From Sunday’s Washington Post:

“Forget President Bush’s ‘axis of evil.’ Who are the overlooked autocrats we should be paying attention to but aren’t? Outlook asked people in the know for their nominations:”

Islam Karimov, President, Uzbekistan

Karimov’s acts of barbarism in the name of security are infamous. By some accounts, he has had his victims boiled alive and had others tortured with beatings, electric shock, asphyxiation, rape and burns. Having come to power as a Communist Party official in the former Soviet Union, he has ruled since the collapse of the USSR through a series of suspect elections. He won the presidency with 86 percent of the vote in 1991 and extended his mandate in 2000 with 91.9 percent of the vote.

– Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Saparmurad Niyazov, President, Turkmenistan

Also known as “Turkmenbashi,” Niyazov has been his country’s absolute ruler for the past 20 years. The worst features of the Soviet totalitarian system are preserved in Turkmenistan: a gulag of penal colonies; the confinement of dissenters in psychiatric hospitals; show trials; and refusal to permit dissenters to leave the country. Within the country, Niyazov is hailed as a national prophet, and his book, “The Ruhnama,” is treated as a sacred text. Though Turkmenistan derives vast revenue from its natural gas reserves, its population of 5 to 6 million is impoverished, education is severely restricted and even reports on infectious diseases are prohibited.

– Aryeh Neier, President, Open Society Institute

Also see the main article.

Although I’m currently in the thick of the post-college job search, I think I’d draw the line here. Is Freedom House serious about this?

This Project includes facilitation of anti-torture coalition building, disseminating and implementing recommendations of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, and training local activists in torture documentation and prevention.

Huge hat tip to the Daily Show for its coverage of the 2006 Olympic Opening Ceremonies (clip). One of the oddities that Jon Stewart mentioned was the questionable selection of music (here’s the most complete list I could find). Notably among Central Asia, Mongolia got “Video Killed the Radio Star” and Uzbekistan paraded in to “Disco Inferno,” (by the Trammps, not 50 Cent) a faux pas eclipsed only by the use of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstand” to introduce Denmark. Not mentioned on the show, Azerbaijan got “I Will Survive” and Tajikistan Van Halen’s “Jump.”

Sorry for not blogging in a long time - I’ve been digging my way out from beneath a pile of books and articles on democracy and transitions theory - Dahl, Rawls, Lipset, Schumpeter, etc. I’ll throw some text on the grill later this week (hopefully).

And now for the news:

In PARADE Magazine’s annual 10 Worst Dictators listed Islam Karimov as the world’s fifth-worst dictator. What propelled him from fifteenth was Andijan, although expelling the American military from the Karshi-Khanabad air base probably didn’t help. Niyazov scored eighth, the same as 2005 and 2004. However, as the article notes, the list is getting steadily worse, and maintaining the same position actually indicates a downward trend.

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.