John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Sununu (R-NH) traveled to Uzbekistan, met with four main opposition parties (presumedly Birlik, Erk, Ozod Dekhkonlar and another), and delivered a statement condeming the May 13 attacks and demanding an international probe into the actions of the Uzbekistan government.

However, no Uzbekistan officials met with the senators, Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov declared that he would “investigate” the charges and police began another crackdown over the weekend. Karimov’s blaming of the attacks on Islamic extremists will only cause further problems, as it will licence further religious and political oppression.

The Andijan massacre is having effects elsewhere throughout Central Asia: Kazakhstan is re-examining its domestic policies, Afghanistan is protects refugees from having to return to Uzbekistan.

With Washington trapped between the geostrategic necessity of its military bases (thus supporting the Karimov regime) and its commitment to democracy and human rights (supporting the opposition), will Uzbekistan’s “second transition” deliver the country into a civil war?

Beijing “firmly” backs Islam Karimov’s repression of anti-government demonstrators in Andijan. This is nothing new in a country where the president can get away with anything by blaming opposition on an extremist group. The United States, which considers Uzbekistan a strategic ally, has maintained a strong connection, particularly by using it to imprison terrorism suspects and providing aid in exchange for using a base. If Bush seeks freedom in Iraq, isn’t it a little hypocritical to ignore Uzbekistan?

Don’t worry, I’ll be quite some distance from the area.

The project begins. You can follow along with the action if I have Internet access and am not too much of a slacker. Feel free to register and comment.

Sorry about all of the hyperlinks. They are for all of the link junkies who love to track things to the source and all of the bookmarking packrats who collect interesting tidbits from the Internet.

If you want to keep up with the news, here are a few places to start.

I will be studying American democracy promotion programs in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Dushanbe, Tajikistan and Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Democracy is a relatively new concept in Central Asian republics, which in 1991 suddenly became independent of Soviet authority. Nevertheless, Mongolia has been able to develop a relatively open system, while Kyrgyzstan, initially the great democratic hope of Central Asia, slid into authoritarianism and Tajikistan fell into a civil war.

Yes, I am going to Central Asia. Why? Because it’s an interesting area that I think will offer interesting insight into the on-the-ground effect of American democratization efforts.

As Ukraine demonstrated, democracy - clean elections, transparency, civil liberties - matters.

If you want to get a better sense of the region, here are a few country-specific links:
Tajikistan, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.