Trials and Tribulations, Part 2.

The trial of the 15 men accused by the Uzbek government of orchestrating violence in the eastern town of Andijan in May has entered its second week. As I've noted previously the defendants have "confessed" to all the charges, but not because they've been tortured. (Why would anybody even suggest such a thing?!) The trial has taken an intriguing turn, however, with two of the defendants implicating the US in the alleged "plot". This is particularly interesting because it has been suggested that Tavalbek Khozhiyev/Tavakalbek Hojiev, who claimed that the US had financially supported the uprising, isn't a real person, which would seem to detract from his credibility somewhat.

Credibility would have seemed to be something the trial lacked from day one, but inspite of this the Uzbek government have made much in official propaganda of the openess of the trial to journalists, diplomats, international organisations and human rights advocates. In reality they've been less than keen on allowing local human rights activist Surat Ikramov to attend the trial despite his name being on a list of monitors provided to authorities by Human Rights Watch. Further, an article on Ferghana.ru suggests that only handpicked journalists have been allowed into the trial. The article also alleges that an unspecified number of human rights advocates had been detained outside the Supreme Court, loaded onto buses and driven away. Their colleagues suggest that the detainees were either placed under house arrrest or confined in mental hospitals.

You have to wonder how much longer all this nonsense can go on for. Perhaps Karimov is trying to bore his people into submission? I'm probably giving him too much credit. I bet he actually believes this crap.