Comments on: Andijon A Year Later (Updated)

By: uzbekistan.neweurasia.net » Fuller-length Andijan Video Released

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net » Fuller-length Andijan Video Released — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:08:44 +0000

[...] The NYT has a lengthy story on the release of a 70-minute video recording of the events in Andijan in May 2005. (A shorter version is already in circulation, mostly through the Uzbek embassies, and can be viewed at Registan.) Pretty early on it becomes clear that the video can be viewed from any number of angles; the writers state: ‘[But] the video is remarkable as a document that can be read different ways – not just as propaganda but in places as a portrait of confusion and disorganization among the protesters and gunmen that undermines Uzbekistan’s claim that it resorted to violence to put down an armed uprising by highly trained international terrorists. The gunmen often appear inexperienced, bungling and poorly equipped. [...]

By: Azjon

Azjon — Mon, 15 May 2006 12:27:03 +0000

How predictable, first they(the government)slaughter innocent people and than they explain us why all the killings were necessary.I meet with refugees every week and they tell me somewhat different story. Also, that’s the worst video ever made.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:58:17 +0000

I think we should be careful not to get too passionate so that it will cloud our objectivity. However, after I saw the video I was like “That’s it?”. This was a video that the ‘terrorists’ themselves made. Where were the speeches against secular rule or diatribes quoting Quaranic scripture? These are the wahabbis that want to establish a caliphate across all of central asia, right? This video doesn’t rule that out, but certainly doesn’t establish it, in my opinion.
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=520&id=672548

By: Rustam

Rustam — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:26:45 +0000

Brian – as You said watched the video without audio.
The “Terrorist ARMY” according to the video was at most 30 people, armed with AK-47 and Dragunov sniper rifles. The response to it from the Government side could be seen in these pictures http://archive.muslimuzbekistan.com/images/andijan/02.html
or these
http://extras.hrw.org/pdfs/andijan_photo_essay.pdf
In the film it repeatedly shows the burning theatre, today centraia.ru posted the report of “EZGULIK” Uzbek HR NGO on the events of Andijon, in it one eye witness for 100% confirms that the Theatre was set a light by a yonger brother of his friend, Shuhrat, who works for the MVD (police), he is sure of it because he saw him in a civilian clothe with a canister of petrol, he went into the theatre and came out and run away, this guy stood there unable to capture what is going on and then saw flames smoke coming out from the roof.
Shirin Akiner – no comment on her!!!!!!
The reason why it makes an accent on the fact that several of these defendants are from Kyrgyzstan and “beautiful” life of Andijon is the fact that Karimov wants to say that it is not my dictatorship but “evil forces” from Kyrgyzstan, foreigners are the reason. But it is stupid and directed towards those who don;t understand the Central Asia and Uzbekistan, all of these citizens of Kyrgyzstan are as much as Uzbeks as anyone living in Tashkent, and they are there at that time beacause his relatives were among those who were put into jail. And did You notice that most of them normal, ordinary, cecular people, members of the same family, neighborhood. They just do not fit the typical stereotype of Bin Laden type terrorist, they look too civil, one can not imagine them living in Tora Bora, their look is not so evil as one would like it to be.

By: Rustam

Rustam — Sun, 14 May 2006 16:44:43 +0000

BRIAN – THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

By: Rustam

Rustam — Sun, 14 May 2006 16:41:37 +0000

Alexander – I have not seen the film but I know what that doctor was saying. These killers in SNB who made this film were responding to what people wer saying, ordinary people who were shot close to the Teshik-Tash, border with Kyrgyzstan, this part makes it clear that the film is compilation of exact demands set out by the SNB, argument against the argument, not what really happened.
Do You remember Mahbuba Zokirova’s testimony at the Stalinist trial of alleged “terrorists”?
All this what this doctor is saying is a kind of an answer to what she said on her testimony and which was heard by many foreign HR organizations and other NGOs, SNB had to insert this to lessen the devastating affect of that testimony.
Exactly to this part of her testimony – “When we reached the town of Teshiktosh on the border, no one had any weapons. There were women, old women, pregnant women, and children. They took headscarves and made a white flag. The men said, “They won’t shoot. We’ll send you, the women, across [the border]. If they shoot anyone, they’ll shoot us.” When we went, they didn’t pay any attention to the white flag. The worst part is, even Hitler didn’t shoot people who raised the white flag. They fired. I saw it with my own eyes. I swear on my four children — they fired.”
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/10/6569c618-6c56-40d6-a76a-6ce6cac0c681.html

By: Laurence

Laurence — Sun, 14 May 2006 16:17:50 +0000

Nathan, Thank you for posting these links…

By: Alexander Morrison

Alexander Morrison — Sun, 14 May 2006 09:38:46 +0000

Interesting to see the new Uzbek official line (slightly toned down from previous wild allegations of CIA and BBC involvement) in this video. I agree with Brian – it shows us nothing we didn’t know before; I notice they couldn’t resist a dig at international Aid and Human Rights Organisations by intercutting images of two westerners with footage of the drama theatre on fire, and alleging that they had ‘arranged’ this to attract attention to the incident. Also, what on earth was that doctor going on about when he alleged that “even Nazis and Mensheviks” never killed medical personnel: a pretty strange juxtaposition. I don’t think that any of the “confessions” are likely to be reliable, but above all the film fails in convincing us of perhaps its most important contention: that civilians were rounded up into the square by force and used as a human shield, thus placing the blame for their deaths squarely on the “terrorists” rather than the security forces. There is nothing in any of the footage to suggest this, and that’s before we even get on to what has probably been cut out. So long as no independent inquiry is allowed, the Uzbek regime can’t expect anyone other than fellow-travellers such as Starr and Akiner to swallow such blatant propaganda (and by the way, wasn’t it funny to hear ‘demure, petite’ Professor Akiner dubbed into English with a growly, heavily-accented male voice? It renders her cringe-making interview on Akhbarat even less convincing than before).

By: Spanky McBean

Spanky McBean — Sun, 14 May 2006 03:52:24 +0000

It is despicable that Freddy Starr, Zany Baran and the CHUDson Institute are doing Karimov’s billing in Washington. Even if there were some armed men in the crowd, indiscriminately shooting heavy machineguns into a crowd that includes unarmed men, women and children is a horrendous crime against humanity. Those who apologize for such crimes are immoral scoundrels. The Uzbek Embassy in DC must be paying their shills well on this anniversary. Their video is an appalling (and classic) manipulation pieced together by low-budget morons who can’t even dub decent English.

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:23:00 +0000

The “Andijan Tragedy” video, or something that sounds very much like it, is going to be shown next Tuesday in DC at an event jointly sponsored by CACI at Hopkins-SAIS and the Hudson Institute. The email (jointly from CACI and from the Hudson Institute) announcing the screening bills the video as something “made available to us by the Uzbek Embassy in Washington DC that shows clips recorded by members of Akromiya (Hizb ut-Tahrir splinter group) during the uprising in Andijan, Uzbekistan on May 14, 2005.”

The email goes on:

“Notwithstanding the severity of the Uzbek government’s response, this video demonstrates that the organizers of the uprising may not have been, as some have claimed, ‘peaceful Muslims.’ Following the screening we will hold a discussion on U.S. policy in Uzbekistan.”

So this looks to be a bit of an attempt at image management that’s being put out by Uzbek Embassies around the world.