US Support for Repression in Uzbekistan Belies Pro-Democracy Rhetoric

[Lannes]

Freedom is on the march....



http://www.antiwar.com/orig/zunes.php?articleid=6438

An exerpt:

Recent revelations that the United States successfully blocked a call by NATO for an international investigation of the May 13 massacre of hundreds of civilians by the government of the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan serves as yet another reminder of the insincerity of the Bush administration's claims for supporting freedom and democracy in the Islamic world and the former Soviet Union.

A recent report from Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with scores of eyewitnesses, determined that government troops in the city of Andijan used ''indiscriminate use of lethal force against unarmed people,'' killing more than 500 people. And, while HRW noted that a small number of armed men were apparently present among the demonstrators, the report asserted that the Uzbek government's use of force against the crowd was ''neither proportionate nor appropriate to the danger they posed.''

By contrast, rather than condemning the massacre, the Bush White House called for "restraint' from both sides in an apparent effort to convince Americans that unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators were somehow just as guilty as the those who shot at them. A Bush administration spokesman also claimed that Islamic "terrorist groups" may have been behind the protests that prompted the shootings.

Also:

"Uzbek troops reportedly killed an additional 200 demonstrators the following day in the nearby city of Pakhtabad and still more civilians were shot while attempting to flee into neighboring Kyrgyzstan. The British newspaper The Independent reported that Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov had flown from the capital or Tashkent into the area Friday morning "and almost certainly personally authorized the use of...deadly force." "


Also:


"Uzbekistan's jails hold more than 7000 political prisoners, where torture is widespread and systematic. Not long after the Bush administration provided Uzbek police with $79 million worth in assistance in 2002, two prominent political prisoners were found to have been boiled to death. The elderly mother of one of the victims was sentenced six years of hard labor when she protested."

[getmeouttahere]

1. Virtually everything BushCo does...

belies pro-democracy rhetoric...it's called hypocricy, the likes of which I've never seen in my lifetime.

[Lannes]

2. Cant argue with that

This one pretty much sums up how they really feel about democracy.If you can help our regime,slaugther all the people you want,we've got your back.Even if they are protesting for their freedom.