Uzbek Ruler: New Saddam? ("US Ally Makes Saddam Look Like Choir Boy")

[Hissyspit]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0516/dailyUpdate.html?s=yahw

Uzbek ruler: a new Saddam Hussein?
Critics of the 'tyrant of Tashkent' say US ally makes Hussein look 'like a choir boy.'

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

He's called the "tyrant of Tashkent" in a Monday editorial by The London Telegraph.

One of the rebel leaders in his country says that he makes Saddam Hussein look like "a choir boy." And Sunday, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said there had been a "clear abuse of human rights" in rioting in his country where the CBC reports police and troops have been accused by aid groups of killing as many as 700 people, including women and children.

But Uzbekistan's president Islam Karimov, who denies his troops opened fire on civilians, is "seen by Washington as an important ally in its so-called war against terrorism and provides it with a key air base in central Asia," and so he is unlikely to be strongly condemned, reports the Guardian.

But Radio Free Europe reports that last week State Department spokeman Richard Boucher said the US had in fact continued to criticize Tashkent's human rights record in the annual report issued by the State Department.

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