For reasons not being reported, Anvar Nabiev, the Uzbek Deputy Prosecutor General whose career took off after the Andijon events of 2005, has been arrested. One cannot help but think that his arrest is part of the Uzbek government’s campaign to impress the West with its sudden interest in cleaning up its act and showing a stronger commitment to human rights.
It’s probably not a coincidence that another human rights activist has been released, with rumors that there are more set to be released.
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I hope that the United States foreign policy makers understand bazaar bargaining, or at least Poker!
If they are making these overtures, it means we have something they want, and we should press the advantage 100%. Now is the time to make a deal for development cash vs. real government change and civil society improvements. If we’re going to meddle, now’s the time to do it, I think.
As much as I hate to disagree with Nathan about anything, I would be much more cautious to speculate that removing Nabiev has anything to do with posturing for the US or whoever else may be paying attention. They might benefit from the suspicion, but we have to remember that Almatov was removed from his very solid post at the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs only a month or so (and possibly sooner) after Andijon, but it wasn’t exactly at America’s behest.
Karimov, like most long-lived dictators, has a long history of cutting off proverbial heads. I’m not so willing to assume there are any positive intentions behind what we might feel is a positive development.
And Michael, not so sound like a wet blanket, but Tashkent has a long, long history of bargaining for development money, contracts, or anything else it needs, but an even longer history of turning their backs on all the promises they made to get it. If we’re putting money into development, we should do it for development’s sake, and not for any vain hope that we’re going to convince Karimov (or whomever is actually in charge of the country at the end of the day) to change their philosophy of governance.
Noah, I think you’re on to something. I don’t really think that the Uzbeks have anything to learn about bargaining – I just hope that we ourselves and get more savvy regarding tit-for-tat agreements in Central Asia.
Noah, I think that makes about as much sense. I thought about it when I was writing the post, but due to my cold-addled state, I can’t recall why I didn’t put that in the post.
Well, hopefully the trend toward greater freedom continues and the regime allows access to Blogspot again. Live Journal, which many of the Uzbek bloggers gravitated to, is economically disadvantageous as compared to Blogger, since Blogger allows you to have your own ads.
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