Riots in Uzbekistan have left several dead and have freed over 100 people from jail in a rural town. Radio Free Europe has a special section listing the stories. Registan and Publius Pundit also have details. Much of the media was cut inside the country today. There was also a strange (and probably unrelated) incident where a fake suicide bomber was shot near the Israeli embassy.
Our strange love-hate relationship with Uzbekistan was definitely shown at today's State Department press conference. We expressed our concern that militant Islamic terrorists were freed in the jail break, but we had to repeat our criticisms of the government's atrocious human rights record. We don't like President Karimov, but similar to Pakistani President Musharraf, President Karimov is unfortunately an ally for realist, strategic reasons. In the end, we made the safe statement and just asked everyone involved to calm down.
Speaking of President Karimov, his movements today were very strange. Nobody was quite sure where he was and he never appeared on television as promised. Some media reported that he showed up near the riots to run the security forces from the ground. Most of the media could not confirm any information. A president like him bases his rule on the appearance of strength and I don't think that today's actions reinforced that appearance domestically.
Internationally, he ironically faces the opposite problem of looking too strong. If it's true he was on the ground giving orders as the security forces were firing indiscriminately on protestors, he's going to be facing some tough human rights questions over the next week and so will his allies.
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