Leader ‘using extremist threat to crush opposition’

THE violence that has ripped through Andijan city in Uzbekistan is only the latest chapter in the troubled history of the former Soviet republic.

But the shooting of hundreds of protesters who had stormed a prison is the worst incident since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The country’s president Islam Karimov blamed the unrest on criminals and Islamic radicals linked to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir movement. However, critics said he was using the threat of extremism as a cover to crush opposition.

Local reports said people took to the streets to complain about poverty and to demand democracy.

When the country became independent, Mr Karimov took control and has since attracted criticism over claims of human rights abuses and corruption.

A UN report has described the use of torture in Uzbekistan as “systematic”. Human rights groups have reported that opponents of the regime have been boiled alive, and hundreds of others have died in custody.

The media is tightly controlled by the state and opposition parties are banned.

The violence in Uzbekistan follows unrest in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan where violent protests led to the ousting of President Askar Akayev. In the past 18 months, there have also been “bloodless revolutions” in two other ex-Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, both of which installed Western-leaning leaders. Central Asia’s hardline leaders have reacted by clamping down further on dissent. Moscow does not want to lose another ally in the area and has offered Mr Karimov its full support.

After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Uzbekistan became an unlikely ally of the United States.

The Uzbek government made its airspace and military might available to US forces, aiding the operation to remove the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

It also received millions of dollars in aid, although the US froze payments last year over a “lack of progress in democratic reforms”.

The protests present the US government with a dilemma. It has made spreading democracy a keystone of George Bush’s second term in office and offered strong backing to the reformers in Georgia and Ukraine. The White House, speaking after Friday’s shooting, urged the government and demonstrators to show restraint. However, in a blunt statement, the European Union blamed Mr Karimov’s policies for provoking the violent protest.