Uzbekistan?

[norml]

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html#Geo



http://news.google.com/news?q=uzbekistan&hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

[Jara sang]

1. It is one of a few countries that is doubly landlocked

A landlocked country that is surrounded by other landlocked countries

[norml]

2. Islam Karimov

Islam Karimov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Islam KarimovIslam Abduganievich Karimov (in Uzbek actual Islom Karimov) (born January 30, 1938) is the President of Uzbekistan (since 1991).

Karimov was born in Samarkand and raised in a Soviet state orphanage. After studying engineering and economics in Tashkent, he became an official in the Communist Party.

He came to power as the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On March 24, 1990 Karimov became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He declared the independence of Uzbekistan on August 31, 1991 and won elections held on December 29 of that year with 86% of the vote. The elections have been called unfair, with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk (http://www.uzbekistanerk.org) (Freedom) Party, Muhammad Solih, had a chance to participate. Shortly after the elections, a harsh political clampdown forced opposition leaders into exile, while many have been issued long-term prison sentences and a few have disappeared.

In 1995, Karimov extended his term until 2000 through a widely criticized referendum, and he was reelected with 91.9% of the vote on January 9, 2000. The United States said that this election "was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choice" <1> (http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/election/uzbekistan/bbu260100.htm). The sole opposition candidate, Abdulhasiz Dzhalalov, admitted that he had only entered the race to make it appear to be a democratic contest and that he had actually cast his own vote for Karimov. On January 27, 2002, Karimov won another referendum extending the length of presidential terms from five to seven years; Karimov's present term, formerly due to end in 2005, was subsequently extended by parliament, which scheduled the next elections for December 2007.



snip



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov