LAST WEEKEND MARKED the first anniversary of the horrific events at Andijan in Uzbekistan, a market town in the Ferghana Valley near the border with Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. There, a year ago, a protest by local folk against the antidemocratic policies of Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov–a classic post-Communist who remains a totalitarian in his methods–was met with bloody repression. The armed forces of the Uzbek state killed hundreds of people, chasing and slaying those who fled from the massacre.

In the aftermath, the Uzbek authorities argued that the victims were Muslim extremists, followers of the Wahhabi cult financed by Saudi Arabia, and associates of a marginal radical-Islamist movement called Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT). As a close observer of the Uzbek scene, I was convinced then, and remain convinced now, that such claims are mere spin being used by the dictatorship to justify its atrocities.