The outbreak of violence in Uzbekistan will be watched anxiously in capitals as far away as Moscow, London and Washington. Precise details of the events which led to the killing of protesters by Uzbek troops and the exact number killed are still sketchy but that is to be expected in a country whose government practises extreme repression and which has no regard for freedom of expression or a free press.
What is known is that Uzbek troops shot dead hundreds of protesters in the eastern city of Andijan when they took refuge in a local administration building. The government lost no time in blaming Islamic insurgents for violent insurrection and promptly banned journalists and diplomats from visiting the area.
Uzbekistan does have a terrorist problem. There have been bombings which the government says were carried out by an Islamic group, Hizb-ut Tahrir. This is denied by the group which has argued that it is seeking the peaceful creation of an Islamic society. But nevertheless the government has imprisoned at least 6,000 people and engaged in widespread torture. The weekend killings however, involved a separate Muslim group, Akramiya, which prides itself on being moderate and is more concerned with economic reform. It was the arrest of 23 members of Akramiya which led to the fateful protest.
There is considerable evidence however, that the protest had its origins in years of frustration over growing corruption and the widening gap between the Uzbek governing elite and the rest of the population. The country is comparatively wealthy with large, valuable deposits of oil and gas but corruption and mismanagement mean that poverty is on the increase.
The Uzbek people are afflicted with a president, Islam Karimov, a former communist leader, whose approach to government is unashamedly Stalinist. He was, no doubt, troubled by the toppling two months ago of President Akayev in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and the success of democracy in Georgia and Ukraine, and he is determined to brutally clamp down on any dissent.
Mr Karimov's tyrannical rule will be unchallenged by Moscow but the killings will make it an acid test for the US administration. Mr Bush has never criticised Mr Karimov's government, mindful as he is of the very useful US military base in the country, not to mention its strategically-important energy resources. But the White House, along with other western governments, can ignore it no longer and must put pressure on Mr Karimov to let his people enjoy the freedom and prosperity that is their right.