Beyond Ukraine Bush Sides with Dictators
Pal, Amitabh
Beyond Ukraine Bush Sides with Dictators By Amitabh Pal Illustration by David Plunkert In the prolonged election battle in Ukraine, the United States cast itself as the friend of freedom and...
...During his visit, Nazarbayev presented Bush withafancy saddle worth $7,500...
...For his part, Abraham lauded Heydar's "vision and determination...
...Although the United States spent more than $2 million during the elections ostensibly to promote democracy, in its initial statement on the election, the State Department said that early indications were that the polling had gone smoothly, even if it was reserving final judgment, a very different response from that of an official European observer who said that the brutality of the security forces made it seem "that a war had started...
...Nazarbayev gottovisit the White HouseinDecember 2001, partly asareward for allowing the U.S...
...troops are stationed at a base in Uzbekistan, named K2, eighty miles from the Afghanistan border...
...Powell, among other top U.S...
...Special Forces have provided training to the Uzbek military, and the U.S...
...He was received in the White House in March 2002, and top cabinet officials such as Colin Powell and Rumsfeld have visited the Central Asian republic...
...Two American companies, Unocal and Amerada Hess, are investors in the pipeline...
...oil companies have significant investments in his country...
...Roughly 1,000 U.S...
...Many people in Russia and the West are calling [these trials] the most chilling public witch hunt since Stalin's show trials of prominent Bolsheviks in the 1930s," The New York Times reported...
...Armitage also expressed the Bush Administration's "desire to work closely with him and with Azerbaijan in the future...
...During his visit to the United States, Nazarbayev also met with Bush Senior, whom he awarded one of Kazakhstan's top civilian honors...
...But its first priority is fighting the war on terrorism and drug trafficking...
...The indulgence toward the country continues...
...aid to Kazakhstan grew from $47.9 million in 2000 to $92 million in 2003, of which half was for security-related purposes...
...Republican Party is supporting the remnants of Brezhnevism as part of their fight against Islamic extremism...
...At Karimov's White House visit a few months later, Bush "expressed appreciation" for his help...
...United States policy toward Azerbaijan has focused on Azerbaijan's support for America's war against terror and oil interests," Human Rights Watch stated in a 2004 report...
...During an April 2002 visit, Rumsfeld discussed with Niyazov the expansion of the Foreign Military Financing Program, under which the United States has donated a Coast Guard cutter to the country...
...Nor did he refer to the State Department's own human rights report in February, which noted the almost complete muzzling of the media in the country...
...The U.S...
...Tony Blair forced Murray to resign because of his outspoken criticism, in large part due to pressure from Washington, according to The Sunday Times of Scotland...
...OnNovember 28, 2001,atthe launchofthe Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Bush issued a statement praising Kazakhstan for helping "build prosperity and stability" in the world...
...In October, the government sentenced seven opposition leaders to years in prison for allegedly organizing the disturbances following the elections...
...You call that democracy...
...Armitage flew to Kazakhstan a month after the vote and did not mention the elections at all during his news conference...
...The United States has a rhetorical commitment to human rights," says Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division...
...At least two prisoners have been boiled to death, according to a British Embassy report...
...We declare our commitmenttostrengthen the long-term, strategic partnership and cooperation between our nations seeking to advanceashared visionofapeaceful, prosperous, and sovereign Kazakhstan in the twenty-first century," the joint statementbyBush and Nazarbayev stated.AsiftowaveatKazakhstan's problem, the declaration did "reiterate our mutual commitmentstoadvance the rule of law and promote freedom of religion and other universal human rights...
...Until September 11, the regime received no military aid because of its poor human rights record and an ongoing dispute with Armenia...
...At least one person was killed in protests, and security forces arrested hundreds of opposition members, many of whom were tortured, Amnesty International found...
...The Bush Administration's fondness for Nazarbayev is partly explained by the fact that U.S...
...But since Karimov has cooperated in the Afghan War and allowed the setting up of a U.S...
...While in the United States, Karimov signed five bilateral agreements with Washington...
...My wife is a school director, and on election day we both voted six times, because we had to," a driver told The New York Times...
...Air Force to use an airport in his country...
...Instead, he said, the main purpose of the visit was to thank the government for its twenty-eight-member contingent in Iraq...
...A host of former and current officials have lobbied for, and worked with, the Kazakh government, including Armitage, Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, and President Reagan's deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, according to Ken Silverstein in the Los Angeles Times...
...Do not think this is the norm, however...
...In several instances in other countries of the former Soviet Union, the Bush Administration has backed dictatorships much worse than the government of Ukraine...
...Tortured dupes are forced to sign confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the U.S...
...The Bush Administration requested $19.2 million in military aid for Turkmenistan in 2003, according to the Federation of American Scientists...
...Our common security interests, our commercial interests, and our interests in peace and prosperity will be strengthened with each length of pipe laid along this line," Bush said in a letter read aloud by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline in September 2002...
...When Kazakhstan held parliamentary elections in September and October 2004, the results left the opposition with the sum total of one member in parliament...
...Beyond Ukraine Bush Sides with Dictators By Amitabh Pal Illustration by David Plunkert In the prolonged election battle in Ukraine, the United States cast itself as the friend of freedom and self-determination...
...It was my pleasure to bring to the president the greetings of President Bush and also to extend to him our thanks for all the support we have received from Uzbekistan in pursuing this campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere throughout the world as well," Powell said during a December 2001 visit to the country...
...Islam Karimov, a complete thug, rules Uzbekistan...
...When I visited the country later in 2002, a Western diplomat characterized the U.S.-Uzbek relationship as "very good" and claimed that there had been "measurable improvement in the human rights record" in that nation, a claim refuted by the Human Rights Watch office director for the country...
...When Ilham was chosen as the prime minister shortly before the presidential elections, Bush sent him a letter of congratulations through a visiting Congressional delegation...
...Dictator Saparmurat Niyazov put on show trials in late 2002 and early 2003...
...Rumsfeld was effusive in thanking Niyazov during his visit...
...After meeting Karimov in February 2004, Rumsfeld said that U.S.Uzbek defense relations were "growing stronger every month" and that the country's human rights record was just one part of its relationship with the United States, which could not be based on a "single pillar...
...The U.S...
...In 2002, Uzbekistan received $43 million in U.S...
...Armitage tried to make amends by holding a meeting with opposition leaders during a visit in March 2004, but expressed confidence at a press conference that the human rights situation would soon get better...
...military aid...
...After the results, the European Union condemned the vote as unfair...
...All of us here today," Bush stated, "are part of a new, more promising chapter in a new, more promising history between our nations...
...Western oil companies have invested $4 billion in the country and are expected to put in $10 billion more in the coming years, according to Mother Jones...
...The jails are filled with an estimated 6,500 political prisoners, says The Guardian...
...to believe-that they and we are fighting the same war on terror," Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, stated in a document leaked to The Financial Times...
...Bush's high regard for the father was transferred to the son...
...Widespread fraud occurred...
...That's why there are no real consequences for governments in the region that violate human rights...
...rapporteur on torture, Theo van Boven, stated after a 2002 visit that torture in the country was "institutionalized, systematic, and rampant...
...Deputy Secretary of State Armitage made a phone call to Ilham shortly after the election, congratulating him on his "strong performance at the polls," according to Mother Jones...
...The Bush Administration was careful, however, to invite Karimov for afternoon tea, instead of dinner, and to avoid a press conference afterward...
...Not coinciden-tally, Armitage is a former board member and co-chair of the U.S.Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce...
...People have less freedom here than during Brezhnev," a senior Western official in Uzbekistan told The Guardian...
...In fact, it can often have the opposite effect that people intend, because you lose any ability to influence at all, at least through a military standpoint...
...It also hasn't had much of a problem with other recent elections that have been blatantly fixed...
...Portraits and statues of him are everywhere, including a revolving thirty-five-foot golden statue whose raised arms welcome the dawn and bid the sun farewell at dusk...
...The Bush Administration continued its friendship with the Ilham regime after the rigged October elections, even though not only were the elections set up, the aftermath was marked by a brutality not yet seen in Ukraine...
...The Bush Administration requested $70 million in aid for Azerbaijan in 2004, including $8 million in military aid...
...During the Clinton Administration, Heydar's attempts to bolster relations with the United States were helped along by oil companies and a luminary of go-betweens that included Jim Baker, Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as Dick Cheney and Richard Armitage...
...Rumsfeld expressed gratitude to Niyazov for his "very fine contribution with respect to humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan...
...Cheney was a member of Nazarbayev's Oil Advisory Board when he was running Halliburton...
...The member refused to take his seat in protest...
...My own view is that is very shortsighted, and it's never productive," Myers said...
...The United States has also trained Turkmen military officers under the International Military Education and Training program...
...Human rights rapporteurs sent by Europe denounced the imprisonment...
...A formal agreement commits the United States to respond to "any external threat" to Uzbekistan...
...and U.K...
...We are grateful for the strong and growing relationship we have and for the friendship and for the steadfastness of the Kazakh people," Rumsfeld said in a visit to Kazakhstan in February 2004...
...The U.N...
...Under current regulations, Bush has to turn over all his giftstothe federal government...
...Heydar, who died two months after this crowning act of nepotism, had been warmly courted by the United States since the Clinton era due to his country's oil wealth...
...The two countries signed a series of agreements...
...In Azerbaijan, a current favorite of the United States, presidential elections in October 2003 were marked by large-scale fraud...
...The country has received hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S...
...Kazakhstan is an important country in the global war on terror and has been wonderfully helpful in Iraq, and I came here to personally say 'thank you' and express our appreciation...
...But General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly disagreed with that move during an August visit to Uzbekistan...
...But Niyazov's neo-Stalinism hasn't stopped top U.S...
...The irony is that the U.S...
...This expression of a commitment to human rights by the Kazakh government did not seem to have much of an effect on its behavior...
...He added, "We have benefited greatly in our efforts in the global war on terror and in Afghanistan from the wonderful cooperation we've received from the government of Uzbekistan...
...Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Azerbaijan in December 2003, just six weeks after the elections...
...The support of President Niyazov to our efforts, and the support of the Turkmen people to the Afghan people, remain very important to our efforts," General Tommy Franks said after meeting Niyazov in August 2002...
...ambassador warned Uzbek activists early last year not to ask him "political questions," according to Harper's Magazine...
...The occasional proclamations by the United States in favor of democracy aren't taken seriously by most ruling governments in the area...
...In monarchical fashion, Heydar Aliyev handed over power to his son Ilham...
...In July, at the advice of the State Department, the United States cut some aid over human rights concerns...
...He made no mention of Niyazov's dubious humanitarian record in his own country...
...I think now we've got a pretty solid government-to-government link...
...Armitage had earlier praised Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in an April 27, 2004, speech before the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association for making his country the "most stable and prosperous Central Asian state...
...The Bush Administration made strong statements in support of" democracy and the electoral process in' the country, and denounced the initial rigged election of ruling party candidate Viktor Yanukovich...
...His face is on everything from the currency to vodka...
...A small contingent of U.S...
...aid and rent money since September 11, according to Lutz Kleveman in Amnesty Now, the Amnesty International magazine...
...The Bush Administration maintained the warm relationship with Heydar...
...In September 2003, the two nations signed a five-year cooperation plan that includes the supply of helicopters, military cargo aircraft, and ships, plus supply equipment for Kazakh troops and anti-terrorism training...
...Apart from the oil link, Azerbaijan has proven useful to the United States in other ways...
...I took the opportunity to thank the president and the people for their very fine cooperation" in the war on terror, he said, adding that the United States was "grateful and appreciative...
...The world community cannot deprive this person of the moral and physical right to stand among those who have suppressed the forces of fear and terror becoming the living symbol of his country," gushed an Uzbek government press statement released during his sojourn to the United States...
...officials from visiting Turkmenistan and courting him...
...troops has been based in Turkmenistan to refuel cargo planes for aid into Afghanistan...
...It has granted overflight rights to the United States, and has sent 159 troops to Iraq...
...The United States made no big fuss...
...The U.S...
...The country's oil revenue is put in an offshore account that only Niyazov controls...
...For a long time, it was the U.S.Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce that was the real link between our two nations," Armitage said in a 2002 speech before the organization...
...Chevron Texaco is putting in billions of dollars in Kazakhstan...
...role has been marred by weak responses to rights abuses, including those accompanying the 2003 election and its aftermath...
...Uzbekistan's neighbor Turkmenistan has the worst regime in the region-and one of the nastiest in the world...
...base in his country, he has become a crucial ally of the United States...
...Amitabh Pal is Managing Editor of The Progressive...
...Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive countries in the world," says Human Rights Watch in a 2004 report...
...officials, has lavished praise on Karimov...
...The Uzbek government made the most of Karimov being feted by the White House...
...An August 2004 report by Human Rights Watch documented a host of abuses in Kazakhstan, including the jailing of opposition figures, the suspicious death of a journalist, and harassment of nongovernmental organizations...
...He again congratulated Ilham and refused to comment on the fairness of the poll...
...Embassy, however, remained mum...
...This seemsto bethe general White House lineinthe region...
...The cooperation between our nations remains very good and, of course, I am thankful for that, as well...
...The government systematically violates virtually all civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights...
...It also participates in the NATO Partnership for Peace program...
...Back when he was governor, Bush in 1996 had made Ilham an honorary Texan for facilitating the entry of Texas-based oil companies into Azerbaijan...
...Army has provided military communication equipment to the Uzbek armed forces...
...Niyazov has renamed the months of January, April, and September after himself, his dearly departed mother, and The Book of Ruhnama, a treatise authored by Niyazov that every schoolchild has to study at least one day a week...
Vol. 69 • February 2005 • No. 2
