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Terror in Tashkent

UZBEKISTAN is burning. The sheer brutality with which the Uzbek regime has dealt with the spontaneous anti-government protests over the weekend should leave no one in doubt as to what the Uzbek people have been going through under the regime. Uzbekistan under Islam Karimov is a state in the mould of former Soviet Union — tyrannical, utterly ruthless and typical Stalinist.

Keeping in with the true Stalinist traditions, the Uzbek regime has cracked down on peaceful protests mowing down hundreds of unarmed demonstrators. While some Western media channels have estimated the toll to be anywhere between 450 and 500, eye witness account talk of hundreds of bodies lying everywhere on the streets.

What kind of a leader can shoot down his defenceless people without so much as batting an eyelid?

Karimov has been presiding over a hopelessly corrupt, undemocratic and totalitarian regime. Although with the fall of Soviet Union, Central Asian and east European states gained independence, the unhealthy influences of Stalinist era continue to have a sway over the former Soviet republics. As in other central Asian republics, the political leadership in Uzbekistan has simply transitioned from Soviet era to a so-called democratic republic without shedding its autocratic mindset and practices of a police state. So the system of one-party governance with little tolerance for opposition or difference of opinion is still the rule in the Karimov country just as it continues to be in other neighbouring countries. Those questioning the regime’s policies and practices are routinely jailed. Human rights are trampled as a matter of course. Elections are held but true to good old-fashioned totalitarian traditions, they are orchestrated to perpetuate comrade Karimov’s regime.

It’s not as if all this is not known to the international community. But since the big powers, US and Russia, have a stake in Uzbekistan, the West goes to great lengths to keep the rule of terror in Tashkent out of global spotlight. It’s these dual standards that perpetuate Karimov’s oppressive rule. But not any more. The winds of change that have been sweeping the region — from Georgia to Ukraine to Kyrgyzstan — are sure to bring down the regime in Tashkent sooner than later. Karimov is trying to play on the US concerns on terrorism by blaming the weekend violence on ‘fundamentalists and terrorists’. However, the West would do well to avoid helping the tottering tyrant. It’s people’s power that is at play in Uzbekistan. The international community should help the people of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states. It’s time for the terror rule in Tashkent to end.