| In the wake of international unrest about the May 13 turmoil in Andijan, Uzbekistan, the regime of President Islam Karimov has received support from 40 thousand Bukharian Jews in New York, who emigrated from Uzbekistan en masse during the early 1990s. Prominent Bukharian community leaders have said that the United States should support Karimov in the present crisis, concerned that Muslim fundamentalists might otherwise take over the country and persecute the estimated 30,000-50,000 Jews remaining there. Since 1991 Bukharian community leaders have frequently met with Karimov and other high-ranking Uzbek officials and have consistently advocated closer ties between the United States and Uzbekistan. Rafael Nektalov, editor-in-chief of the Bukharian Times, the largest newspaper for the community told reporters in Uzbekistan last week, "Do people who call for a new regime in Uzbekistan really think those who carried out the uprising and prison break in Andijan are humanitarians who would govern democratically if they ever take power?" In another instance of disputing the figures of Andijan casualties circulating in the western media, founder and president of the American Association of Central Asian and Caucasian Countries Boris Pincus said, "I have serious doubts about the accuracy of the Western media reports. When I spoke by phone last week to the leader of the small Jewish community in Andijan, he told me that most of those killed were shot by the Islamic extremists who started the uprising, not the army." |