State Violence and Popular Resistance in Uzbekistan

Abstract

The violent crackdown of a large demonstration by government forces in Uzbekistan in May 2005 spurred many controversies. The government tried to legitimate its actions by insisting that it had acted against radical Islamists and terrorists, but other sources claimed that unarmed civilians, including children, were massacred. Although tragic, it should be stressed that the events did not represent a break with the past. Rather, they should be read as part of an on-going struggle between popular forms of resistance and state articulation of a discourse of terrorism.