Austin Bay Blog

Hamas played on this same desire — less corruption– among Palestinians sick of Arafat’s kleptocracy. The Taliban played the same game when it took power in Afghanistan, ie “We’re honest, the old regime was not.” Of course the Taliban then proceeded to slide into its own brand of malfeasance (including pay-offs). In about ten minutes I’m going to post the second part of Tom Nichol’s “How Freedom Spreads” commentary. The series (pts 1-3) provides a very useful frame for looking at Uzbekistan– part 3 will go up either Saturday or Sunday.

StrategyPage:

CENTRAL ASIA: Bad Guys Win In Uzbekistan

May 20, 2005: Uzbek president Islam Karimov appears to have put down the brief uprising in the eastern park of Uzbekistan. Karimov is smart, well organized, corrupt and ruthless. The demonstrators his troops dispersed with force were opposed to the police state methods used to hunt down Islamic radicals. The only group willing to oppose Karimov with armed force are the Islamic radicals, who don’t have a lot of religious support in Uzbekistan. But a lot more people would support the Islamic radicals if it meant a less corrupt, and more effective, government. The unrest in Uzbekistan is more about economics than ideology.

May 19, 2005: Uzbek troops drove into Korasuv, fired a few warning shots, and ended the short-lived rebellion. The men who had announced the “Islamic republic” the day before were rounded up and arrested.

May 18, 2005: In the eastern Uzbek town of Korasuv, government officials and police were driven out of the town of 20,000. Irate citizens then tore down barricades that blocked access to neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Three years ago, the Uzbek government closed the bridge, as part of a policy to seal Uzbekistan off from a more tolerant atmosphere towards Islamic conservatives and democracy advocates in Kyrgyzstan. This move hurt a lot of people on both sides of the border because trade was also cut off. Families were not cut off as well. The population on both sides of the border is largely Uzbek. This had not been a problem for as long as the Soviet Union existed, because Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were simply two provinces (or “republics” in Soviet doubletalk) of the Soviet empire. But now, some leading citizens of Korasuv have come forward and announced their intention of establishing an a democratic Islamic republic in Uzbekistan. A democratic Islamic republic is one in which you can vote for any candidate you want, as long as that candidate supports the use of Islamic law (Sharia) as the law of the land. Journalists did not see many armed men in Korasuv. But no government officials or police were seen either.

Meanwhile, government officials gave reporters a tour of nearby Andijan, where violence in the last week had left at least 500 dead. The government insisted the death toll was under 200. Locals also in that at least 200 people were killed in another city, Pakhtabad, in Ferghana valley of eastern Uzbekistan.