The following is from a highly respect blog about Uzbekistan, The Registan. Currently there is a news blackout in the area in Uzbekistan that turned violent. But the “rebellion” has been brutally put down by the Uzbekistan government: Andijon and Bey…

I liked reading these comments all the way down – just about every item that I thought should be responded to was responded to (remarkably, usually in a way similar to – or even more insightful than – what I was thinking of saying) by someone as I scrolled down, so the only remaining thing I wanted to mention was that there are ABSOLUTELY independent Russian journalists who have reasonable and in some cases very insightful views on this. Vremia Novostei has a couple of articles, I think, and one thing which Ferghana.ru has put up is a partial transcript of Yulia Latynina’s radio program (full transcript in Russian is here – http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/code/36418/
) from the other day where she makes some pretty good points, in my opinion, but then I’ve always been a Latynina fan – http://scrapsofmoscow.blogspot.com/2004/12/latynina-interesting-pundit.html

In all seriousness, though, just because a journalist is Russian or writes in Russian doesn’t mean that they back the Russian government’s policies (Putin’s guys are working on that, but they aren’t quite there yet – and I know no one commenting here has made a blanket statement about all Russian journalists, but sometimes it’s too easy to generalize), and I’ve seen Russian commentators be even-handed and even some who are more critical of the Uzbek authorities than this site generally is. I wish I had more time to translate stuff, but tragically I have to work to pay the rent. And the free internet-translation software that I’ve seen just doesn’t cut it on Russian -> English, unfortunately.

Oh, and that Raimondo piece? He doesn’t impress me with his sharpness of wit, so I’m going to say something unverifiable (like so many of the things we’ve been reading these last few days) and say that he ripped off the Belarus comparison from me:
http://scrapsofmoscow.blogspot.com/2005/05/interesting-comparison.html

I would like to remind any reporters, if they wish to use the comments of a Peace Corps volunteer to please ask they if it is ok first. Considering the status of Peace Corps in many countries in the world it is essential the Peace Corps, and its volunteeres, remain non-political. Dee may well not mind her comments appearing on that site, but it would be responsiblel to ask. Thanks.
Views expressed by volunteers are, obviously, not those of Peace Corps.

My primary concern is to make sure that readers in the West don’t buy the Uzbek government’s story without thinking long and hard about what we actually know. Some people on my side of the ideological fence seem way to quick to chalk the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle up to a fanatical mob trying to turn the country into a Taliban clone. On the other side, there are too many people who are eager to label the protest a kumbaya, “can’t we all get along and be democratic?” get-together. We won’t know all the details for a while if we ever do, but suffice it to say that the situation isn’t easy to fit in a box.

As to the jailbreak, it certainly seems possible to me that the break itself was organized by family/clan/money/faith connections who, perhaps cynically, thought that the supporters in the street could be used as cover. That is the only rational I can think of for an act that desperate. (Although, frankly, were I a defendent on a Stalinist show trial, I wouldn’t think that such a bad idea at all.)
However, reguardless of the actual motivations for the jail break, even if it was a cell of battle hardened, Taliban trained, IMU fighters fueled up on vodka (they are Uzbek afterall), that doesn’t bring 10,000 people out to hang out and listen to speaches around the ugly Bobur statue. There may well not be 10,000 extremists in the whole valley. Blaming the attack on terrorists can do nothing to detract from the immensity of that much public solidarity for change.
The Boston Tea party was, afterall, about tea, taxes, and business. The motivation for the fires spark is inconsequential if your house is burning.
There is nothing that Karimov or the Russian government can say against that picture of Andijon’s centeral roundabout packed with squatting people who won’t sit on the pavement because its cold, who haven’t brought anything to sit on, but all insist on staying. It still shocks me.