5-5-16 Soldiers in Uzbekistan are reported to have fired on a crowd, killing perhaps hundreds of people, to quell a revolt against the regime of President Islam Karimov. It seems he will stop at nothing to avoid becoming the next authoritarian leader of a former Soviet state to be toppled by a popular uprising
EPA
Tragedy in Andizhan
THE full horror of what happened in Andizhan, in eastern Uzbekistan, on Friday May 13th has yet to emerge. But some reports speak of up to 500 people being gunned down when army troops opened fire on a crowd protesting against President Islam Karimov, the Central Asian republic’s authoritarian leader. Over the weekend, witnesses said hundreds of bodies had been laid out at a school in the town. There have been reports of protests being brutally put down in other Uzbek towns and of troops firing on civilians as they fled into neighbouring Kirgizstan to escape the conflict.
If the reports are confirmed, it will have been the worst violence in Uzbekistan since it became independent in 1991, on the break-up of the Soviet Union. Since then, Mr Karimov, who had been the local Communist Party chief, has kept himself in power through rigged elections and occasional shows of brute force. He has also sought backing from America and its allies by posing as a bulwark against Islamist militancy in the region. After the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, Mr Karimov allowed America to use Uzbekistan’s airbases to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This puts the Bush administration in something of a dilemma—inclined to support those protesting against a brutal regime but reluctant to side against an ally in the war on terror. After Friday’s bloodbath, America called on both the government and the demonstrators to show restraint. Britain went further: its foreign secretary, Jack Straw, called the incident “a clear abuse of human rights” and urged Uzbekistan to let in the Red Cross and foreign observers to establish how the violence happened.
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