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KORASUV, Uzbekistan May 18, 2005 — A Muslim rebel group claimed Wednesday it had seized control of a small Uzbek town on the border of Kyrgyzstan and vowed to build an Islamic state. Diplomats and U.N. officials toured a nearby city where government troops fired on demonstrators, reportedly killing hundreds. The leader of the rebel group, Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, said his forces controlled Korasuv, a town of 20,000, and were ready to fight any government troops that came to crush his rebellion. An AP reporter in Korasuv saw no sign of government officials in the town. "The town is in the...

The Uzbek government has confirmed the death of President Islam Karimov, six days after he was taken to hospital with a suspected brain haemorrhage. One of Asia's most authoritarian leaders, Mr Karimov, 78, died after 27 years in power.

A "dictator" is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. The worst commit terrible human-rights abuses. This present list draws in part on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International. While the three worst from 2005 have retained their places, two on last year's list (Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan) have slipped out of the Top 10-not because their conduct has improved but because other dictators have gotten worse....

ALMOST FIVE months after Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, ordered his security forces to massacre hundreds of mostly unarmed demonstrators in the city of Andijan, European governments are finally taking steps to punish his regime... After Sept. 11, 2001, the United States cultivated Mr. Karimov despite mounting evidence that he was one of Asia's most brutal rulers. The reason was simple: The Pentagon coveted the Karshi-Khanabad airbase, which Mr. Karimov provided as a staging point for U.S. air and rescue operations in Afghanistan. Under pressure from Congress, the State Department finally suspended several aid programs to Uzbekistan last year. But the...

The European Union announced yesterday the embargo for the sale of weapons to Uzbekistan and said it will prohibit high ranking Uzbek officials from enter EU countries. The sanctions were imposed for "indiscriminate use of force" during the suppression of the uprising in Andijan and prevention of independent investigation of the events. In fact, it is a beginning of international process to isolate Islam Karimov regime. Russia intends to use this situation to its advantage and turn Uzbekistan in Moscow's main geopolitical partner in the region.Regime Non GrataYesterday the countries of European Union lost the right to supply Uzbekistan weapons,...

Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of the Andijon violence on 12-13 May were flown to Romania in July. They now say they are satisfied with conditions in a refugee camp in Timisoara. But it is not yet clear when they will be resettled to a country of permanent residence. The refugees are also demanding an independent probe into the Andijon uprising. RFE/RL correspondent Saida Kalkulova recently traveled to Timisoara and filed this report from a refugee camp.Timosoara, Romania; 7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Two young women are learning English. They are Uzbek refugees living in a...

The recent comments of Chinese General Zhu Chenghu – in which he threatened the United States with nuclear attack over the issue of Taiwan – represent the most public manifestation of China’s growing belligerency on the world stage. The concerted effort on the part of the Chinese to establish their hegemony over the critical region of Central Asia has been comparably covert, but no less menacing. With America entering the area militarily following the September 11th attacks, these Chinese efforts have only intensified, giving rise to a new “Great Game.” Viewing American deployments as dangerous encroachments into their territorial periphery,...

July 8, 2005 Uzbeks Threaten to Evict U.S. From an Air Base Near AfghanistanBy ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 7 - Uzbekistan on Thursday threatened to evict the United States military from an important air base near the border with Afghanistan. The United States was allowed to use the Soviet-era base, in Karshi-Khanabad after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and continues to use it to support the continuing military efforts in Afghanistan. The statement on Thursday from Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said it had allowed the base, where 800 American troops are stationed, to be established for...

All day yesterday, Russian officials and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, who was in Moscow, talked about what actually happened in Andijan. Karimov was convinced that the events in Andijan were the West's revenge on Uzbekistan for its independent foreign policy. According to the Russian leadership, they were the machinations of international terrorism. At the end, the leaders of Russia and Uzbekistan agreed that, in any case, Karimov's actions merited strong approval and support. Islam Karimov decided to tell the press the whole truth about the Andijan shootings and hastened to what he called the “big, weighty points”. Since the...

Yesterday it was learned that U.S. Air Force planes stationed in Uzbekistan were moved from the Karshi-Khanabal military base to bases in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. The move was made after the Uzbek authorities prohibited the Americans from making night flights. This is Tashkent's way of responding to intensifying pressure from the West for an independent investigation of the events in Andijan. On Tuesday evening, the foreign ministers of the 25 EU member countries, who were gathered in Brussels for an EU summit, commissioned the EU Council of Ministers to follow the situation in Uzbekistan and, if necessary, recommend measures...

China says united with Uzbekistan against terror Thu May 26, 2005 06:16 AM ET Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) and Uzbek President Islam Karimov walk past the honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in China's capital Beijing May 25, 2005. China said on May 26 it was united with Uzbekistan in the fight against terrorism, weeks after clashes between Uzbek troops and protesters in the east of the Central Asian country. China, worried about unrest in its own border regions and eager for new sources of energy to feed its booming economy,...

Government troops reclaimed control of an eastern Uzbek town where rebels announced they would build a strict Islamic state, and local residents said Thursday that authorities had arrested the group's leaders. Some said that about 200 government forces had occupied Korasuv, a town of 20,000 on the border with Kyrgyzstan, overnight and arrested the rebel leader Bakhtiyor Rakhimov and several aides who had announced a plan to rule according to Islamic law. Other residents said the government troops numbered 1,000. Some local residents said they heard no shots, but others reported sporadic shooting. All refused to give their names,...

The leader of a group of rebels claiming to control this Uzbek border town said Wednesday that he and his supporters intend to build an Islamic state and are ready to fight if government troops attempt to crush their revolt. "We will be building an Islamic state here in accordance with the Quran," Bakhtiyor Rakhimov told The Associated Press while leaning down from the back of a horse. Tense but confident, the bearded 42-year-old farmer, wearing a traditional Uzbek embroidered black-and-white skull cup, snapped his fingers as he gave orders to an assistant. It was unclear how many people...

The U.S. State Department Monday said it was deeply disturbed by reports Uzbekistan troops opened fire on protesters, killing about 500 people. "We are deeply disturbed by the reports that the Uzbek authorities fired on demonstrators last Friday," department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Some 500 people were reported killed during the weekend as Uzbekistan troops fired at protesters in the town of Andijan. On Friday, demonstrators stormed a prison there and freed detainees, including those with alleged links to terrorist groups. Boucher said Washington had urged Uzbek officials in Tashkent and Washington to exercise restraint. He also criticized the demonstrators,...

Yesterday in Tashkent there was a demonstration in remembrance of the dead during the weekend events in Andijan. Only a few Uzbek human rights activists with carnations and about 30 Russian journalists showed up for the meeting. The main question they all had was: Why does nobody react to the tragic events in Andijan? Kommersant’s special correspondent Mikhail ZYGAR’ got his own answer for the question. As strange as it seems, the Tashkent population is aware of what happened in Andijan, or, more likely, they can guess. The local media reported only President Karimov’s description of the events, but it...

Uzbek unrest spreads, toll 700 Alexander Merkushev in Andijan, Uzbekistan | May 16, 2005 16:03 IST Unrest spread through eastern Uzbekistan after a crackdown by security forces left up to 500 dead in Andijan, with disturbances reaching three other towns?- including one that reportedly left 200 dead. The clashes in the region bordering Kyrgyzstan were the worst since Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. President Islam Karimov's government has denied opening fire on demonstrators as witnesses have claimed, instead blaming Islamic extremists for the violence. The authoritarian government has restricted access for reporters in the affected areas....

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called for democratic change in Uzbekistan as unrest continued in Andijan city. Mr Straw said there had been a "clear abuse of human rights" in the country after soldiers opened fire in the city square on Friday. It was reported that Uzbek security forces had sealed off the city centre but it is still unknown how many people died. Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme: "The situation is very serious, there has been a clear abuse of human rights, a lack of democracy and a lack of openness." He said...

The violence that has reportedly killed hundreds of protesters in eastern Uzbekistan appeared to be spreading to neighbouring towns last night, raising fears that the volatile Central Asian state could erupt into a full-scale revolution. As human rights workers in the flashpoint town of Andijan warned that the death toll there could reach 500, an official from the neighbouring country of Kyrgyzstan said sporadic rioting had broken out in the border town of Karasu, with government buildings and police cars on fire and military helicopters circling overhead. One local official was reported by the Russian Interfax news agency to have...

Dramatic events are unfolding in Uzbekistan, where crowds of people have gathered outside government buildings in the eastern town of Andijan. Troops are said to be filling a nearby street and stadium, and some shots have been fired injuring protesters. Reports say three snipers firing on the crowd were pulled down from a roof by the angry crowd. During the night, gunmen stormed the city jail releasing possibly thousands of prisoners. The crowds are thought to be protesting against the trial of 23 Islamic businessmen on extremism charges. "The people have risen," AP news agency quoted Valijon Atakhonjonov, the...

Uzbek voters knew absolutely nothing. They did not know who to vote for because they did not have any information about the candidates running for parliament. Everything was shrouded in mystery, except the fact that all parties in the race had been founded by state authorities.Another curious aspect of the Dec. 26 elections was that they were held under an artificial state of emergency. Particular attention was paid to the Ferghana Valley, Bukhara and Samarkand. Ten days before the elections, troops from the Interior Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the National Security Service began regular patrols of these regions. Security...