Interesting why Bush isn't calling for Democracy in Uzbeksitan.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/394/
Dozens Killed as Soldiers Fire on Protesters in Uzbekistan
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-051305uzbek_wr,0,5557063.story?coll=la-home-headlin
es
From Associated Press
ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan -- One after another, men and women took the makeshift podium and shared their anger about unemployment and living in poverty. Many of the thousands of demonstrators crowding the city square cried -- it was their first public forum in many years in this tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Suddenly, an armored personnel carrier sped by. Immediately afterward came a truck of soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, Kalashnikov rifles across their chests. When a second truck with troops drove through, protesters hurled stones -- and the troops opened fire into the crowd.
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Oil and Democracy Don't Mix
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/394/
Bush administration policies guarantee a constant flow, no matter what the human cost
By Frida Berrigan
An Iraqi man covers his face as smoke rises from a blast at a key oil pipeline in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji.
At a 1996 energy conference in New Orleans, Dick Cheney, then CEO of Halliburton said, "The problem is that the good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas reserves where there are democratic governments."
Laying the blame on the divine is a stretch, but it seems that the vice president is right: democracy and oil do not mix. Just look at the United States' top 10 oil suppliers. Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are repressive regimes with deplorable human rights records. Mexico and Venezuela, while democracies, are marked by instability, inequality and civil strife. Iraq remains at war and under occupation. Only Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom are fully functioning democracies.
Why don't oil and democracy mix? At least part of the answer can be found in Washington's policy of providing military aid and training to leaders who guarantee an uninterrupted flow of oil, defending it against all threats--even those coming from their own citizens.
Since the beginning of the war on terrorism in 2001, the United States' top 10 sources of oil imports have experienced a 350 percent increase in U.S. military aid and training. In 2003, the United States plans to provide these countries with $58 million in military assistance. In fiscal year 2001, their military assistance totaled $12.2 million.
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Update
BBC had reported on the peaceful protest that has now become "violent stand-off"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4540041.stm
Human Rights watch profile of Karimov:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/03/karimovprof.htm