Uzbek strongman seeks support in China

Making his first trip abroad since a bloody crackdown on protesters, Uzbek President Islam Karimov has left on a visit to China, which has provided a rare note of support for the authoritarian Central Asian leader.

Karimov, who has rebuffed international calls for an independent inquiry into the May 13 bloodshed, apparently looked to his trip to underline that China is on his side.

Yesterday, Beijing said it “firmly” backed his actions in crushing anti-government demonstrators.

China is eager to tap into Central Asia’s energy resources, and it has watched warily since the United States deployed troops to the region after the September 11, 2001, attacks in America, including at an Uzbek base.

Beijing also wants stability in the former Soviet states of Central Asia, a region that China – like Russia – considers a tinderbox of Islamic militancy that could spread to its own territory.

The Chinese and Uzbek governments said Karimov’s visit today was planned long before the May 13 uprising in the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan.

Western governments harshly criticised Karimov for using force to put down the uprising. But China and Russia have been more supportive of Karimov’s decision to act after armed men seized government buildings and broke into a jail to free 23 businessmen accused of Islamic extremism.

Uzbek officials claim 169 people – mainly militants – were killed in Andijan. But rights activists contend hundreds of protesters died and insist many were unarmed civilians who were only voicing their opposition to Karimov’s government and anger over economic woes.

Uzbek officials failed to show up yesterday as foreign ministers and officials from NATO nations and 20 of their neighbours to the east began two days of discussions about stability in the Euro-Asian region.

The US has also criticised the crackdown and said it hopes for more democracy in Uzbekistan. But China and Russia are lined up on the other side.

China stresses the importance of maintaining stability in Central Asia through the China-backed Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, whose members include Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

China claims ethnic Uighur separatists are fighting for an independent Islamic state in its western region of Xinjiang, which is 120 miles from Andijan and shares Uzbekistan’s Muslim religion and Turkic language roots.