Spreading Democracy

"We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny, and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability," the president said. "We have learned our lesson; no one's liberty is expendable. In the long run, our security and true stability depend on the freedom of others." - George W. Bush, Riga, Latvia, May 7, 2005

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AP, May 14, 2005 ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan-- Thousands of terrified Uzbeks fled for the border Saturday but hundreds angrily returned to the square where police fired on demonstrators to put down an uprising against country's authoritarian U.S.-allied leader. A human rights monitor said about 200 people were killed.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov said 10 government troops and "many more" protesters were killed but refused to be more specific. He spoke at a news conference in the capital Tashkent a day after the unprecedented clashes in his tightly controlled country, which he has led since before the 1991 Soviet collapse.

In the eastern city of Andijan, hundreds of protesters gathered at the square, displaying the bodies of six people killed in Friday's bloodshed and tearfully denouncing the government.

"Our women and children are dying," said Daniyar Akbarov, 24, who claimed to have seen at least 300 people killed in the violence.

Big military trucks loaded with soldiers cruised the streets and troops backed by armored vehicles surrounded the heavily fortified police headquarters.

Earlier, soldiers loaded scores of bodies of those killed onto four trucks and a bus after blocking friends and relatives from collecting them, witnesses said.

Lutfulo Shamsutdinov, the head of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said he saw about 200 victims being loaded onto trucks near the square in Andijan, the fourth-largest city with a population of 350,000.

Another witness who declined to be named said "many, many dead bodies" were stacked up by a school near the square. The city's hospital was cordoned off and officials could not be reached for casualty figures.

An AP reporter said she saw at least 30 bodies. All had been shot, and at least one had his skull smashed. She said there were large pools of blood and hundreds of spent cartridges on the streets.

A group of foreign journalists was detained early Saturday and told to leave the city immediately.

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"All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: The future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side." - George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, January 2005

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The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says that, in spite of the lifting of official censorship, Uzbekistan still has no press freedom to speak of, and there has been no substantial progress over the past year. Genuine opposition parties have been unable to register and operate, while those non-governmental organisations which had been allowed to register have now been asked to reapply. Human-rights activists are still harrassed or arrested, and Muslims trying to practise their faith outside the state-endorsed religious entities are labelled as terrorists and persecuted. Last August, a court sentenced Ruslan Sharipov, an independent human-rights activist and journalist, to five-and-a-half years in prison for "homosexual conduct".

Despite the government's claims to the contrary, human-rights groups say torture is still widespread, and that none of the UN rapporteur's recommendations has been fully implemented - though the government has issued an action plan. The death of a prisoner in 2002, who appeared to have died after being immersed in boiling water, shocked many other countries. Last month, his mother was jailed for six years for "religious extremism", after having campaigned for a formal inquiry into her son's death. She was released, and her penalty reduced to a fine, just before a visit to Tashkent by Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary.

As Mr Rumsfeld noted during his visit, since America's military intervention in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan has become a key ally in George Bush's war on terror. It now hosts an American military base. - The Economist, March 31, 2004

"Why do they hate us?"