plebben
09-23-2004, 06:53 PM
TASJKENT. In Islam Karimov's centralasian dictatorship its dangerous to be overly religous. A beard can be enough to be labled as an islamic terrorist.
Islam Karimov is just as ruthles as once was Saddam Hussien and have many similarities with the very same, but with one difference; he is an ally to the USA.
Men with beards can be force to shave them off. Women with tehir veil set up wrong can be stoped on the street. They are suspected to be overly religous or worse; sympathies for muslim fundamentalists, by the Uzbeki government reffered to as "Wahhabit's" after a pureist sect rooting back to Saudiarabia.
Uzbekistans presiident Islam Karimov runs a merciless war against real and imaginary muslim fundamentalists. Up to 7000 religous and political prissoners are held captured in stateprisons.
Torture in the form of rape, electrical shock and scalding in boiling water affects thousands every year.
The number of prissoners sentenced to death is classified to the outside world but president Karimov said it to be around a 100 every year.
Religous expressions that are not approved by the state are seen as suspect or illegal. The control off teh press is absolute and no opposition is allowed.
This hard preasure creates a good environment for extreemists to bloom in, says Alisher Taksanov, writer and analyst with background in the Uzbeki foreign ministry.
- Moderate Muslims are pushed towards fundamental thinking. When there is no legal way to express their way of thinking they are drawn towards fundamentalism.
Under the latest few years Uzbekistan has been a target for three terrorist attacks, and to Karimov this is a proof that the fundamental islamists are a real threat.
In February of 1999 a bomb exploded in Tasjkent. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was accused for the action, but without any steadfast proof. IMU had close ties with the Talibans in Afgahnistan and opreated from bases in Tadzjikistan. But after the terror attacks of september 11th and the US war in Afgahnistan IMU are concidered heavily weakened.
After September 11th dictator Ismlam Karimov became a keyally in centralasia in connection with the US war in Afgahninstan.
- Karimov has for a long time tried get an opening to the americans. He disslikes, even hates, the Russians. Now he saw his chance, and he could say to Washington: Look what we're facing, the same threat as you are.
This made a breakthrough for Karimov who offerd Pentagon Airforce facilities in the war against Usama bin Ladin an dthe Taliban. The Us saw its chance to finaly get a steady foot in on the euroasian landmass, right inbetween the keynations; Russia, China and Iran. So the Whitehouse stopped harrasing Karimov about human rights, all in accordance with the parrol:
He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard.
European chritizism has been harsher:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development eralier this year pulled back its subsidies, something the International Monetary Fund already did sometime earlier with the motivation that corruption in Uzbekistan is on such a level that "the country can no longer be considered a marketeconomy".
Worth noticing is how Great Britain, the Us most faithfull European partner, has acted. In October 2002 the british ambasador Craig Murray appeared infront of the diplomatic council at a humanrights conference in Tasjkent and violently attacked the Uzbeki reginms crimes against human rights. He claimed that Uzbekistan "is no longer a working democracy" and that torture is part of the system.
In a letter to the british foregin ministry, in the forerun to the Iraq war, Craig Murray condemned what he saw as Washingtons double standards; this he wrote after he saw George W Bush speaking of "dismanteling the terrorist machinery" and "remove the torture chambers" - This obviously only applied to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, not Karimov's Uzbekistan.
This is an article in todays DN (Dagens Nyheter), swedens biggest morning newspaper.
Ive translated it all to english so please ignore spelling and grammar errors.
Link:
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=323440&previousRenderType=8
It's all in swedish so i guess none of you here will understand unless youve taken a crashcourse in swedish.(I guess Norwegian and Danish could do it for you, to an extent :P)
Islam Karimov is just as ruthles as once was Saddam Hussien and have many similarities with the very same, but with one difference; he is an ally to the USA.
Men with beards can be force to shave them off. Women with tehir veil set up wrong can be stoped on the street. They are suspected to be overly religous or worse; sympathies for muslim fundamentalists, by the Uzbeki government reffered to as "Wahhabit's" after a pureist sect rooting back to Saudiarabia.
Uzbekistans presiident Islam Karimov runs a merciless war against real and imaginary muslim fundamentalists. Up to 7000 religous and political prissoners are held captured in stateprisons.
Torture in the form of rape, electrical shock and scalding in boiling water affects thousands every year.
The number of prissoners sentenced to death is classified to the outside world but president Karimov said it to be around a 100 every year.
Religous expressions that are not approved by the state are seen as suspect or illegal. The control off teh press is absolute and no opposition is allowed.
This hard preasure creates a good environment for extreemists to bloom in, says Alisher Taksanov, writer and analyst with background in the Uzbeki foreign ministry.
- Moderate Muslims are pushed towards fundamental thinking. When there is no legal way to express their way of thinking they are drawn towards fundamentalism.
Under the latest few years Uzbekistan has been a target for three terrorist attacks, and to Karimov this is a proof that the fundamental islamists are a real threat.
In February of 1999 a bomb exploded in Tasjkent. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was accused for the action, but without any steadfast proof. IMU had close ties with the Talibans in Afgahnistan and opreated from bases in Tadzjikistan. But after the terror attacks of september 11th and the US war in Afgahnistan IMU are concidered heavily weakened.
After September 11th dictator Ismlam Karimov became a keyally in centralasia in connection with the US war in Afgahninstan.
- Karimov has for a long time tried get an opening to the americans. He disslikes, even hates, the Russians. Now he saw his chance, and he could say to Washington: Look what we're facing, the same threat as you are.
This made a breakthrough for Karimov who offerd Pentagon Airforce facilities in the war against Usama bin Ladin an dthe Taliban. The Us saw its chance to finaly get a steady foot in on the euroasian landmass, right inbetween the keynations; Russia, China and Iran. So the Whitehouse stopped harrasing Karimov about human rights, all in accordance with the parrol:
He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard.
European chritizism has been harsher:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development eralier this year pulled back its subsidies, something the International Monetary Fund already did sometime earlier with the motivation that corruption in Uzbekistan is on such a level that "the country can no longer be considered a marketeconomy".
Worth noticing is how Great Britain, the Us most faithfull European partner, has acted. In October 2002 the british ambasador Craig Murray appeared infront of the diplomatic council at a humanrights conference in Tasjkent and violently attacked the Uzbeki reginms crimes against human rights. He claimed that Uzbekistan "is no longer a working democracy" and that torture is part of the system.
In a letter to the british foregin ministry, in the forerun to the Iraq war, Craig Murray condemned what he saw as Washingtons double standards; this he wrote after he saw George W Bush speaking of "dismanteling the terrorist machinery" and "remove the torture chambers" - This obviously only applied to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, not Karimov's Uzbekistan.
This is an article in todays DN (Dagens Nyheter), swedens biggest morning newspaper.
Ive translated it all to english so please ignore spelling and grammar errors.
Link:
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=323440&previousRenderType=8
It's all in swedish so i guess none of you here will understand unless youve taken a crashcourse in swedish.(I guess Norwegian and Danish could do it for you, to an extent :P)