Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) with US troops in IraqA November 18th press release from the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, chaired by Sam Brownback (R-KS) announced:
Commissioners of the U.S. Helsinki Commission strongly condemned the outcome of the trial of 15 men in Uzbekistan for the outbreak of unrest in the city of Andijan. The verdicts, which were announced on November 14th, found the men guilty of trying to oust the Uzbek Government and set up an Islamic state.I don't like to get into an argument with a Senator from Kansas (I worked on the public broadcasting issue with Bob Dole), but Brownback is off base here. There is indeed some evidence that the US may have been involved with terrorists in Uzbekistan, directly or indirectly through NGOs.
“The Uzbek Government, after blocking international investigation of the bloody events in Andijan, set up a kangaroo court and expects the world to accept the verdict,” said Commission Chairman Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). “It is especially telling that official Uzbek sources have accused the United States of involvement in terrorism. Regrettably, the Uzbek Government seems determined to isolate itself from the Western world.”
For example: America facilitated the move of Andijan suspects out of the country, providing safe havens in Romania following the violence; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviewed the Andijan guerrillas' leader Qobiljon Parpiev, who has called for continued violence in Uzbekistan; and at the CSCE Washington, DC hearing on June 29th, a representative from International Crisis Group said that the organization worked with Akriyama in Uzbekistan. Another witness, Marcus Bensmann, appears to have misled CSCE when he testified that he heard no chant of "Allahu Akbar" during the Andijan violence. Bensmann may have missed it, but the BBC captured it on tape--and such a cry from the crowd during violence is obvious evidence of an Islamist link, which unfortunately supports the Uzbek government's contention that the perpetrators of the Andijan violence had the goal of establishing an Islamic state.
Notably, Senator Brownback's CSCE panel did not hear testimony about her investigation of the Andijan events from Dr. Shirin Akiner on June 29th. Therefore, the CSCE's own record is partial and incomplete at this stage. More information is needed about Andijan before the US Congress can take any reasonable position vis-a-vis Uzbekistan.
Contrary to the CSCE press release, no international investigation is necessary for the US Government to issue its own report. The US doesn't need a "permission slip" to find out what happened. If they really want to know what happened, Senator Brownback as well as Congressmen Cardin and Smith might ask the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation to determine whether US taxpayer funds may have found their way into the hands of terrorists or terrorist supporters in Andijan. If the GAO finds that no US-supported individuals or organizations were involved in any way before, during, or after Andijan, it would disprove the Uzbek government's charges. If not, the GAO has an obligation to let the chips fall where they may--and Brownback, Smith, and Cardin will be better able to determine what steps need to be taken.
Such a GAO investigation, following the money going from the US to Uzbekistan, might answer remaining questions about what happened in Andijan in an objective and dispassionate fashion that could provide an alternative strategy to the escalating war of words between Washington and Tashkent--and provide a basis to reduce Uzbekistan's isolation from the Western world.
