Andijan, Usbekistan - still on the boil

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Independent 14/5
But there is no sign that the protest in Andijan is anything other than spontaneous. Nor is there any indication that the protesters had help from outside.

Guradian 14/5
"We are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organisation that were freed from prison," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. The Scotsman adds he said "We urge both the government and the demonstrators to exercise restraint at this time,"

Interior Minister Zakir Almatov appears to be in charge of negotiations, although Karimov is said to have taken personal charge in the town, although he has not been sighted.

Two of the dead were children, Sharif Shakirov, a brother of one of the defendants told The Associated Press and said the rising strated when the army started rounding up supporters on Thursday night.

Craig Murray has been interviewed by the BBC (they didn't want to know him when he stood against Jack Straw in last wek's Parliamentary Elections) and is widely quoted throughout the world predicting a crackdown by the Karimov regime.

The UK Government are officially silent. Having colluded with "rendering terrorists" and happily receiving the resulting "intelligence" from torture, the recently re-anointed Foreign Secrtary Jack Straw is understandably unwilling to comment upon the repression of the Uzbek Muslims - his unelected satraps in the House of Lords, Baroness Amos and Lady Simons are similiarly mute lest the fate of the Chagos Islanders they have creully cast aside be remarked upon as an example of state repression.

Meanwhile it is evident that Her Majesty's representative on the spot hasn't a clue what is going on, or what to do.



Muslim Uszbekistan website in English >

Describing the unrest as an "internal affair" Moscow demonstrated serious anxiety about events in Uzbekistan. Alexander Yakovenko, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Kremlin was concerned about government resignation demands being advanced by protesters in Andizhan, in the Uzbekistan's fourth largest city with more than 300,000 people, where only about 80 Russian nationals reside.

"We hope stability and legal order will be restored in this city in eastern Uzbekistan," said early on Friday the senior Russian Foreign Ministry official.
"Karimov is now making it clear that the preservation of power is his main goal. Karimov will re-establish law and order, disregarding the price," Sergei Mikheyev from the Center for Political Technologies is quoted.

"Disorders in Andizhan in eastern Uzbekistan are a well-planned action", according to an anonymous Russian international terrorism “expert.”

"The primary analysis of these events shows that the seizure of the police station was well planned and prepared," he told RIA Novosti.

Unrest in Andizhan Uzbekistan can destabilize the situation in Central Asia, said Dina Malysheva, a leading researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"In case of need, Russia may help the authorities in Uzbekistan solve the crisis in Andijan", Viktor Khristenko, the Minister of Industry and Energy in Russia, said very frankly. Minister Khristenko added that Russia couldn't remain impartial to what happens in Uzbekistan.

As the tension was heightening Russian officials seems became more nervous. State Duma deputy, director of the Institute of CIS Countries Konstantin Zatulin openly hinted Uzbek authorities to hasten to solve the problem. "If the Uzbek government does not take prompt measures disorders may begin in other towns of Uzbekistan" he said. Speaking about the reasons of Andizhan turmoil Zatulin stressed that some external factor might be behind the scene.

"Uzbekistan recently gave up the US support and started pursuing careful policy. After the events in Kyrgyzstan they [the Uzbek government] decided that Americans did not back local interests," the deputy said.

In his opinion, repressions against the opposition can be following the suppressed rally in Andizhan. "It will cause ambiguous reaction in the regions where Karimov is very unpopular. External forces, including the US Congress, may try to make use of the situation," Konstantin Zatulin noted.