Senators Bill Frist and Richard Lugar have taken the initiative in Congress and presented a resolution calling for the fair treatment of Sanjar Umarov, the Uzbek opposition politician who has presented the most reasonable challenge to President Karimov so far. He was detained in late October. Here’s the text of the resolution.

The resolution prompted the White House to issue a similar statement of support for Umarov and condemnation of the Karimov government.

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – The United States issued a sharp rebuke to the Uzbek government on Wednesday over the arrest of opposition leader Sanjar Umarov and demanded to know more about the dissident’s case and his medical condition.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he had seen reports about the arrest of Umarov and his alleged mistreatment by the Uzbek authorities.

“The very fact of these reports is deeply troubling,” said McCormack.

Uzbek prosecutors arrested Umarov, an oil and cotton businessman who chairs the opposition Sunshine Coalition, on Oct. 22 on charges of embezzlement.

McCormack said the U.S. ambassador had asked the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more details and to “get the ground truth on the issue.”

“We’re going to continue to press it. And certainly the fact of other sort of violent, repressive behaviors on the part of the Uzbek government in the form of the Andizhan incident gives us greater pause when we hear this kind of report, which we do take seriously,” he added.

I think it just goes to show that the United States is taking the initiative on important human rights issues. Russia on the other hand, by continuing to support the Karimov government in its inability to rule on all counts, is likely to deepen resentment by everyday Uzbeks against Moscow. While the United States has nowhere near as much influence over Uzbekistan as Russia does, the people there realize the negative impact of that power and continuing support. If and when there is a popular revolt that topples the government there, part of this anger will be directed toward Russia, as it has been in other countries that have experienced such revolutions.