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With Uzbek Unrest, Unease in the U.S.
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An Uzbek opposition party, the Free Peasants Party, said yesterday that it had compiled a list of 745 dead, more than 200 of them killed in a later clash in nearby Pakhtabad, apparently as Uzbeks fled Andijan.
Karimov and his prosecutor general, Rashid Kadyrov, disputed that, saying that 169 were killed, all of them either "terrorists" or Uzbek forces. "Only terrorists were liquidated by government forces," Kadyrov told a news conference in the capital of Tashkent.
The U.S. government, relying on information from hospitals, activists, residents and refugees crossing into Kyrgyzstan, privately put the death toll at about 300, a senior official said.
The U.S. government has sometimes spoken to Uzbekistan with more than one voice. Last summer, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell refused to certify that Uzbekistan had improved its human rights record, cutting off $18 million for military training. Weeks later, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Tashkent and criticized that decision as "very shortsighted"; he announced that the United States would be giving $21 million for bioterrorism defense. And the State Department later restored $7 million of the suspended aid, arguing that it was for priorities such as health care and nuclear security.
The result, according to critics, is that Uzbek officials shrug off U.S. complaints about repression. "They don't take the State Department seriously," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "They think the Pentagon and CIA will protect them. So the Uzbeks are not inclined to listen to American diplomats when they get lectured on democracy."
The U.S. anti-terrorism program has conducted 41 training exercises for Uzbek soldiers since 1999, most of them since 2001, and also trained 807 civilian police and security officers over that period. "The focus is on engagement, to develop a professional officer corps for the Uzbek military, and improving counterterrorism and border capabilities," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman.
The government has avoided training Uzbek interior or state security ministry forces closely associated with government repression. But it was unclear whether U.S.-trained forces were involved in the crackdown in Andijan. Some reports have suggested that some troops were wearing Defense Ministry uniforms.
Correspondent Peter Finn in Moscow and staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
