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Uzbek Massacre May Be Worse Than Tiananmen

Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not 500 – the most common reported figure – but could be in the thousands. As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of […]

Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not 500 – the most common reported figure – but could be in the thousands.

As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of the bridge at the border village of Kara Suu said he believed that 2,000 had been massacred during three days.

Kyrgz border guards check papers of Uzbek refugees at Kara-Suu
There is no way to confirm numbers offered by refugees, but it seemed likely that when the truth emerges, the massacre in Uzbekistan, an American ally in the fight against terrorism, could become the deadliest assault on civilians since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. ~The Daily Telegraph

President Bush’s father, and most of the civilised world, had the decency to sever diplomatic relations with China after the slaughter of innocents at Tiananmen. Today Mr. Bush has the opportunity to use his nonsensical rhetoric and hegemonist instincts for some small measure of good, however symbolic, by leading the diplomatic isolation of Uzbekistan. I have always been a great advocate of non-intervention and staying out of the internal affairs of other nations, and I am not calling for an intervention against Karimov, but in this case it is our government’s lackey that has murdered hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people and Washington will be partly culpable if it does not act decisively to repudiate this butcher. Whether Mr. Bush has any intention of being taken even remotely seriously, even by his own supporters, about his professed desire to reform the Middle East (even though this is not his job and it is a foolish enterprise) or whether he does not, how he responds to Karimov’s butchery will decide. Our government is not obliged to save the people of Uzbekistan from their tyrant, which would be an argument for perpetual invasions, but it is obliged to cease doing normal business with such a ruler when there is such an egregious, unjustifiable massacre of civilians. Respect for human life and basic human decency require no less.

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