No democracy, coz the outcome would be Islamists!

After President Islam Karimov's American-trained crack troops massacred an estimated 500 people on the streets of Andizhan, the Uzbek leader insisted that the victims were Islamic terrorists. They were not. But the real danger is now that Islamic extremists, rather than democratic forces, will exploit the power vacuum.

Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were a forgotten corner of the world. Their leaders and regimes had barely changed since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and they had refused to carry out desperately needed reforms.

The US and Europe had little incentive to support democratic change in the region. Instead, the Pentagon established close relations with Uzbekistan in 1998, funding and training Uzbek troops to deal with Islamic extremists.

The CIA and MI6 followed suit, helping to train and re-organise the Uzbek security services which are notorious for torture. After September 2001 the US leased military bases from Mr Karimov while Uzbekistan became one of 10 countries where the CIA has ''rendered'' dozens of al-Qa'eda suspects in the full knowledge that they would be abused thoroughly without any intervention of any kind of HRW.

At the end of January 2005 Mr Karimov issued a warning to Western ambassadors in Tashkent that he would use ''necessary force" to stamp out any democratic unrest in Uzbekistan. Still there was no significant change of policy in London or Washington.

Mr Karimov's repressive system has ensured that all democratic parties are banned. Unlike in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where there was an organised democratic opposition, one has had democracy training in Uzbekistan.

Nevertheless, the armed group that first attacked the jail in Andizhan were not extremists but relatives of 23 businessmen and traders on trial for their lives. The 23 were the first to be freed in the jail break and from then on the movement became a local popular uprising.

Meanwhile in Tashkent, Mr Karimov is rumoured to be extremely ill. But Western policies have ensured that even if he were toppled by an internal power struggle, his replacement would only be another dictator.

So, this world is indeed going to dogs. Let's see where this mass hypocrisy on the part of "World super powers" leads us al, especially the Muslims.