The Uzbek Revolution? Part 2.

The Socialist Worker (weekly organ of the Socialist Workers Party) is not by any means one of my favourite sources of news, but it does have its moments. Consider this report on the situation in Uzbekistan, which includes the follwoing remarks from outspoken former British Ambassador to the country Craig Murray:

"This line that people in Uzbekistan should protest peacefully is ridiculous. How? There’s no free media there and political parties are banned," he told Socialist Worker. "The idea that the demonstrators included Islamic terrorists is bollocks. The US hasn’t put any backing into the democratic opposition in Uzbekistan. Nor is it setting a time scale for greater democracy or calling for elections as it did in Ukraine and Georgia."

...

"I’d like a revolution to spread, but I fear it won’t," says Murray. "I spoke to people in the capital of Tashkent. Many had no idea that anything had happened. This was 48 hours after headlines across the world media."

On the same topic and in lieu of any serious anaysis of my own (again due to time constraints) I highly recommend you read this brilliant piece by Martin Samuel in The Times. As ever, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting should be one of the first ports of call for anyone hoping to find out about developments in Uzbekistan.