The trial of the 15 Andijon “terrorists” is underway, and the results are all too predictable. The defendants are admitting complete guilt, straight down the government line. Nathan is rounding up all the coverage of the trials, and describes it as, “a parade of confessions confirming every last detail of the Uzbek government????????s paranoid fantasies.” RFE/RL digs down deep into what this all means, saying that it is just the continuation of years of well-established pattern. It’s really something completely out of 1984, a compelling article to say the least, though it shouldn’t come as any surprise.

Prague, 21 September 2005 (RFE/RL) — The terrorism trial that opened in Tashkent yesterday is the first of several in connection with last May’s violence in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon. More than 100 people are still being held awaiting their trial date.

Terrorism trials in Uzbekistan have followed a regular pattern since the first such trials started in 1999 after bombings in Tashkent. They include trials related to the incursions by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 1999 and 2000, and the attacks in Bukhara and Tashkent in 2004.”In these serious terrorism trials you also often find that the lawyers for the defendants insist upon their clients guilt, or simply go throughout the entire process silent rather than launching any kind of robust defense for their clients.”

One person who has attended many of the trials is Acacia Shields, the senior researcher on Central Asia for the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch. She said yesterday’s proceedings followed a standard format.

“This is really the launching event for not only a series of show trials, but the entire Uzbek government propaganda campaign which is an effort by the Uzbek government to rewrite the events that took place in Andijon in May,” she said.

Make sure to read the rest of the article. It notes that the confessions — obviously given after coercion and torture — line up with exactly what the Uzbek government has been saying. Everything from insane plots to terrorist training in Kyrgyzstan. And, of course, that’s all bull.

The U.S. government, after being served its eviction notice for the airbase when it started criticizing Karimov, is sending a team to confront Karimov about a range of issues. It seems timed specifically to coincide with the beginning of these trials.

Amid new tensions with a key ally in the war on terrorism, the Bush administration is dispatching a high-level team to Uzbekistan tomorrow to lay out concerns on an array of political and regional security issues. The team, which will include senior officials from the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council, is scheduled to meet President Islam Karimov on Tuesday, U.S. officials said.

One of the officials said the delegation plans to express ???????grave concern??????? about human rights violations. ???????This is a difficult trip, but someone has to talk to the man,??????? the official said.

Beside what happened in Andijon, I’m sure that the delegation will discuss the huge political rivalry that’s developed between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in light of the refugees taken in from the massacre. Having recently undergone revolution and established what seems to be a fairly better government, the U.S. is working to make sure that it has the most stable atmosphere to develop, while isolating the Uzbek government. The problem there is that Russia and China have more influence in the region than the United States and have been actively working to halt the west’s own influence there.