Uzbek women organized a picket in front of the Russian Embassy in Tashkent protesting against Moscow's support of Islam KarimovSo, Karimov has come out with harsh criticism of Russian TV coverage, and now so have these anti-Karimov protesters. This isn't as strange as it looks at first glance. For one thing, Karimov was most critical of NTV's coverage, and the opposition is strongly criticizing the other two major Russian channels, Channel 1 (ORT) and RTR. Also, my interpretation (partially cribbed from the Vremia Novostei piece that I translated late last night) of Karimov's criticism is that it's intended to "discredit the sources of information which Uzbek citizens were able to access," i.e., Russian TV channels (even though, as has been reported, the ability to view Russian TV news reports in Uzbekistan has been far from universal since last Friday the 13th). He knows he won't be able to completely keep people from seeing these news sources or control their coverage, so he's just trying to discredit them generally without regard for the tone of their coverage.
Ferghana.Ru, Andrei Kudryashov (Tashkent), 19.05.2005
"We came to express our protest against the biased coverage of the tragic events in Andizhan by ORT and NTV channels of the Russian television," Gavkhar Aripova, leader of Uzbek human rights organization Ozod Ael [Free Women], told journalists before the Russian Embassy on May 19. "Mikhail Leontiev (http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_main.main?p_news_razdel_id=100 Odnako program anchorman) either does not know the first thing about the situation in Uzbekistan or shamelessly acts on political orders of unscrupulous government of Russia that backs Islam Karimov's regime. Enough of the claims that it is Islamists and terrorists who rise against the authorities of Uzbekistan. Ordinary people will no longer tolerate impoverishment, starvation, unemployment, crib deaths, and coercive sterilization of women in the Ferghana Valley with the help of which the regime is trying to solve economic and social problems. Uzbek women, old men, and children are in the streets nowadays because they are fed up with hopelessness while their men are already jailed or harassed. The Russians have always supported the Uzbek people. As for Leontiev and others like him, give them Orders of Pinochet or something even though not even Pinochet ordered his soldiers to fire at children like Karimov's soldiers did in Andizhan on May 13."
"Look at us! Are we Islamists?" Tatiana Dovlatova asked journalists. "We only want no more harassment of citizens of Uzbekistan, regardless of their ethnic origins, for the smallest disagreement with the authorities. We want our human rights. We urge Russian women - if their men, politicians and journalists, are impotent - to support us and organize protests in front of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Moscow." [...]
Organizers of the protest action say that dozens of women intended to participate but most of them were intercepted by the police. A group of 9 women ended up in a police van barely 100 meters from the Embassy. [...] It was men passing by who helped the women to unfold placards "Mothers of Andizhan - We Are With You!" and "Remember, Russia: Uzbek Cotton is Saturated with Blood!"Cars driving own Nukusskaya Street began pulling over, their passengers and drivers shouting to the protesters, "Right! Let Russia discover the truth!" The police then asked the protesters to leave the roadway for the sidewalk. Dialogue with pedestrians continued there. The latter supported the protesters. Seeing, however, that foreign camera crews were not the only ones to film the proceedings, that Uzbek secret services were filming the proceedings too, they immediately walked away.
The opposition, on the other hand, has watched the coverage on certain Russian TV channels (ORT/Channel 1 and RTR) and become outraged with the tone of commentary provided by people like ORT's Leontiev. Parenthetically, Leontiev, in my opinion, is a reflexively pro-Kremlin hack - my irritation at his misrepresentations has often been exacerbated by his infuriatingly smug way of delivering his monologues, although I watch his TV appearances much more rarely nowadays - so I can understand the irritation even though I haven't seen a text of his commentary on Andijan.
One other thought about this article - a couple of days ago in some comments at Registan.net, I expressed the (admittedly not as informed as I would like) opinion that it would be possible for Karimov to retain power, barring further unrest, by ratcheting up his repressive measures and retaining the support of at least Russia from the outside world. It now looks to me, though, like the opposition within Uzbekistan may be more determined in making the demand for an independent investigation of what happened in Andijan, together with the demands from several countries (including the US) and international organizations (including the UN). Maybe it will emerge that the Andijan events really were provoked by a militant and/or Islamist group, and that most or all of the dead belong to that group, but I don't think anyone will be satisfied with that conclusion if it's reached by an investigation run by the Uzbek government without substantial, independent outside involvement.
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