Update on the Uzbekistan unrest from the LA Times, "Uzbek Witness Tells of Brutality on Both Sides," with thanks to Skeet Street.
ANDIJON, Uzbekistan — They called themselves "the Brotherhood." Devout Muslims and astute businessmen, they grew to include about 200 associates. They ran bakeries, garment and shoe factories, carpentry and leatherwork shops, even a medical center and charitable activities.They were the business elite of this city of 300,000 in eastern Uzbekistan's poor but densely populated Fergana Valley, known as a hotbed of Islamic fervor.
But the authoritarian government of President Islam Karimov saw them as a threat, and put 23 members on trial last year as alleged religious extremists running a criminal organization. All but one were imprisoned during the proceedings.
As the trial approached its conclusion, a volatile mixture of political and religious repression, poverty and radical Islam exploded in violence and death on May 13, raising concerns about the political stability of a key U.S. ally in Central Asia. The Pentagon said last week, without providing details, that activities at a U.S. base here that support operations in Afghanistan had been scaled back because of concern about the events in Andijon.
Witness accounts from reporters for Western wire services, local human rights activists and others in Andijon have indicated there was brutality on both sides on that day of bloody clashes, which began when armed fighters staged a jailbreak, freeing the imprisoned businessmen.
According to a defense lawyer who offered the most detailed account yet of what happened, the freeing of prisoners and subsequent protest rally that ended in a fierce government crackdown was organized not by some shadowy terrorist group, but by the imprisoned businessmen's frustrated and angry relatives and friends.
As described by Rashanbek Khadzhimov, a lawyer who took part in the businessmen's defense: "Their friends, their colleagues who were still free, and their relatives just lost their heads. If I had known what they were thinking I would have stopped them...
The government placed the death toll in the town of Andijon at 169, although human rights activists and others said hundreds more had been killed. The dead included armed militants and unarmed civilians who had come into the street to support the freed businessmen and to complain about unemployment, low living standards and Karimov's authoritarian rule. The death toll included at least 32 police and soldiers, according to the government...
The 'ol moral equivalency "both sides" obfuscation
Thanks to Jihad Watch for helping point out where the violence ORIGINATES.
If its the LA times, then rest assured 'businessman' means 'islamoterrorist'.
'Armed fighters staged a jailbreak' to be read truthfully as "bloodthirsty, savage, islamofascistic, jihad-mad terrorists".
The extent to which mainstream media has whitewashed these goons is incredible. Recall how the BBC refused to call the beslan scum 'terrorists'...
Its a delicate tribute to the savagery of jihad that the despite tons of whitewash used by the western press, the blood still shows....
The West helped Stalin, Hitler's original ally (SEE: "The Non-Aggression Pact"), battle the Nazis when Hitler turned on the communists and attacked Russia.
Now we need to be as realistic in who we aid.
It sure as hell shouldn't be those who support jihad.
And, if those who oppose it are rotten in other ways, we can deal with that later, once the jihadists are defeated.
If you have cancer and hemmorhoids, you use the medical method of triage and solve the serious problem first.
Undermining those who are on our side in the global war against Imperialistic Islam makes no sense, except perhaps to those who live in the utopia of perfect justice and moral spotlessness, and who do not grasp the pragmatic concept that "the best is the enemy of the good".
In laymen's terms:
A bicycle with one flat tire is better than no bicycle at all.
Turkish Jeeps Oppressed Uzbek Riots
Author: Can Karpat, AIA Turkish section
24.05.05
On the basis of military cooperation, Turkey donated Land Rover jeeps to Uzbekistan. Uzbek security forces used them to suppress riots in Andijan. One of the four doors bears Turkish flag. The photos taken as these jeeps intervening Uzbek crowd in Andijan annoyed Ankara, Milliyet newspaper informs. And the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Gül stated that Ankara was “very sad” about those photographs published in Turkish as well as in foreign press.
Uzbek Ambassador, Rustam Isaev, stated that Uzbek events in Andijan are not reform movements, but terror acts. The ambassador pursued: “Turkey gave us its jeeps to use them against terrorists’ threats. So we will continue to use them”. Ankara had opposed to use of its jeeps with Turkish flags in Uzbek riots. To this reaction, Isaev responded that the flags can be hided somehow: “Ankara’s statement about photographs [of jeeps with Turkish flags in Andijan] through the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Gül, reached us. So I went to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on my own will. Turkey gave us that military aid to use it against terror acts. Events in Andijan are not popular riots, but terror acts provoked by Islamic organisations. So we used Turkish vehicles in struggle against terrorism. We will use them again. On these vehicles, there are Turkish flags put by Turkey. Our government prefers that these flags disappear. But I would like to say that those who criticise to-day Turkish flags on jeeps, after six months when the truth about Uzbek events will be revealed, they will be in a very positive position about this flag issue”.
Furthermore, the Turkish-Uzbek relations are kept in some distance by reason of the returning of Aybek Ibrahimov to Uzbekistan. The intelligence responsible of Uzbek Islamic Movement, Ibrahimov, is in captivity in Turkey. It is claimed that Uzbek President postponed his visit to Turkey to 2006 just because of that returning issue.
See also: Turkey to Take Part in the EU "Battle Groups"
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