Karimov, who tolerates no dissent in the mostly Muslim country and has outlawed opposition parties…
Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who brooks no dissent…
The president, in power since Soviet times, brooking no dissent in the country…
Karimov runs the country in the style of a Communist boss, allows no dissent…
Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov tolerates no public dissent in the big Central Asian state he has ruled with an iron fist since Soviet times.
But Mr Niyazov of Turkmenistan, who has erected gold statues of himself, brooks no dissent, nor does Mr Karimov, the Uzbek leader.
Take this for what it’s worth. Uzbekistan’s government is nowhere near as tolerant of opposition as most governments, but the situation is certainly not as this small sampling of stories would suggest. Perhaps if Central Asia stories weren’t passed around amongst news agencies like a bong at a drum circle, this inaccurate little nugget that shows up in seemingly ever story about Uzbekistan wouldn’t exist and people might have a more realistic view of the complexities of the situation.
Personally, I blame Reuters and their stupid little “five facts” that they peddle around the wires for when reporters have to string together some complete sentences about places whose names they can’t even pronounce.
And, none of this is to say that Serquyosh Uzbekistonim is going to have it easy. But, the constituent organizations existed beforehand and operated openly, so something’s not right in the above quotations.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.
{ 1 comment }
Spot on — thank you so much for that.