By Stephen Castle in The Independent

Sanctions imposed by Europe on Uzbekistan over human rights abuses are likely to be scaled back this month, prompting divisions over EU efforts to expand its influence in Central Asia.

Although an arms embargo is almost certain to remain in place, there is pressure to lift a visa ban on 12 Uzbek officials, and to unfreeze high-level talks.

The measures were taken in protest at the shooting of at least 180 civilians in Andijan. But unless there is agreement from all 25 EU nations, the sanctions will expire on 17 November.

At a meeting with the EU this week, Uzbekistan is expected to offer to hold a human rights dialogue and to discuss Andijan. Many EU members want a judicial investigation into the massacre, and punishment of those responsible.

But Germany has argued that the visa ban has been ineffective since only eight of those named remain in their posts, and five are in a minor position. Germany’s critics claim that it is motivated by commercial and energy interest in Uzbekistan. But Berlin said a failure to construct a dialogue with Uzbekistan was counter-productive. That position could be supported by France and Spain. However, the UK is pushing for a tough line and said there was a strong case for sanctions to continue.

From The Times Online

HOW WONDERFUL that Kazakh buses are back in the news after nearly 90 years. (The last time was in 1918, when the Times man Stephen Graham used one to evacuate himself from Ust Kamenogorsk on receiving word, just a year after the event, of the Russian Revolution.) Now Borat, he of the egregious moustache and eponymous film, has given Central Asia fetishists an excuse to recall their all-time top Kazakh bus journeys in the interests of regional stability and harmonious gender relations.

I shall limit myself to three. The first is Bishkek to Almaty, a post-Soviet classic, starting in the Kyrgyz capital but heading almost immediately into the idyllic Kendyktas hills where Lenin’s henchmen butchered Kazakh nomads by the thousand but their heirs farmed placidly for the next 70 years. Next: the No 18 suburban trolleybus from outside the Panfilov cathedral in downtown Almaty, up into the freeze-dried air and surreal concrete excess of the Medeo ice rink, where steroids and the threat of party excommunication contributed to the setting of more than 150 Soviet speed-skating records. And finally, the two-day run from Semipalatinsk to Berel, near the Mongolian border, where the local herdsmen still grind up maral deer horns for sale to Chinese quacks, who claim the powder boosts fertility and relieves pain in childbirth.

On all these journeys the women sat inside the bus rather than on the roof. And though, statistically, there must have been some homosexuals among us, none wore a blue hat.

Since Borat’s film is distributed by a subsidiary of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, I can hardly accuse him of deliberate falsification. Perhaps his budget did not extend to a researcher. But in either case I don’t believe it was because of his free way with facts that Presidents George Bush and Nursultan Nazarbayev declined his invitation to a screening in Washington last week. The presidents were simply too engrossed in each other’s company because they have so much in common.

Both run big, beautiful countries with long, snow-capped mountain ranges and vast, irradiated nuclear test sites. Both operate world-class spaceports. Both depend for much of their countries’ economic dynamism on energetic ethnic minorities (Latinos in the US; Russians in Kazakhstan). Both have to grapple occasionally with indigenous tribes making tiresome allegations of past genocide and mass expropriation, and both appear to govern from within cocoons of advisers too scared to tell them the truth about the world outside.

In Mr Bush’s case, this is the conclusion we are invited to draw from Bob Woodward’s latest book, State of Denial. In Mr Nazarbayev’s, he is an unreformed ex-Communist autocrat whose daughter is one of the country’s richest oligarchs and whose son-in-law seriously suggested morphing the Kazakh presidency into a monarchy.

One truth Mr Nazarbayev has yet to learn is that for oil-rich backwaters seeking a higher global profile, all publicity is good publicity. You read it here: foreign tourism to Kazakhstan will spike as a result of the Borat project. The challenge for Mr Nazarbayev’s underlings at the Tourism Ministry in his desolate new capital of Astana will be to turn some of that spike into repeat custom.

A few of the new visitors will fall headlong for the sheer exoticism of the only country in the world with two disappearing inland seas (the Aral and Lake Balkhash) and a swath of steppe the size of Wales earmarked for the exclusive purpose of receiving falling debris from space launches at Baikonur.

Others will need more encouragement, and koumis may help. This is fermented mare’s milk (not urine, pace Borat, aka Sacha Baron Cohen, BA Hons, Cantab). And though revolting, koumis is strong. But the real test of Kazakhstan’s welcome to the world will be its people. Can they laugh at being traduced, or will they sulk?

The Kazakh Ambassador to London has said ‘We take it as a comedy.’ Good sign. Let’s hope he keeps his job. Because our own record in the only remotely analogous case that comes to mind is not so positive. Three years ago Craig Murray, our ambassador to Kazakhstan’s odious neighbour, Uzbekistan, had a sense-of-humour failure about Britain condoning torture there. His fate? The Foreign Office fired him.

From The Congress of Democratic Uzbekistan (CDU)

Uzbek Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that the next group of Uzbek citizens, who fled the country after the Andijan events in May 2005, made a request to the Uzbek embassy in the USA to render assistance to

return home. All of these refugees have been staying in Boyce, Idaho.

At the same time the mysterious death of two Uzbek refugees in Idaho has raised suspicion and concern.

According to Akram Mahmedov living in Idaho (1444 W Jacksnipe Dr Meridian, ID 83642 ; Ph. #:208-895-0206 ; 208-713-4659), a 29 year old Uzbek citizen Alimjan Sabirov (Olimjon Sobirov, Garden city, ID) died on August 1, 2006. Doctors announced his death as suspicious for he had mysteriously died in his sleep, especially because Mr. Sabirov was a healthy individual.

A month later on September 2, 2006 Mr. Sabirov’s close friend Zahidjan Mahmedov (1429 Siver Salmon, Meridian, ID 83642) also died in the similar suspicious manner at the age of 29.

The Uzbek government and the embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington DC have a political interest in the return of Andijan refugees. Mr. Sabirov and Mr. Mahmedov have been trying to reveal this motive to the refugees by reasoning with them to stay. They attempted to inform

the Andijan refugees that Uzbek dictatorial regime is torturing and killing innocent people.

Furthermore Mr. Mahmedov’s brother Akram Mahmedov gave several interviews to the radio Liberty/RFE/RL, wrote articles and petitions on this issue.

The Congress of Democratic Uzbekistan is urging you to cover these mysterious deaths, due to the more than 60 refugees return to Uzbekistan next week.

Sincerely Jahangir Mamatov,

Chairman of the Democratic Uzbekistan

www.uzbekcongress.org

[email protected]

571-277-0140

www.jahongir.org

The Congress of Democratic Uzbekistan (CDU), a onprofit organization, which unites hundreds of democratic activists in Uzbekistan and has thousands of supporters in the country and many dozens of members in the US and Europe, advances freedom in Uzbekistan by promoting democracy and unmasking a totalitarian regime.

From Mosnews.com

UNESCO’s decision to award Uzbek President Islam Karimov the “Borobudur” gold medal has caused criticism of several international rights organizations who consider Karimov a gross violator of human rights, Radio Free Europe reports.

UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura personally gave Karimov the award in Tashkent on September 8 for the Uzbek president’s contribution to “strengthening friendship and cooperation between the nations, development of cultural and religious dialogue, and supporting cultural diversity.” Rights organizations have long branded Karimov a gross violator of human rights. They say that any international award to the Uzbek leader is inappropriate and that the UNESCO decision was not only wrong but runs contrary to stated UN policies.

Freedom House and Human Rights Watch are leading the campaign against the UNESCO decision.

Veronika Szente-Goldston, Human Rights Watch’s advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia, expressed her organization’s shock at news of the award in comments to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. “We think that this is absolutely scandalous,” she said. “When we first saw the announcement we thought that it must be a bad joke.”

Freedom House joined Human Rights Watch in criticizing UNESCO and the UN agency’s awarding of Karimov.

Alexander Gupman, the senior program manager at Freedom House, said his group was similarly amazed at the UNESCO decision. “Freedom House strongly condemns this decision to reward the dictator Karimov in Uzbekistan who has been part of a massacre of civilians; his regime has been accused of torture as well as other human rights abuses,” he said.

UNESCO introduced this medal in 1983, naming it after the famous Buddhist temple in central Java, Indonesia, that dates from the 8th-9th centuries and was restored with UNESCO help in the 1970s. The Borobudur medals ?- gold, silver, and bronze ?- are given mainly for contributions in preserving cultural heritage sites.

From Fox23 News

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) – A dissident Uzbek folk singer has been given a three-year suspended sentence for writing a song about last year’s bloody crackdown of an uprising in the city of Andijan, his lawyer said Monday.

Dadakhon Khasanov was convicted Friday by the Tashkent Criminal Court, which then suspended his sentence provided he does not write politically motivated songs or poems, defense attorney Surat Ikramov told The Associated Press. Ikramov dismissed the trial as “theatrical” and “absurd.”

Khasanov, 66, whose trial began in July, was forced to sign away ownership of his house and car, and he turned down legal defense after pressure from the Interior Ministry, Ikramov said. Khasanov faced official accusations of insulting President Islam Karimov and disseminating illegal information.

Days after government troops opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Andijan on May 13, 2005, Khasanov composed the “Andijan song,” whose lyrics included the words: “Children died, red like tulips in spring. … We tested our ruler, he turned out to be a terrorist. … Dictators will keep on shooting until the Uzbeks sleep.”

Rights groups and witnesses say hundreds of mostly unarmed protesters were killed by government forces in Andijan; authorities insist 187 died and blamed Islamic radicals for instigating the violence.

It is unclear how widely Khasanov’s song has been distributed; it was recorded on tape and has been passed mainly person-to-person. At one point, U.S.-funded Radio Liberty played it every time they reported on the Andijan events, and the criminal case against Khasanov was opened after a police officer heard it on a bus in the western city of Bukhara.

Two men in Bukhara were convicted in early August to four and seven years in prison, respectively, after they were caught listening to the song on a tape.

(more…)

From RFE/RL

Uzbekistan will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its independence on September 1. President Islam Karimov has proclaimed in the past that the Uzbek nation and its 26 million people are heading toward democracy and that democratic reforms are the only form of political development. But his rhetoric is quite different from reality.

PRAGUE, August 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) — Fifteen years after gaining independence from the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan has what some experts refer to as a notorious reputation.

Bahodir Musaev, an independent sociologist, spoke to RFE/RL from Tashkent. He said: “Fifteen years after declaring independence, we find ourselves behind the starting point, in a deadlock, if not in a complete social catastrophe. The most obvious example is our neighbor Kazakhstan. In 1991, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were at the same point. Today, there is a huge gap between them [in democratic and economic development].”

Falling Behind

Uzbekistan seems to trail not only Kazakhstan — which is now Central Asia’s wealthiest country — but others as well.

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Tashkent and a fierce critic of President Karimov’s regime, tells RFE/RL that in the fight against dissent, the Uzbek regime is the most brutal among all Central Asian countries and even harsher than Turkmenistan.

“I think the violence is worse in Uzbekistan,” Murray said. “More people are tortured by the regime than in Turkmenistan. Certainly the repression has increased ever since [the May 2005 violence in] Andijon. There are successive trials of both opposition people and religious people, sometimes in quite large groups. And the scale of political attacks seems to be increasing [in Uzbekistan].”

While the Uzbek government has strengthened repression against political and religious opponents, it has also shut down or squeezed out many foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian groups.

The most recent case of an NGO’s imminent closure came today. Authorities accused the Massachusetts-based Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD) of proselytizing among Uzbeks. PAD says it has helped Uzbek university professors with new textbooks and assisted them in expanding contacts with academics in the international community.

As a result of its anti-NGO policy, the portion of Uzbek civil society supported by foreign aid groups has almost disappeared.

Meanwhile, authorities continue to strictly control local media, and foreign journalists have been forced to leave the country amid harassment and intimidation.

Fierce Repression

Opposition party members and human rights activists have been either jailed or forced to exile.

Bakhtiyor Hamroev, one of the few human rights activists still working in the country, was injured on August 18 in his apartment by a large group that beat him — in the presence of British diplomats and with police watching.

Another rights activist, publicist Motabar Tojiboeva, who is serving a prison term, is reportedly being ill-treated and tortured in jail.

The situation in the economic sphere does not seem to be any better. And foreign investors have become a target of government pressure.

Earlier this month, authorities announced the bankruptcy of Zarafshan-Newmont, a U.S.-Uzbek joint venture, and froze its assets and confiscated gold.

Earlier this month, reports said authorities had revoked the license of Britain’s Oxus Gold PLC, preventing it from continuing to develop a high-grade zinc, silver, copper, lead, and gold deposit in the country.

On August 24, Uzbekistan stripped an Uzbek-Israeli joint venture of its exclusive rights to process a strategic metal (molybdenum concentrate) produced by the state-owned Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine.

Uzbekistan’s Future

Experts say these are signs of the regime getting more desperate as opposition among the people grows stronger.

The question is: where is Uzbekistan heading and what options do the people have before them? Murray says a popular upheaval is imminent.

“At the moment, Uzbekistan, undoubtedly is heading into further political and economic isolationism,” he said. “And things are simply going to get worse. You can keep people managing to just live at a very low level and you can keep the very wealthy people and President Karimov still managing to steal huge amounts of money from the economy provided that [currently high] gold and cotton prices maintain and the regime keeps its grip on power. But ultimately that’s going to lead to violent upheaval.”

Musaev agrees and says the country is in agony.

“The country has already entered the period of troubles,” he said. “Potential for protest has been growing, there will be social collapses — local, regional, and then bigger ones. The country had already become unmanageable. It is held together only by fear — by rubber truncheons and bayonets.”

Creating Radicals?

Many Uzbeks are trying to find an escape. Some leave the country. Others find consolation in religion: membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir, the banned Islamic religious group that offers to create a caliphate, or an Islamic state, as an alternative to the current system, has reportedly been growing in membership despite the authorities’ brutal repression.

Michael Hall, the director of the International Crisis Group’s Central Asia Program, says political instability, growing unemployment and corruption, as well as repression against dissent contribute to the popularity of radical ideologies. He says the Uzbek government has to change the political and economic situation if it wants to change this trend.

“I think to a large extent, it does depend on the government’s policies,” Hall said. “Allowing, for example, for greater freedom of discussion, allowing for greater independence from the state of religious institutions, I think this certainly can help. I think there are other aspects of the problem, too. One simple fact: a large number of Hizb ut-Tahrir members are young people. Young people very often don’t have much to occupy their time with. The educational system is being underfunded and in some places is inadequate.”

Musaev believes the current regime is unlikely to voluntarily begin making reforms. He says Karimov is not willing to give up power and the only way that will happen is to change the whole political system.

“The political system needs to be dismantled,” Musaev said. “The regime is going to maintain itself only on [declarations of] the necessity to provide national and regional security. But objectively, this internal policy of using violence amid the absolute poverty of people will create a huge social base for terrorism. And it won’t be Islamic at all, just [take] one demographic factor — people who have no jobs. Karimov’s political regime is a complete failure.”

From The Sunday Times

We may live in a cacophonous world of increasingly accessible media, with blogs, podcasts and cable channels pumping out their two cents’ worth, but it is still possible to cause a stir simply by making one’s voice heard. Whether it is entirely wise to do so is another matter.

Listening to Craig Murray in the first episode of Whistleblowers (RTE R1, Thu), the most striking thing was not so much the human- rights abuses he became aware of while serving as British ambassador to Uzbekistan, but the unadorned manner in which he recounted them. If it made for compelling listening, however, Murray’s forthright testimony would cost him dearly.

As he told his tale, it became clear that the former diplomat was not a natural rebel. A Foreign Office high-flyer, he started to turn against the regime of the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, only after attending the trial of an Islamic activist, where a witness said he had been tortured into giving evidence.

As Murray became more concerned about such abuses, he not only amassed evidence of torture and persecution, but also realised British intelligence used information gained under duress in its war on Al-Qaeda. He made clear his distaste for the Uzbek regime.

Murray’s graphic account of dissidents being boiled alive by the security forces of a strategically important ally caused unwelcome ripples in London, but it was not the most shocking part of the programme, if only because such violence forms a large chunk of our daily media diet.

More chilling was the manner of Murray’s undoing: asked to resign by his superiors, he refused, only to be confronted with 14 accusations of misconduct, from alcoholism to seeking sex for visas.

Murray’s starkly factual and unemotive recollection of the incident only served to highlight the nightmarish quality of his situation. For once, the epithet Kafkaesque was warranted.

Using his largely unmediated testimony to drive the programme was not without its perils: unable to be pressed on contentious incidents, his evidence had to be taken at face value. But if he quietly painted himself as a fearless martyr for the truth, giving Murray’s voice such free reign allowed the listener to glimpse a fuller picture of the man, both in his vanities ‘ he described his early career as ‘frankly brilliant’ ‘ and in his despair.

Such unfettered voices are the lifeblood of Flux (Mon, RTE R1), the offbeat weekly slice of radio v’rit’ that supposedly takes its cue from whatever grabs the ear of Paddy O’Gorman and Ronan Kelly, the alternating hosts.

From The Guardian

Martial arts black belt, Harvard graduate, jewellery designer, businesswoman. Her father may be a brutal dictator, but the official list of Gulnara Karimova’s achievements is as long as your arm.

Now the glamorous daughter of the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, has added a new talent to the list with the release of her first music video. Unutma Meni (Don’t Forget Me) features the 33-year-old brunette under the stage name GooGoosha – apparently her father’s name for her – cavorting in a cartoon wonderland where she travels to a secluded castle and a tropical island in a limousine that floats through the air.

Commentators say the video – showing repeatedly on Uzbekistan’s domestic equivalent of MTV – is part of a campaign to promote Ms Karimova as a potential successor to her father, whose term of office finishes at the end of next year.

Despite the stumbling block of promoting a woman as leader in a traditional Muslim society, Ms Karimova is thought to be the only person who can protect the assets of her father’s family and cronies.

However, critics suggest the new song will do little to raise her appeal. “This is exactly comparable to the emperor Nero playing his harp and everyone having to cheer,” said Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, who was sacked after exposing the Karimov regime’s torture of political opponents. “It’ll make her feel very good but she won’t gain any popularity.”

Ms Karimova first came to international attention after a high-profile divorce from her husband, Mansur Maqsudi. In 2003 a US court ruled that Mr Maqsudi should be given sole custody of the couple’s two children, Islam and Iman, then 10 and six. However, she refused an order to return them from Uzbekistan.

Ms Karimova kept $4.5m (‘2.4m) worth of jewellery, plus business interests worth approximately $60m, as part of her divorce settlement. The assets included nightclubs in Tashkent, investment holdings and a recording studio.

Uzbek media, which are tightly state-controlled, have praised Ms Karimova for charity works, dubbing her the Princess of Uzbeks. “It is characteristic of Gulnara to do everything with excellence,” said Tatyana Petrenko, a music critic.

By Christian Neef in Spiegel Online

See also Germany’s dialogue with the Uzbek regime: a disgrace for German democracy

While many Westerners have been forced out of Uzbekistan, the German army continues to operate a base in the border city of Termez. Oppenents of President Karimov’s despotic regime are now accusing the Germans of looking the other way.

In the Surchon discotheque, a dark basement club on the main street of Termez, the dance floor glitters in the disco lights, but it’s almost empty. Business isn’t good. A few bronze-skinned Uzbek women sit at two of the tables. Seven young men, their pale skin an obvious indication that they aren’t locals, sit at a third table. The boys are German soldiers from faraway Europe. They’re waiting for their next round of beers and hoping for more attention from the local beauties.

It’s almost 9 p.m. on a Sunday night in Termez, but the city still seems encased in the day’s heat, even down by the Amu Darya River, which forms the border with Afghanistan and its endless yellow steppes. The sun has been baking this city since Buddhists settled here more than 2,000 years ago. They were followed by the Arabs, the Mongols and their limping leader, Tamerlane, and then the colonizing forces of the Russian czar. The Soviets sent 100,000 troops to the city during their war in Afghanistan, and now it’s the German army’s turn.

The Germans have had a squadron stationed in Termez since February 2002. The base, which has 300 military staff, six transport aircraft and seven helicopters, serves as a hub for supplying Germany’s contingent to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Each soldier who takes off from the Cologne/Bonn military airport for a tour in Afghanistan has to change planes in Termez — from an olive-green Airbus to a C-160 Transall cargo aircraft. The German military has already shuttled 125,000 troops and more than 10,000 tones of freight through its base in this Uzbek oasis.

The city’s 140,000 inhabitants may have grown accustomed to the Germans, but the rest of the country is officially unaware of their presence and the Uzbek media are barred from reporting on the Germans. Indeed, judging by the current policies of the regime in Tashkent, they shouldn’t even be there anymore.

(more…)

“This story may be instructive for anyone who feels the events in Murder in Samarkand are far-fetched.”

Craig

From Ferghana.Ru (19.07.2006)

In early spring, four young men from the Samarkand region decided to travel to Russia to earn their families’ living. They had heard somewhere that there were special coaches running to Russia, raised the sum they were told would suffice to pay their fare, and turned up at the bus stop.

“What we had raised was not enough after all,” said Azamat, one of them. “Coach driver said we owed him and would settle the debt in Moscow. We could only agree, and the bus started rolling.”

“When we were travelling across Kazakhstan, the coach was stopped by local gangs on several occasions. The guys just entered and commandeered whatever took their fancy,” Azamat said.

“We could do nothing, not even protest because they could just kick the protester out of the coach, batter him, or even murder him, and leave the body right there in the steppes,” Azamat’s brother Hairullo added.

The road to Moscow took several days and nights. The coach finally made it and this was where the four young Uzbeks discovered what a real nightmare was. The driver beckoned some acquaintance of his, pointed at the four young men, and explained that he owed them and that they were for sale.

(more…)

“The decision also failed to acknowledge that a number of prominent individuals, including Theo van Boven, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture who visited Uzbekistan in late 2002, and Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Tashkent, had made clear their willingness to serve as witnesses in the case.”

From Human Rights Watch

(Berlin, June 22, 2006) ‘ Germany’s new federal prosecutor should reverse a decision not to open a criminal investigation into former Uzbek Interior Minister Zokir Almatov’s responsibility for crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a legal brief challenging the refusal. The new federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, took office this month, succeeding Kay Nehm.

‘This is a unique opportunity to correct an unconscionable decision and show the world that Germany pays more than lip service to international justice,’ said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘The Uzbek victims deserve their day in court, and the new prosecutor can ensure they get it in Germany.’

Prosecutor Nehm’s refusal to investigate came in response to a complaint filed in December 2005 by Uzbek victims of torture and survivors of the May 2005 massacre of unarmed civilians in the Uzbek city of Andijan. Assisted by Human Rights Watch, they asked Germany to invoke its universal jurisdiction laws and pursue a criminal investigation into Almatov’s responsibility for these crimes.

(more…)

From the Financial Times

“At the heart of the case is the question of what obligations a multinational faces in operating in countries where human rights abuses are common and there are few legal protections.”

By EDWARD ALDEN and ANDREW WARD

14 June 2006

For nearly a decade, Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Uzbekistan was a shining example of the successful strategy that has seen the company expand into more than 200 countries around the world.

The plant on the outskirts of the capital Tashkent, set up in 1992 and run under a joint venture with ties to the family of Islam Karimov, the Uzbek strongman, was twice selected as Coke’s “bottler of the year” in its Eurasia and Middle East region and was highly profitable, with volume growth of about 10 per cent annually.

But all that began to unravel five years ago, when the marriage between Mansur Maqsudi, Coke’s main partner in the plant, and Gulnora Karimova, the president’s Harvard-educated daughter, fell apart – in recriminations that are still being felt by the couple, their children and the Coca-Cola company.

(more…)

From The Economist print edition

Turning a Turkic ideal into reality involves hard decisions

SOON after the Soviet empire collapsed, Turkey’s then president Suleyman Demirel had a dream. He spoke of a revived Turkic commonwealth which would stretch from the Adriatic to China. Underpinning this vision was at least one hard fact: five of the new states which emerged from the Soviet wreckage speak languages related to Turkish. But as Turkey has discovered, turning fantasies of post-Soviet brotherhood into reality can involve tough choices’economic, diplomatic or even moral.

This week, at least, one very substantial link with Turkey’s closest linguistic cousin’Azerbaijan’was finally established, after a decade of hard slog by world leaders and captains of the oil industry. On May 28th, the first drop of oil from fields in the Caspian Sea was pumped through a new pipeline running from Baku, via Georgia, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The moment was a rare victory for American policy in this part of the world. It clinches Turkey’s role as an energy conduit between east and west and thereby weakens Russia’s hitherto tight grip on exports of gas and oil from the former Soviet south.

(more…)

From Harpers Magazine

S. Frederick Starr, Uzbekistan’s friend in Washington (May 24, 2006).

A year ago this month, security forces in Uzbekistan killed hundreds of protesters in the town of Andijan. Human rights groups and journalists reported that the crowd was overwhelmingly unarmed and had come out to protest corruption and poor economic conditions. ‘The scale of this killing was so extensive, and its nature was so indiscriminate and disproportionate, that it can best be described as a massacre,’ Human Rights Watch said in a study of the events at Andijan.

The regime of Islam Karimov sought to justify the carnage by saying that the demonstration was organized by Islamic militants seeking to overthrow the government (an argument the Uzbek government knows is music to the ears of the Bush Administration). Last week the Karimov regime sought to prove its case by staging the U.S. debut of a short video on the Andijan crackdown. The event was sponsored by the Hudson Institute and the Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins University, and co-hosted by CACI director Professor S. Frederick Starr. An account at EurasiaNet.org said that Starr ‘sought to undermine the credibility of several independent news accounts . . . alleging journalists deliberately falsified their stories. ‘I think they were lying . . . of course they had an anti-government agenda,” he said.

It was all in a day’s work for Starr, who is perhaps the Karimov regime’s most outspoken advocate in Washington’a regime that once tortured a political prisoner to death with methods that included the use of boiling water and then arrested his elderly mother when she complained. He also speaks fondly of several other despotic governments in central Asia, a region he views almost exclusively through the prism of American geopolitical interests and with little interest in issues like human rights and corruption.

(more…)

From Democracy Now

We turn now to the connections between President Bush and Enron. Enron founder Ken Lay and his family rank among President Bush’s biggest financial backers of his political career. The family donated about $140,000 to Bush’s political campaigns in Texas and for the White House. The president personally nicknamed Ken Lay “Kenny Boy.”

Overall Enron employees gave Bush some $600,000 in political donations. According to the Center for Public Integrity this made Enron Bush’s top career donor – a distinction the company maintained until 2004. Shortly after Bush took office in 2001, Vice President Cheney met with Enron officials while he was developing the administration’s energy policies. Our guest Greg Palast examined the connections between Enron and the Bush administration in his documentary “Bush Family Fortunes.”

Enron’s influence reached as far as Uzbekistan. In January, we interviewed the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. He spoke about the relationship between President Bush and the Uzbek regime of President Karimov.

Go here for the full interview and audio and video options.

On 13 May, 2005, Uzbek government forces shot dead hundreds of unarmed protesters at a demonstration in eastern Andijan.The United Nations and other intergovernmental organisations documented the massacre, but the authorities continue to refuse an independent investigation into the events, and persecute those who seek such an enquiry. An all-out crackdown on civil society has targeted human rights defenders and journalists, and created an information vacuum inside and outside the country.

The government has either shut or forced the closure of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Deutsche Welle, and many international organisations ‘ the United Nations is the latest to come under attack. Numerous Uzbek journalists and human rights defenders have fled the country. A new media law puts Uzbek citizens who work for foreign news organisations without official accreditation at risk of imprisonment.

A year later the memories of this horrible massacre are still very fresh. It is important that we don’t let the world forget Andijan.

Please don’t let the anniversary of this atrocity pass us by without a mention anywhere in Britain…

The following website has regular updates on the event worldwide www.freeuzbekistan.com

There is also a petition against the repressive Uzbek regime, please sign and circulate.

Shortcut to: http://freeuzbekistan.com/apeale.html

Further details and updates from FreeUzbekistan.com

MAY 12

Moscow ‘ The Embassy of Uzbekistan in the Russian Federation

Ulitsa Pogorelskogo 12, 1-3 p.m.

Contact person: Bakhrom Khamroev, +7 926 5330409

Kiev ‘ The Embassy of Uzbekistan in Ukraine

Ulitsa Vladimirskaya 16, 1-3 p.m.

Contact person: Ismoil Dadajonov, +38 0953947091

New York ‘ The United Nations

United Nations Plaza, East 46th Street at 1st Avenue, 12.00 noon ‘ 1 p.m.

Contact person: Farhod Inogambaev, +1 973 6159689

Oslo, Norway

A joint picket of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry by Uzbek refugees and the Norwegian Helsinki Group. Presentation of a petition to the Norwegian foreign minister. Gathering from noon to 1 p.m. at the tiger statue outside the train station.

Contact people: Oleg Marutik: +47 91 175327; Berit Lindeman (???????? ??????? ??-??????): + 47 22 47 92 07

Osh, Kyrgyzstan

OSCE office,

Contact person: Jamshid Muhtorov, email: [email protected], telephone +996 3222 55356, +996 3222 895421.

Please note: the email is constantly blocked and therefore being changed frequently (pls follow the updates)

MAY 13

Brussels ‘ The Embassy of Uzbekistan in Belgium

Franklin Roosevelt Avenue, 99, 1050

Contact: Oleg Shestakevich: +32498190330

London – Downing Street, 10, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Contact people: Alex Higgins [email protected]; Shahida Yakub: +44 7803627921

Kalmar, Sweden. Event for journalists and protest.

Contact: Tulkin Karaev: (0046) 076 104 09 05; Kudrat Babajanov: (0046) 076 104 09 07; Yusuf Rasulov: (0046) 076 104 09 06.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. A protest titled “No repeat of the Andijan tragedy!” at the Embassy of Uzbekistan. Contact organization: Krylym Shamy: (0312) 66 20 67, e-mail: [email protected]

Monica Whitlock (BBC)

Introducing a BBC documentary, Cheaper than the Ground.

Alisher Ilkhamov (SOAS)

Akramiya: fact or fiction?

Matteo Fumagalli (University of Edinburgh)

Andijan: Views from beyond the border’

Thursday, 11 May 2006 @ 17.30, Room G3, Main Building, SOAS

All are Welcome (seminars are free and open to the public).

Booking is not required.

For further information contact: Scott Newton (Centre Chair) [email protected] (Tel: 020 7898 4658) or Jane Savory [email protected] (Tel: 020 7898 4892)

School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H OXG