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Rebellion Shakes Post-Stalinist Order in
Central Asia
by Gerry Foley / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action
Throughout the history of the Stalinized Soviet Union, the so-called
Central Asian Republics were darkest corners of the bureaucratic
dictatorship.
It was here that the national oppression imposed on the small
nations of the former Russian empire by the Great Russian chauvinist
bureaucracy was the most oppressive. It was here that the ruling
bureaucracy was the most corrupt, where the living standards were the
lowest, where there was the least opportunity for independent thought and
organization—even less than in
the European parts of the totalitarian state.
This situation was scarcely altered by the breakup of the Soviet
Union. In these countries, the Stalinist bureaucracy remained intact and
continued to rule in
essentially the same way, only now in the name of restoring
capitalism and in alliance with the United States. Thus, in the buildup to
its invasion of
Afghanistan, the U.S. was able to establish bases in some of these
countries, notably in Uzbekistan. However,
the stability of the repressive regimes in
this strategic area is clearly beginning to splinter. The explosion in Uzbekistan in mid-May
is the most dramatic.
The unreconstructed Stalinist regime of Islam Karimov carried out a
massacre of a crowd of protesters in the city of Andizhan that ranks with
the worst political outrages in history, like the British massacre in the Indian
city of Amritsar in 1919 or the slaughter of protesters in Peking’s Tien An-Min
Square in 1989. In Amritsar about 400
people were killed, and the slaughter alienated millions of Indians who had
been loyal to the British empire. In Andizhan, the death toll may have
reached about a thousand, and this in a city of only 300,000 and a country
of only 26 million inhabitants.
The Uzbek security forces fired ruthlessly on a crowd of thousands
that had come out to support 23 political prisoners who had been freed by
rebels on Friday, May 13. Reuters reported May 16: “According to witnesses
interviewed by Reuters in Andizhan, soldiers outside a school gunned
down a large crowd, including women, children and 10 police hostages, that
was moving away from a main square where the shooting started.”
The news service quoted a 31-year-old cobbler who watched the
killing from a side street as saying: “It was a massacre. This sickening
smell of blood, smashed brains, guts, and blood, blood, was everywhere. I could
not put my feet on a dry spot. … I saw soldiers killing several wounded
with single shots to the head after asking ‘are there any wounded around?’”
In a report published in the website of Al Jazeera, a representative
of a Uzbek opposition party, Nigara Khidayatova, claimed that another 203
people were
killed by the security forces in Pakhtabad, another city in the
Fergana Valley. She was quoted as saying, “Soldiers were roaming the
streets and shooting at
innocent civilians. … Many victims were shot in the back of the
head.”
In its May 22 issue, the British Independent gave a more detailed
account gathered from witnesses: “Two key witnesses interviewed by this
newspaper—an ‘insurgent’ who played a key role in the ‘uprising’ and a
pro-government former policeman taken hostage by the insurgents—have filled
in other gaps in horrifying detail. The crowds, it has been established,
were mown down by powerful coaxial 7.62mm machine guns mounted on two
Russian-built BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers. Such cannons can unleash
2000 rounds barely pausing for breath before they need to be reloaded.
“A military helicopter was used for reconnaissance purposes, and
Uzbek troops armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles opened fire on the
demonstrators,
creating a deadly field of fire with the BTR-80s from which there
was no escape. The soldiers made sure they had done their work well. After
the shooting had finished they went from body to body delivering ‘control
shots’ to the back of people's heads and scoured the town's streets for
survivors to finish off.”
The brutal repression drove hundreds of Uzbeks to seek refuge in
neighboring Kyrgyzstan. But the lines of refugees were also fired on by the
security forces.
In its May 17 issue, the Paris daily Liberation reported: “In the
village of Tesik-Toch, the inhabitants told Agence France-Presse that on
Saturday [May 14], the Uzbek border guards targeted a group of unarmed
civilians who were trying to cross the frontier, killing 13 of them. These
testimonies were confirmed by the stories of some survivors who have now
taken refuge in Kyrgyzstan.”
Roundups of political suspects are also in progress. The Los Angeles Times reported in its
May 17 issue:
“Andrei Babitsky, a Russian reporter for U.S.-funded Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, said in a telephone interview from Andijon [Andizhan]
that a local human rights activist told him that about 1500 people had been
detained. They were being held at the regional office of the national
police and at the city police headquarters, with many kept outdoors behind
the
building, he said.”
The Uzbek rulers allege that they are fighting Islamic extremists.
That is the line most likely to appeal to the U.S. authorities, who regard
Karimov as an ally in
their war against Islamist terrorism. However, a report in the May
18 Christian Science Monitor quoted a Russian government export as saying
that Karimov’s repression was producing the sort of oppositionists he wanted:
“’There is no doubt Karimov has effectively closed off all channels
for legitimate expression of dissent in Uzbekistan,’ says Sergei Kolmakov,
an expert with the Institute for the Development of Parliamentarism, which
is linked to the Russian State Duma. ‘That leaves only religion as a forum
for people to express themselves, but Karimov uses the label of “religious
extremism” to crack down on any opposition from that direction.’”
In these circumstances, there is no doubt that Islamic groups, both
radical and moderate, are a factor in Uzbekistan. But the poverty and
repression in the
country are clearly provoking mass hatred of the regime that goes
beyond any religious motivation or outlet.
The bloodshed in Uzbekistan is an acute embarrassment for the U.S.,
which has given the Uzbek government more than a billion dollars in aid,
some of it going to the police and security forces. Some Russian officials
have argued that the uprising was encouraged by the U.S. rhetoric about
“freedom.”
It is obviously difficult for the U.S. rulers to find themselves
associated with Karimov’s bloody regime.
But at the same time they certainly do not want to see him
overthrown. They have reason to fear that political developments in this
explosive region can easily get out of control.
Another example is the demonstrations in the Central Asian republic
of Azerbaijan on May 21. They came days before the opening of a
U.S.-sponsored oil pipeline starting in the predominately Muslim country,
which
the U.S. rulers claim will reduce dependence on Mideast oil.
Azerbaijan continues to be ruled by the same Aliev clan that ruled
it in Soviet times. The demonstrators in the city of Baku were demanding
free elections. The present ruler of the country, Geidar Aliev, was elected
in 2003 in elections widely considered to have been fraudulent.
The police attacked and beat the demonstrators, and reportedly
jailed a hundred of them. But it seems now unlikely that repression can
keep the lid on much longer in the former Soviet Central Asian republics.
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