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Uzbek President Islam Karimov gestures during a news conference in Tashkent, Saturday, May 14, 2005. (AP Photo/ Anvar ilyasov)
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INDEPTH: UZBEKISTAN
Uzbekistan: Opposition not tolerated
CBC News Online | May 16, 2005
In Uzbekistan, no one's nostalgic for more democratic times. There haven't been any.
The region was conquered by Russia in the mid-19th century. The Soviet Union held it tightly in its grip until it dissolved in 1991.
That grip was especially tight in the late 1970s and '80s when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. There were concerns that the five "stans" – Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – with their large Islamic majority, could become hotbeds of Islamic extremism.
Uzbekistan's first and only president since independence – Islam Karimov – rose to the rank of Communist party boss of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan in 1989. A year later, he was named president and continued in the post after independence.
In 1995, a referendum extended his term until 2000. He ran for the job again – unopposed.
Another referendum – in 2002 – extended the term of the president to seven years. It takes effect after the 2005 election.
Western observers who monitored parliamentary elections in 2004 concluded they fell short of international standards. They also pointed out that all the candidates supported Karimov.
Uzbekistan has been slow to adopt economic reforms. More than a quarter of the country's 26 million people live below the poverty line. Unemployment is officially listed at less than one per cent – but at least 20 per cent of the workforce is marginally employed.
In the summer of 2003, the World Bank released a report that found that economic growth and living standards in Uzbekistan were among the lowest of the republics of the former Soviet Union. A year later, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it would cut aid to Uzbekistan because of its failure to reform and its poor human rights record.
The United Nations has reported that torture is "systematic" in Uzbekistan. The media are not free – and political opposition is illegal.
Yet Uzbekistan is a close ally of the United States. When U.S. President George W. Bush makes speeches about repressive regimes, he ignores Karimov's record. The U.S. increased aid to the country in 2000, after Karimov declared the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan a terrorist group backed by Osama bin Laden. He accused the group of using terrorism in its attempt to overthrow the government and replace it with a radical Muslim state.
A year earlier, the government blamed a series of bombings that killed at least 12 people in Tashkent on the group and used that to justify a crackdown on Muslim dissidents.
Oct. 1, 2001 – weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States – Uzbekistan opened its airspace to the U.S. military for use in operations against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The Americans were also allowed to establish a base.
By 2002, U.S. aid had tripled to $260 million. Human rights advocates say that rather than encouraging Karimov to clean up his human rights record, the U.S. has stood passively by and allowed him to use Sept. 11 as a pretext to pass anti-extremist legislation.
"There really is not a political opposition that is active within Uzbekistan. People are either in prison, or exiled, or have disappeared," said Matilda Bogner of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
A report released by the group in March 2004 accused the government of "hiding behind the global war on terrorism to justify religious repression." The report – Creating Enemies of the State: Religious Persecution in Uzbekistan – concluded that the government had arrested at least 7,000 non-violent Muslim dissidents. The report claimed many of those arrested were also tortured.
The authorities blamed Islamic militants again when a wave of bombings and shootings killed dozens in 2004. In February 2005, peaceful protests were staged in the eastern city of Andijan as 23 local businessmen went on trial, charged with Islamic extremism.
The men owned shops or factories that produced goods from building materials to cakes. In the late stages of the trial, the protests grew larger, with many of the protesters people who had lost jobs when the businessmen were arrested.
Relatives of the accused say the charges of religious extremism are nonsense.
On May 12, 2005, the protesters' patience wore thin. They took over the high-security jail in Andijan shortly after midnight. The protesters freed 2,000 people from the prison, including the 23 who were on trial. In the days that followed, reports surfaced that 700 people had died as troops fired on protesters.
Initially, Bush said anti-government violence is no way to push for change in Uzbekistan. By May 16, 2005, the U.S. began to harden its stance, saying it was "deeply disturbed" by reports troops fired on unarmed protesters. It called on the Uzbek government to allow the Red Cross full access to the affected part of the country.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said stability in Uzbekistan depended on the government addressing human rights issues and the rule of law.
At the same time, he also condemned violent protesters who had stormed government buildings.
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Uzbekistan
Population: 26,851,195
GDP per capita: $1,800 US
Ethnic groups: Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)
Religions: Muslim 88% (mostly Sunni), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%
Independence: Sept. 1, 1991
Legal system: evolution of Soviet civil law; still lacks independent judicial system
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