Hard-Line Moderates and Freedom-Loving Totalitarians

Clashing oxymorons continue to define Central Asian politics.

Rebels today stormed government buildings in the provincial Uzbek city of Andijan (aka Andizhan). Reuters reports that 50 rebels were killed fighting police and government troops, whose bullets finally scattered the crowd of thousands of protesters.

This seems distinctly like overflow from the popular Kyrgyz coup earlier this year. The West's path is far from clear in this area. We cannot ignore the conflicts in this strategic region, but neither is there a side that the U.S. can safely take. President Islam Karimov, who took this so seriously that he actually went to Andijan today to negotiate with the rebels, is no Jeffersonian democrat, but he keeps the peace. On the other side, the rebels pitch themselves as democrats, but have better credentials as hard-line Islamists. So far the Great Powers have taken the correct approach: better the devil that I know than the devil I don't. However, their influence is not decisive: even Russia was powerless to keep Askar Abayev in power in Kyrgyzstan. Thus, it would be unwise to get too close to Karimov or any of the others, lest we lose our chances of accommodating a revolutionary government. For now, we just have to hold our breath and pray for peace.