Brutal Soviet dictator who turned to the West
Islam Karimov 1938-2016
The Uzbekistan,first presidentIslam Karimovof ruledwith an his iron landlockedfist for 25 country years. By maintaining his tight grip on power, he spared the mainly Muslim country the instability that rocked many of its neighbours, said The Washington Post; and in Moscow and the West, he was often regarded as a useful bulwark against radical Islam. But he disdained democratic principles, brutally suppressed dissent, and stifled the press; and while reports that he had political prisoners boiled alive have never been substantiated, he made no secret of the lengths to which he would go to retain control. In a televised address about the threat of Islamic extremism, he once warned: “I’m prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people… in order to save peace and calm in the republic.”
Born in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand in 1938, and – according to some accounts – raised in a Soviet orphanage, Karimov trained as an engineer, before going into politics and rising up the communist ranks, said The Guardian. By 1989, he had become president of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. After being elected president of his newly independent country in 1991, however, he began to turn towards the West – while continuing to use Soviet methods of government. And, in the aftermath of 9/11 in particular, he received a friendly reception, despite repeated warnings (from the British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, among others) about his appalling human rights abuses. Relations, however, began to deteriorate after 2005, when Europe and the US imposed sanctions in response to the massacre of hundreds of anti-government protesters in the Uzbek town of Andijan. Karimov responded by expelling American forces from a military base in the country that had served as a useful point in the supply line to US troops in Afghanistan – and the Americans then began building bridges again.
In 2014, Karimov made headlines when it was reported that he’d had a major falling out with his elder daughter and mooted successor, Gulnara. He accused her of accepting $1bn in bribes from foreign businesses, reportedly beat her up in a fit of rage, and placed her under house arrest. He himself is thought to have been in declining health for some time, but with no successor in place, news of his final illness was suppressed, and it is not clear exactly when he died.