President Bush's New Best Friend, President Karimov of Uzbekistan, Boils People Alive
Posted June 1, 2005 thepeoplesvoice.org

Posted by: the editor

Islam Karimov, the 'Boiler', and new best friend of George W. Bush, the 'Texacutioner', shake hands at the White House on March 12, 2002. Mr. Karimov ordered the widespread arrests, beatings and torture of his own people following a rigged October 15, 2002 referendum which extended his term as president of Uzbekistan indefinitely. Bush rewarded Karimove's brutal disregard for democracy and human rights with a $500 million dollar cash gift streight from the American taxpayers. Karimov has used $79 million dollars of this money to increase and strengthen the SNB, (Uzbekistan's security service) and to imprison and torture more than 6000 political prisoners each year. Many like Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year old father of four, (shown above) are subjected to death by boiling. In fact, Mr. Avazov is literally covered with bruises, burns, and wounds, and there is evidence of boiling on the lower 60% of his body. Doctors who saw the body reported that such burns could only have been caused by immersing in boiling water. Doctors also reported a large, bloody wound on the back of Mr. Avazov's head, heavy bruising on the forehead and side of the neck, and his hands had no fingernails. 

More resent accusations that Uzbek forces slaughtered women and children "like rabbits", have placed the Bush Administration in a quandary over its support for President Karimov. Witnesses said women and children were among the demonstrators shot by soldiers in Uzbekistan, the former Soviet republic.

Bush has made the spread of his so-called freedom and democracy the dominant theme of his stolen second term in office and has lauded the toppling of undemocratic governments in other former Soviet republics, in particular Georgia and Ukraine. The support of Mr. Karimov, a former communist apparatchik, is vital for U.S. oil interests, and the repression of Islam in the region. Members of the Bush regime are themselves violators of the Geneva Conventions, and therefore more than willing to overlook Karimov's slaughter of his own people. When the Bush White House tried to blame the resent protests in Uzbekistan on a Newsweek article, it was the height of hypocrisy. Neocon meddling in the affairs of Uzbekistan and the funding of a completely despotic and corrupt regime has created the tremendous social injustices now faced by the people. Certainly blaming a single statement in an American magazine for the protests in Uzbekistan is the height of absurdity and it demonstrates how far the Bush administration will go to obscure the truth.

The anger that the Neocons exhibited towards Newsweek had little to do with the protests in Uzbekistan and everything to do with their perceived power and authority over the media. Apparently Newsweek had spoken a degree of truth concerning the treatment of prisoners by the United States. It had proven to be too much truth to suit the regime and they severely punished Newsweek for the perceived infraction. An example was made of Newsweek for other members of the media who might also be thinking of reporting the news.

And the dressing down didn't stop with Newsweek, recently Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN that he was "offended" by Amnesty International's description of Guantanamo Bay as "the gulag of our times". Cheney said, "For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously." Cheney attempted to dismiss the widespread reports of torture as "lies", peddled by people after they have been released. And Condoleezza Rice put her two cents worth in describing Amnesty's report as ''absurd", which was simply a parroting of her master George W. Bush who said, "I'm aware of the Amnesty International report and it's absurd, it's an absurd allegation."

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by the editor. Permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media.

Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Avazov's mother examines pictures of his tortured body. In August 2002, Human Rights Watch recorded over 6,500 religious and political prisoners in the country. The ruling clique is decadent, corrupt and repressive. The legal code is a farce, and the population suffers draconian repression by an evil autocracy whose stated commitment to human rights is an obscene mockery of the truth. 

The owner of Uzbekistan is a corrupt and vicious ruffian called Islam Karimov. He is not a Muslim, in spite of his first name, and was First Secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party Central Committee. When the USSR finally collapsed he ditched communism and declared independence. Then he achieved leadership in a contest in which opposition parties were either not permitted to take part or were criminally persecuted by the police and other thugs. 

In 1992 he banned the main opposition parties and imprisoned their leaders, following which his former communist organization, risibly renamed the People’s Democratic Party, won elections. Karimov’s leadership term was extended to five years by referendum in 1995, and in 2000 in an equally crooked ballot he was ‘re-elected’ president. (Independent observers described the performance as “neither free nor fair”, which is diplomat-speak for being as well-rigged as a Baltimore Clipper.) The man is a racketeering tyrant with blood on his hands. 

So naturally he was invited to the White House. Following his meeting with Bush and Rumsfeld he visited Congress. According to the media release: "When Islam Karimov entered, the senators stood and applauded him for a long time.

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: Uzbek regime's war against Islam 
The most recent example of this onslaught is that of Orif Eshonov, a 38-year-old member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and father of four young children, who was detained by the Uzbek security services in Karshi in early May. After being held incommunicado he was brutally killed in custody on May 15. His body had heavy bruising to the arms, shoulders, upper chest, legs and soles of the feet. There were open wounds to one arm and his back. Several ribs had been broken and needles had been inserted under his fingernails.

The campaign against independent Muslims continues with the blessing of the US Government

See Also: 29 minute video explores the reality of life in Uzbekistan