Karimov blames Hizb ut-Tahrir for the violence (file photo) For the second time this year, Uzbekistan was the target of suicide bombers. The 30 July attacks targeted the U.S. and Israeli embassies as well as the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office. Seven people were killed, including the three bombers. Uzbek authorities, who have long warned of the threat of rising extremism, were quick to blame the attacks on members of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. But analysts reject the Uzbek officials' view, saying the group has never been linked to any acts of violence.
Scene of one of the March-April bombings in Tashkent (file photo) 2 August 2004 -- The trial of 15 people accused of involvement in attacks in the Uzbek capital Tashkent and the western city of Bukhara in late March-early April was adjourned today in the wake of bomb attacks in Tashkent on 30 July.
2 August 2004 -- The Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir today denied any responsibility for the 30 July suicide bomb attacks in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.
There's been international condemnation of a series of suicide bomb attacks that hit the Uzbek capital Tashkent yesterday. Three people have now died as a result of the blasts, which targeted the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the state prosecutor's office. But it's still unclear who carried out the explosions.
30 July 2004 -- Three suicide bombers attacked the U.S. Embassy, the Israeli Embassy, and the Prosecutor-General's Office in the Uzbek capital Tashkent today. At least two people are reported to have been killed -- not including the suicide bombers -- and nine others wounded, two seriously.
27 July 2004 -- Uzbekistan's government yesterday put on trial the first 15 suspects allegedly involved in a series of attacks earlier this year that killed 47 people.
The trial of 15 people accused of complicity in the violence in Uzbekistan in late March and early April started yesterday in Tashkent. The conduct of the trial is already following a pattern made familiar in previous court cases dealing with alleged Islamic radicals. Those cases were used to justify the government's continued crackdown on what it called religious extremism.
24 July 2004 -- Uzbekistan's Prosecutor-General's Office announced yesterday it has finished investigating a series of militant attacks that killed 47 people in March and April, and will start trying the first group of 15 suspects next week.
Central Asia is a region where few dare challenge the will of the presidents. Most officials follow their president's lead, and what attempts there are to find an official to act as a bridge, a mediator, between the people and the government are usually made to serve the interests of the authorities. But there is one man, the ombudsman in Kyrgyzstan, who routinely voices opinions that contradict the government's views.
Did President Karimov expect Washington's move? On the evening of 13 July, the U.S. State Department announced in a press release that Uzbekistan has failed to meet its reform and human-rights commitments under the two countries' 2002 Strategic Partnership Framework. The decision, which effectively freezes up to $18 million in fiscal year 2004 military and economic aid, garnered approving comments from the human-rights community and set off considerable speculation among observers about the future of U.S.-Uzbek relations. But it also touches on the larger question of the clashing priorities that pervade Western engagement with the "tough cases" of Central Asia.
Tashkent, 21 July 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The unregistered Uzbek opposition Free Peasants Party (Ozod Dehkonlar Partiyasi) released a statement today criticizing registered parties in the country that are calling themselves "opposition" parties.
Almaty, 16 July 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. assistant secretary of state for Eurasian Affairs, Elizabeth Jones, said today that Uzbekistan needs to make faster progress in its reforms.
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