Saturday
04Jun2005
US military base in Uzbekistan
Saturday, June 4, 2005 at 11:44AM
In today’s Washington Post the news of the United States’ plans for a base in Uzbekistan can only further the frustration of Human Rights organisations in the region.
In President Bush’s inaugural speech in January he stated: -
All this seems honourable and logical in the move to spread democracy across the former Soviet Union and beyond, however the record of the compliant Uzbek leadership calls into question Bush’s real commitment to freedom. The president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov recently suppressed an uprising in the city of Andijan leading to the reported deaths of between 500-1000 civilians, described by the Republican Senator for South Carolina Lindsey Graham as a “massacreâ€.
The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has repeatedly claimed that the country “is not a functioning democracyâ€, and adding his authority to claims that the regime have boiled people alive stating that “all of us know that this is not an isolated incidentâ€. Upon claims that MI6 had used Uzbek information obtained under torture, Murray was removed from his post for “operational†reasons.
How can President Bush be consistent with his inaugural address when he supports a dictator such as Karimov?
In 2000 eleven days before Mr. Bush’s first inaugural address Uzbekistan went to the polls in what the US argued “was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choiceâ€. How soon our standards change?
Bush and Blair launched a war on the sovereign nation of Iraq without UN approval in what Kofi Annan described as an “illegal invasionâ€. When no weapons of mass destruction were found the occupation quickly changed their story, arguing that the invasion was to remove a “tyrant†and bring freedom to the people. What about the Uzbek people? Demonstrators in Andijan were described by Whitehouse spokesperson Scott McClellan as “terroristsâ€, well one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist. Ukrainian demonstrators were legitimate because they opposed a Moscow strongman; however the language is different if you oppose a Washington strongman.
Again this represents the mishandling of foreign affairs by the inept Bush administration. Hell-bent on imperial expansion. the US is oblivious to the reactions its policies are causing around the globe. Washington’s support of Karimov feeds the Anti-US feeling throughout the Islamic world. Karimov has suppressed, tortured, and killed Muslims in Uzbekistan. The UN described torture in the country as “institutionalised, systematic, and rampant.â€
How can America continue to be a beacon of freedom, liberty, and opportunity while it props up despotic dictators like Karimov?
In President Bush’s inaugural speech in January he stated: -
“There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.â€
All this seems honourable and logical in the move to spread democracy across the former Soviet Union and beyond, however the record of the compliant Uzbek leadership calls into question Bush’s real commitment to freedom. The president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov recently suppressed an uprising in the city of Andijan leading to the reported deaths of between 500-1000 civilians, described by the Republican Senator for South Carolina Lindsey Graham as a “massacreâ€.
The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has repeatedly claimed that the country “is not a functioning democracyâ€, and adding his authority to claims that the regime have boiled people alive stating that “all of us know that this is not an isolated incidentâ€. Upon claims that MI6 had used Uzbek information obtained under torture, Murray was removed from his post for “operational†reasons.
How can President Bush be consistent with his inaugural address when he supports a dictator such as Karimov?
In 2000 eleven days before Mr. Bush’s first inaugural address Uzbekistan went to the polls in what the US argued “was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choiceâ€. How soon our standards change?
Bush and Blair launched a war on the sovereign nation of Iraq without UN approval in what Kofi Annan described as an “illegal invasionâ€. When no weapons of mass destruction were found the occupation quickly changed their story, arguing that the invasion was to remove a “tyrant†and bring freedom to the people. What about the Uzbek people? Demonstrators in Andijan were described by Whitehouse spokesperson Scott McClellan as “terroristsâ€, well one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist. Ukrainian demonstrators were legitimate because they opposed a Moscow strongman; however the language is different if you oppose a Washington strongman.
Again this represents the mishandling of foreign affairs by the inept Bush administration. Hell-bent on imperial expansion. the US is oblivious to the reactions its policies are causing around the globe. Washington’s support of Karimov feeds the Anti-US feeling throughout the Islamic world. Karimov has suppressed, tortured, and killed Muslims in Uzbekistan. The UN described torture in the country as “institutionalised, systematic, and rampant.â€
How can America continue to be a beacon of freedom, liberty, and opportunity while it props up despotic dictators like Karimov?
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