferghana valley.
Various nationalist and Islamic groups sought to overthrow the communist regime and establish democracies. The largest group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) based itself in Afghanistan and received arms and training from Taliban in the struggle to liberate the nation from communism.
The 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan scattered the IMU and killed its popular leader, Jumma Numangani. But now, the IMU and other Islamic/nationalist groups, heartened by anti-communist revolts in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine, have launched a new jihad against the Karimov despotism. The regime reacted by widespread killing, massive arrests and torture, including boiling and burning suspects alive and jailing more than 10,000 political prisoners. The courageous former British ambassador to Tashkent openly denounced the Karimov regime for wide-scale human rights violations -- and was fired by PM Tony Blair's government for his honesty.
Uzbekistan is the acid test for claims by Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush that they are determined to spread what they call "democracy" throughout the Muslim world.
Benefits for America
The Karimov regime has played a major role in the Anglo-U.S. fight against Islamic independence groups -- misnamed "the war on terrorism."
Uzbekistan has provided the U.S. with a major air base from which to battle Islamic militants. Just as important, a compliant Uzbek regime is essential for U.S. plans to dominate the entire Central Asian oil-producing region and the pipeline routes to export the black gold to the West.
The U.S. has now set up permanent military bases in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan -- call them "Petrolistans" -- designed to safeguard the new U.S. oil imperial lifeline.
What needs to be done is for all western powers, including Canada, to declare Karimov's regime an outlaw and move to overthrow it without delay. The best way to encourage real democracy in the Muslim world is to join in ousting the sinister despotisms that afflict it almost everywhere. No one will believe Bush's democratic orations until the U.S. helps bring an orange revolution, as it did in Ukraine, to the oppressed Uzbek people.
We in the West have become so obsessed with security and oil that we have forgotten about political justice and human rights. Until these vital rights are addressed, there will be no stability in Central Asia or, for that matter, the Mideast
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