Land Rovers 'used in Uzbek killings' (Guardian)

[struggle4progress]

Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday May 27, 2005
The Guardian

Evidence that Land Rovers were used by Uzbekistan forces who have killed hundreds of protesters, despite the government's policy of not selling arms to regimes which abuse human rights, are to be raised in the Commons.

"If British weapons or components were exported to Uzbekistan, as seems to be the case, this is a classic example of licensed production allowing companies to avoid UK export controls," Roger Berry, Tory chairman of the Commons committee which oversees arms sales, said yesterday.

The only thing that matters when judging our arms laws is who is the end user. The rest is academic. In this case, the end user appears to have been the Uzbek military in the massacre at Andijan".
Oxfam said yesterday that photographs analysed by the Control Arms Campaign, a group pressing for stricter controls, show that British military Land Rovers were used by government troops in Andijan on the day they massacred up to 500 men, women, and children. <snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1493416,00.html

If the Poodle was doing this, Dimson was too ...

[JohnyCanuck]

1. It's reported Dimson and the President of Uzbekistan are good friends.

From Our President's New Best Friend Boils People Alive:

06/26/03: Let me introduce you to our presidents new best friend, President Karimov of Uzbekistan.

President Karimov government was awarded $500m in aid from the Bush administration in 2002. The SNB (Uzbekistan's security service) received $79m of this sum.

The U.S. State Department web site states "Uzbekistan is not a democracy and does not have a free press. Many opponents of the government have fled, and others have been arrested." and "The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique."

Now I would like to introduce you to Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year old father of four. Mr Avazov had a visit from our presidents friends security force (SNB), the photographs below detail the brutality and inhuman treatment our tax dollars subsidize, with the full knowledge of our president and his administration.

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3943.htm

[daleo]

2. The Uzbek leader is a big Bush ally in the "War on Terror".

Ironically, he is reputed to boil his opponents to death, which sounds like state terrorism to me. For Bush and his ilk, it was a simple matter to go from supporting tyrants in the name of fighting communism to supporting tyrants in the name of fighting terrorism. In both cases, the concept and practice of democracy is besmirched, insulted and dragged through the muck.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Uzbekistan’s Growing Police State

Uzbekistan’s Growing Police State

By Anora Mahmudova, AlterNet. Posted May 27, 2005.


Back in 1996, I heard a Peace Corps volunteer in Feghana exclaim that if American workers were not paid their salaries on time, there would be riots all over. But his Uzbek colleagues, university teachers, did not see their salaries for months and waited patiently. They would say at least they have jobs, when so many are unemployed.

By 2004 people could not stay silent any more. They have been picketing their factories, organizing impromptu demonstrations in the bazaars when government decided to raise taxes yet again. Finally, the biggest demonstration involving thousands of people in Andijan ended in a massacre of hundreds of men, women and children.

The US's main Central Asian ally in the "war on terror," and designated torturer for suspects handed over by Washington, has just refused Kofi Annan's request to allow a UN inquiry team into the massacre of 800 peaceful demonstrators shot dead in the main square in Andijan. So far, there have been no threats of intervention by Washington.

Instead, "balanced" statements by the State Department say that Uzbekistan should open up and work toward democracy -- and that both sides should show restraint -- putting the massacred and their murderers on a par. Even calls for an independent inquiry are unenthusiastic.
(snip/...)

http://www.alternet.org/story/22097/

[hector459]

5. Catching up to America's police state.

With friends like these who needs terrorists?

[JCMach1]

4. I still haven't heard from, nor can I contact my friend in Uzbekistan

I am hopeful that she is okay. However, I am sure she is having trouble getting out of the country to return here. I have stopped trying to SMS or Email just in case they are monitoring such transmissions from the Middle-east.

:(

[struggle4progress]

9. Was she visiting? eom

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. If we're going to force Uzbekistan to give back the Land Rovers...

...I'll have one!

[makhno]

7. Well, Ford owns Land Rover

And Ford has quite a storied history in that department.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. If they're ex-UK-army

They probably date to before Ford's purchase of LR.