SYMPTOMATIC ARTICLE

Pravda Vostoka, the foremost Uzbek newspaper, ran an article titled "In Defense Of Uzbek People's National Sovereignty", yesterday. Judging by it, what happened is Andizhan was "a rebellion of several hundred of local mercenaries and dozens of foreign gunmen who joined them", Kyrgyz Ombudsman Tursunbai Bakir uluu is a scumbag, officials of Ferghana.Ru news agency are ever ready "to sell their own mothers for 30 pieces of silver", and Uzbek people will "repel the forces eager to destroy Uzbekistan and their representatives abroad." Ferghana.Ru already wrote that the tone of Uzbek newspapers nowadays reminded it of the era of Stalin's repressions. Here are several fragments from the article.

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IN DEFENSE OF UZBEK PEOPLE'S NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, Pravda Voctoka, May 25, 2005, http://www.pv.uz

The people of Uzbekistan is in a difficult period of its history now, in the wake of the tragic events in Andizhan and deaths that occurred in the rebellion incited by local religious zealots and their foreign sponsors. What really hurts is that ordinary residents of Andizhan fell victim of the lies spread by the individuals eager to incite terrorism all over the country.

Internet-users know Ferghana.Ru news agency, the outfit whose editorial policy was quite objective and well-balanced until the middle of 2004 or so. In the course of the March events in Kyrgyzstan, however, Ferghana.Ru energetically covered the rebellion in the southern part of the country, its local correspondents enabling it to come up practically every hour with provocational information directed against the authorities. Ferghana.Ru provided informational cover for the rebellions in Dzhalalabad and Osh.

It seems that the growing animosity with regard to the Republic of Uzbekistan and the speed with which information was released are what the new agency's "sponsors" from the Soros Foundation demanded in return for another installment. As for Chief Editor D. Kislov and the so called correspondents in Uzbekistan A. Kudryashov and A. Volosevich, they would not balk at selling their own mothers for 30 pieces of silver. Money does not have any odor even when it is dipped in the blood of the innocents whose deaths may be blamed to a certain extent on these "advocates of the freedom of speech" too.

Here are some examples. "Special correspondent" Volosevich was in Andizhan since May 11. Just happened to be there? On a hunch? This professional agent provocateur deliberately reported "50,000 protesters at the rally in front of the regional administration, and the people are still coming." This "correspondent's" estimate went down to "over 10,000 people" by noon and to 2,000 by May 13 evening. Which of the reports was correct?

Uzbek office of the London Institute of War and Peace was an even more energetic provocateur in these tragic days. Local mercenaries represented by notorious Galina Bukharbayeva made their "reports" from the den of gunmen, just like Yelena Masyuk of NTV back in 1995 and 1996 when she had openly admired Chechen ringleader Shamil Basayev. Bukharbayeva, Director of the Tashkent Bureau of the Institute, wrote without compunctions that "city center is controlled by energetic young men. They formed detachments of volunteers, real and organized power structures. They manage traffic, pointing infrequent vehicles in city center into the correct direction." What real and organized power structures did Bukharbayeva mean? It seems that she should have spent some time in Afghanistan under the Talib rule. That would have taught her all "advantages" of life under the Medieval Shar'ah law.

Moreover, Bukharbayeva even called "opposition leaders" the gunmen guilty of the deaths of dozens of innocents. According to this so called journalist, "the Uzbeks brandishing automatic rifles" who had seized the municipal khokimijat [administration] were "ordinary citizens, certainly not Islamic zealots." What kind of citizens these scumbags were the whole world discovered from the interview with one B. Rakhimov who openly said on the air of NTV, BBC, and CNN on May 18 that he and others had intended "to establish an Islamic caliphate".

It should be noted as well that personnel of this "Institute of Instigation of Wars" that includes a dozen more of Bukharbayeva's likes is involved in an undisguised informational war on our country nowadays. How much longer will we tolerate their innuendo and provocations? Time to close the outfit and send this whole journalistic bunch to some other country to look for "war and peace" there. It will not hurt to show on TV screens photos of the journalists (and give their names) who use people's blood and deaths for cheap mileage. Let the people know them by face.

We are convinced that the Uzbek people and all other peoples of our multi-ethnic Motherland will retain their unity and repel the forces eager to destroy Uzbekistan and their representatives abroad..