[UDPATE] “Thousands of terrified Uzbeks fled for the border Saturday, a day after troops fired on demonstrators demanding more freedom in this tightly controlled former Soviet republic. President Islam Karimov said troops were forced to shoot after demonstrators tried to break through an advancing security cordon.” (LA Times)
Update [2005-5-14 11:1:7 by susanhbu]: “Anti-government protesters stormed a prison early Friday morning, releasing thousands of inmates and fueling riots in which groups of armed men took over government buildings across the city before troops regained control in an afternoon crackdown. The protests began earlier in the week, with the prosecution of 23 popular local businessmen on charges of being part of a group that supports jailed Islamic leader Akram Yuldashev … [A] human rights activist witnessed as many as 200 people killed in a fusillade launched against a crowd that was approaching a military compound.” (Slate‘s news roundup)
Earlier, I missed Oui’s excellent diary on this. From the AP/LAT: “ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan — Soldiers opened fire on thousands of protesters in eastern Uzbekistan today after demonstrators stormed a jail to free 23 men accused of Islamic extremism. At least 50 people may have been killed in clashes with police and security forces …” More below:
Protesters fell to the ground as the troops surrounded the crowd of some 4,000 and started shooting outside the city’s administration building, which had been seized by the demonstrators. An Associated Press reporter saw 10 people who apparently had been hit, including at least one dead, and participants in the rally said two more had been killed.<P.As soldiers continued shooting with what sounded like large-caliber gunfire and automatic weapons, one man sobbed, "Oh, my son! He's dead!"
Uzbekistan is a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, providing an air base to support military operations in neighboring Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But the closer ties with Washington have drawn increased international attention to widespread human rights abuses in the former Soviet republic, whose authoritarian government is seen as one of the most repressive in the region. …President Islam Karimov rushed to Andijan, where the government said it remained in control despite the chaos, although it blocked foreign news reports of the clashes for its domestic audience. Neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which share the Fergana Valley, sealed their borders.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2F5CAD11-3F34-4989-AD5C-468AD25FBF0A.htm This report seems similar susan. Haven’t found anything else yet while checking out various online news sources.
Thank you! It’s a rather huge event, given the # of protestors and the # killed/wounded.
The whole mideast and surrounding countries seem to be going up in flames(or would that be down) with all our troops being killed in Iraq just in the last week and so many Iraqi’s killed. Then the killing and protests in Afghanistan which is continuing and spreading to Pakistan and other countries………and ta-dah, where is our fucken news on any of this? And georgie-poo is out bike riding oblivious to everything.
And besides that Jane Fonda must have gotten senile as she says that Bush’s last little press conference showed him to be ‘impressive’…jesus if we can’t depend on Jane Fonda to speak out who can we?..ha ha Then again she says she’s now a ‘feminist christian’ whose basically been born again..oh crap..think I just twisted off a bit here in a mini rant..
Seems like government’s around the World have gone mad. MAD I Say…. MAD !! Truth be known, I wonder how many; have our government somewhere in the background. Soooooo many people being screwed by their government’s around the World. May be time to take the gloves off, and talk.
Otherwise their kids will be killing our kids, while the politicians continue to get richer and richer, and RICHER. POWER to the People !!
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DIARY —
UZBEK RIOTS or another “Orange Revolt”? ¶ Updates
by Oui Fri May 13th, 2005
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
THX Oui.
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I’ll post a comment in your diary with all necessary links, if that’s OK with you.
It’s of major importance and should be closely watched. I hope someone with the oil resource knowledge of the Caspian Sea will add his/her take on the Uzbekistan revolt.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Please do. I am embarrassed i missed your diary . must have been posted while I was sleeping. I did add a link to your diary at the top. I was going to erase this story, but too many people had posted already. So, we can “combo.” Thanks for being gracious about this.
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with the world community participating, BooTrib is an official 24-7 blog site. True?
There are always eyes open to keep watch.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
AS protests are surpressed, and the msm ignores those that take place, look for pressure to build in America. As the chicken-shit politicians get bolder and bolder, look for disaster to strike again in America… Will it be at a college campus, one of our dictator’s town meetings, or at the border. Unless their is a pressure release, look for Kent State to soon be repeated, in sadly a larger scale. I do pray I am wrong.
I keep wondering how it is that all these countries are rising up and protesting various acts of their governments, yet here in the US not only are we not protesting people are becoming more/more afraid to speak out…there’s something really wrong with this picture.
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George’s friendly oil dictator in Uzbekistan, Karimov ran into some protest by his people. In the eastern city of Adjizjan, pop. 300,000, angry Islamists took up arms to get their leader out of prison. In the unrest that followed, 9 persons were killed and 34 wounded. The news is very sketchy, but it appears government buildings have been taken over and hostages are held. The news agency reported the president was on his way to the east, to calm down the people.
Is George for a Democracy or will he side with authority and OIL? Other western European nations have followed GWB footsteps into the murky oil spils of Karimov.
More below the fold on background info …
The deal with the United States serves Karimov’s agenda in other ways as well. The former Soviet boss, who rules with an iron fist and has been called a “human rights nightmare” by various international human rights watchdogs, could hardly find a more opportune way to pump up his flagging popularity at home.
To the approval of his people, Karimov has signaled to Russia — still so influential in its old neighborhood — that Uzbekistan will go its own way and choose its own friends. But he has been dogged by criticism of his record. Human Rights Watch cautioned Washington to step carefully in the Central Asian nation.
“If the United States is going to ally itself with Uzbekistan, it has to find a way to avoid aligning itself with Uzbekistan’s brutal policies,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. “President Bush has said the war on terrorism cannot become a war on Islam,” he said. “The government of Uzbekistan is undeniably at war with forms of Islam it does not control.”
ENCARTA
LATEST NEWS WILL BE ADDED —
President Karimov has arrived in the troubled city of Andijon, where soldiers have opened fire on the crowds of protesters. The people uprising aim to rid the country of the Karimov dictatorship, in analogy to neighboring Kyrgyzstan in March.
From reports, there are now 20 Uzbeks who have died and 2000 prisoners escaped as the crowd attacked and forced the release of their Muslim leader.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
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~ Ask’s contribution to previous diary by Oui ~
Here’s a bit from the Guardian:
(snip)
In recent weeks, Uzbeks have shown increasing willingness to challenge their authoritarian leadership through protests, apparently bolstered by the March uprising in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan that drove out President Askar Akayev, and by the so-called Orange and Rose Revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia respectively.
Karimov may be safe in the saddle a little longer, but the people in Uzbekistan are surely inspired from recent events in the region. I fear it will get ugly, as the area in question is a melting pot for fundamentalists, drug trafficers and regular banditry.
by ask on Fri May 13th, 2005 at 08:12:21 AM PDT
Mojo should be added to a comment by ask himself!
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
i’d be scared sh-tless to protest in that country. What they do to their political prisoners?!
I don’t know what they do to their political prisoners, but I know that their prisons are (at least, were) hellholes.
Early members of the BT will recall my diary from a visit to Kyrgyzstan in 1993. Among people I met just as I arrived there (we stayed at the same guesthouse in Bishkek) were 2 young medical students from Germany.
They were headed for Samarkand in Uzbekistan for a 3-day trip (or so, cannot fully recall the details).
It took them a week to return and some of us at the guesthouse were getting somewhat worried for the guys.
Well, they had been detained in Samarkand for lacking documentation and spend several days in prison. It was no pleasure trip.
Let’s not forget that the Uzbeks – rather, their government are our current good friends. They have quite valuable services to offer:
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Uzbekistan is so important, Rumsfeld of Oil eh Secretary of Defense, visits his compatriots regularly, whether the military bases are functioning to satisfaction.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
And U. has been a help in the “war” on terror, allowing the CIA to render prisoners there.
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Human Rights monitors reported “hundreds” were killed by Uzbek soldiers in the wake of Friday’s violent anti-government protests in north-eastern out-post city of Adjizjan, pop. 300,000. An estimated 3500 refugees fled the city on Saturday, gathering a few miles to the south at the Kyrgyzstan border, which was finally opened to them.
[CNNi & Source Russia Interfax]
Uzbekistan’s state-run and heavily controlled media remained tight-lipped, but shortly before the armoured vehicles went in, national TV put out a statement saying “there have been talks with the bandits all day, but they did not lead to anything. The criminals are using women and children as cover. There has not been a single death so far”.
Kabuljon Parpiev, one of the leaders of the protest, said before the assault that there were up to 50 people dead, as security forces ringing the city center were firing shots from about one kilometer away. Other reports spoke of nine dead at this point.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité