USA suspends aid to Uzbekistan

[Judi Lynn]

USA suspends aid to Uzbekistan
WORLD/CIS » :: Jul 14, 2004 Posted: 13:43 Moscow time (09:43 GMT)



WASHINGTON - The USA has ceased the provision of $18m in aid to Uzbekistan, because of continuous violations of human rights and democratic norms in that country.

A statement by the US Department of State refers to deaths of suspects in prisons and the unwillingness of the Uzbekistani government to register opposition parties. However, the Department of State declared that Uzbekistan, which had allowed the USA to use one of its airbases for operations in Afghanistan, still was Washington's important partner in fighting terrorism, Radio Liberty reported. /RosBusinessConsulting/
(snip/)

http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnewswire.shtml?nw=44645#n44645

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_Bush and his people have known this for years. They just didn't know WE knew! Their little chum has been outed:

US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists

Uzbekistan's president steps up repression of opponents

Nick Paton Walsh in Namangan
Monday May 26, 2003
The Guardian

Abdulkhalil was arrested in the fields of Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year. The 28-year-old farmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to overthrow the constitutional structures".
Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time".

Abdulkhalil was a victim of Uzbekistan's security service, the SNB. His detention and torture were part of a crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamist group.

Independent human rights groups estimate that there are more than 600 politically motivated arrests a year in Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political prisoners, some tortured to death. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August two prisoners were even boiled to death.

The US condemned this repression for many years. But since September 11 rewrote America's strategic interests in central Asia, the government of President Islam Karimov has become Washington's new best friend in the region.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,963497,00.html

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See the stampede to embrace the little demon from Uzbekistan, who has allowed _Bushuse of an air force base in his country:






Gee, isn't that Feith behind Pres. Islam Karimov?



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Photos of some of Uzbekistan President's ex-guests of honor:

http://www.muslimuzbekistan.com/eng/ennews/special/genocide/geno0016.html
(Oh, warning. They've been done in severely.)