| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Uzbek ex-minister on trial for "personal contacts" with Bush administration |
| 2006-05-24 |
| Trial of Kadyr Guljamov, ex-Defense Minister and former Presidential Advisor, began on May 22 as Ferghana.Ru news agency duly reported. The bill of indictment includes eight points. Some charges pressed against Guljamov have to do with the military base of the counter-terrorism coalition in Khanabad. Others are connected with trials of former officers of the Defense Ministry, judged, convicted, and imprisoned in 2003-2005. Guljamov was relieved of his duties to become Presidential Advisor in November 2005. According to what information this news agency has compiled, Guljamov was undone by a cable from US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Forwarded to Guljamov several days after his resignation as the Defense Minister, the cable from his counterpart played a mean joke on Guljamov. The Presidential Advisor was sacked, criminal charges were pressed against him. The message was just a courtesy, it did not contain anything beyond protocol phrases, much less anything incriminating. Rumsfeld thanked Guljamov for having been so cooperative in military-technical matters and praised the addressee for his contributions to the global war on terrorism and advancement of cooperation between the United States and Uzbekistan. Despite the "current difficulties" in the relations between George W. Bush's Administration and the leadership of Uzbekistan which Rumsfeld was sure would pass, "mutually rewarding and promising contacts on personal level will be appreciated," Rumsfeld wrote. Ironically, the cable never reached Guljamov himself. It ended in the hands of his successor Ruslan Mirzayev, former Secretary of the National Security Council who phoned the President right away. Forty minutes later, Rumsfeld's letter was in Islam Karimov's anteroom. A few words are needed here on President Karimov's disposition towards contacts between his subjects and the US Administration. (It is needed for a better understanding of the chain of cause and effect that followed.) Shortly speaking, Karimov is prone to outbursts of rage whenever informed of any such contacts. When the armed rebellion in Andijan was crushed and America was horrified by brutality of the government troops, Karimov became obsessed with the idea that the US Administration may orchestrate his physical extermination - at whatever cost. If the US Administration really intends it or not is anybody's guess. Nobody will ever say anything definite on the subject, at least in public. One thing is clear - that Karimov is not exactly the best favored politician for the West. Which is far from saying that he is the least favored, that is. It is common knowledge that the West remembers the zest with which the President of Uzbekistan once promoted American interests in his own country. How he had the Russian language and Russian equipment and machinery turned out in order to make American and European investors welcome. It is only recently that Islam Karimov began castigating performance of US-made Caterpillars in gold mines and extolling BelAZ vehicles. It was the other way round 15 years ago. The situation in Uzbekistan nowadays is polar to what it was only 3 or 4 years ago. America is number one enemy now, American democracy filth the amoral Yankees are forcing on the world. Uzbek newspapers regularly feature articles with which the Uzbek authorities hope to brainwash the population into thinking that the United States is out to turn Uzbekistan into its own warehouse of mineral resources and make the local authorities Washington's puppets. The situation being what it is, Rumsfeld's hints suggesting even a hypothetical possibility of contacts with the former Defense Minister could not help making Karimov wary. Ever cunning and farseeing, Karimov has never hesitated to move against whoever he thinks may aspire for presidency even in theory. On this occasion, Karimov perceived in physicist Guljamov a rival he has somehow missed before. Karimov chose to interpret appearance of a purely protocol cable to Guljamov as a confirmation of his friendship with the American authorities. Some observers point out that Rumsfeld would have never exposed any such contacts, close and clandestine, in an official letter. Unless the Americans did so deliberately, of course, just to make problems for the ex-Defense Minister. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 Ever cunning and farseeing Think I saw that on an OER once.... |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-24 16:17 |
| #1 Why do the mentally ill aways make it to the top in ein-hell-holes? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-05-24 12:52 |