We do not know how many people died in the violence in Andijon this past May. The Uzbekistan government maintains 176 people were killed in a clash between police and armed Islamic extremists. Independent accounts indicate hundreds of innocent civilians were killed when troops turned their weapons on unarmed demonstrators.
Regardless, as the aftermath of the violence in Andijon continues rippling through Uzbekistan, we are waking to a new reality in that country in particular and Central Asia in general.
While Uzbekistan has faced significant problems since it became independent in 1991, its heavy-handed response to these challenges, which ultimately manifested themselves in the events in Andijon, have clearly worsened the situation. The government of Uzbekistan has targeted innocent civilians and reformers, enacted policies that have only exacerbated security problems and has consistently failed to address the underlying issues contributing to its insecurity.
Uzbekistan has become one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Freedom House ranks Uzbekistan alongside countries such human-rights violators as Zimbabwe and Belarus in terms of political and civil rights. The Heritage Foundation ranks it 147th in the world, alongside such rogue regimes as Iran and Cuba in its 2005 Index of Economic Freedom. The State Department’s most recent Country Report on Human Rights Practices in February 2004 described the government’s human rights record as “very poor,” adding “it made no progress on democratic reform and placed further restrictions on the activities of nongovernmental organizations and the press.”
While the politically and economically oppressive policies of the current regime have produced tremendous poverty, corruption and resentment among the people, the violence in Andijon may yet serve as a catalyst for political and economic liberalization. The Uzbek government must not only realize it is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of its citizens, but it should also consider the price it ultimately will pay if it does not undertake necessary political and economic reforms to address the conditions that help breed instability and terrorism.
Yet the government in Uzbekistan continues to conduct business as usual. The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the Question of Torture, Manfred Nowak, has accused Uzbekistan of torture in the aftermath of the violence in Andijon. In the past few weeks, Uzbek authorities have reportedly arrested dozens of people, mostly opposition members and human-rights activists in Andijon since the massacre last May. Others have been reportedly beaten by unknown assailants, threatened by local authorities and placed under house arrest. In addition, these government actions have not been confined to the areas around Andijon, but have reportedly spread to areas such as Tashkent, where numerous human-rights activists have been reportedly threatened with arrest or criminal charges if they engage in demonstrations or other public activities.
President Karimov must realize he can no longer conduct business as usual. Future U.S. diplomatic and security engagement with Uzbekistan must be conditioned on the opening of Uzbekistan’s political system, permitting independent political parties to register, addressing its disastrous human rights record, and undertaking substantial structural economic reform. Furthermore, Uzbekistan owes its citizens and the international community an independent, transparent and credible investigation into the violence by Uzbek security forces against civilians in Andijon.
If the Uzbekistan government does not make comprehensive political and economic reforms, we must undertake further measures to hold the Karimov government accountable for its actions against the Uzbek people.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia of the House Committee on International Relations.
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