The US has spoken out against human rights violations in the past, but has toned down its criticism of the Uzbek regime's violations since the fall of 2001 because of its cooperation in the US-led war on terror.
Thanks Mr. Bush!
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posted March 30, 2004, updated 1:27 p.m.
Terror in Tashkent
Renewed violence comes as the Uzbekistan government continues its crackdown on Islamic militants.
by Matthew Clark | csmonitor.com
A fierce gun battle Tuesday between Uzbek special forces and suspected Islamic militants in the capital city of Uzbekistan – a key US ally in Central Asia – is the latest violence in the country's bloodiest three days since terrorist attacks there in 1999. The special forces killed at least 16 militants and lost three of their own when raiding a building where the suspected militants were hiding out, reports Reuters. "Eleven male terrorists were eliminated. Five female terrorists were killed as well. There were three police dead," an Interior Ministry official told Reuters at the scene.
This violence follows a series of blasts and shootouts since Sunday. On Monday, bomb blasts and attacks killed 19 and wounded 26. Two of the blasts in a crowded Tashkent marketplace were carried out by women suicide bombers operating for the first time in Central Asia, according to the BBC. Earlier Tuesday two alleged terrorists jumped out of a car police had stopped, and detonated explosive-laden belts, killing themselves and three police officers and injuring five more policemen, reports The International Herald Tribune.
President Islam Karimov blames Islamic militant groups for the attacks, and has said that the organization and funding required to carry them out indicates outside support. One such group blamed by Karimov's hardline, secular regime is the London-based Hizb ut-Tahrir. The group denied the attacks saying it "does not engage in terrorism, violence or armed struggle." The group is banned in all Central Asian states, and advocates strict Islamic sharia law. Karimov also blames the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). The opposition says discontent with the Mr. Karimov's repressive regime is so rife that anyone could be responsible for the attacks.
Many analysts have linked the attacks to support for the US-led war in Afghanistan. As The Associated Press reports, hundreds of US troops are still stationed at an Uzbek air base in the southern town of Khanabad, which was set up as a key staging point for US operations in Afghanistan, in 2001.
The BBC reports that the president's decision to send huge numbers of police into the streets after the initial attacks may have increased the violence. Noting that police across Tashkent are "highly visible and vulnerable to attack," the BBC adds that police are "widely seen as the main instrument of government in Uzbekistan, and are very much disliked and feared in some circles."
The Karimov government has banned open protests by the country's small Islamic opposition movement, and his ongoing crackdown has drawn harsh criticism from Western human rights groups for years. Human Rights Watch, a leading advocacy group based in the US, issued a 319-page report Tuesday accusing the Uzbek government of torturing "thousands of nonviolent Muslim dissidents who practice their faith outside state-controlled religion." Acting Executive Director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia Division Rachel Denber says: "Uzbekistan is a close ally of the US and other powerful Western states, but it cannot hide behind the global war on terrorism to justify religious repression."
The US has spoken out against human rights violations in the past, but has toned down its criticism of the Uzbek regime's violations since the fall of 2001 because of its cooperation in the US-led war on terror. Many Uzbeks, and others familiar with the situation, warned that this muted US disapproval would lead to further crackdowns by Karimov's regime and, in turn, strengthen support for antigovernment Islamist groups like UMI. One such assessment came from an October 11, 2001 briefing from a research associate at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in California: "The new repression could drive the country's religious, poor, and disaffected to the very groups the US-Uzbek agreement hopes to destroy."
csmonitor.com |
