If, as the administration would have had us believe, we are fighting an international war on despotism ("He gassed his own people!") then we really ought to be invading countries like Uzbekistan.
The following memos were published by Craig Murray, former U.K. ambassador to Uzbekistan, after he disagreed with British policy on supporting the U.S. policy toward Uzbekistan:
...The Economist also spoke of "the growing despotism of Mr Karimov" and judged that "the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record". I agree.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.
Instead, we're their greatest ally:
Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.
The result:
He [the dictator Karimov]– and they [the U.S.] – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?
For more context, read Phil E's post at The Sharpener.
Other British bloggers are all over the story, here, here, and here. American bloggers are reporting this as well. The mainstream media, however, is once again lagging behind.
