HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Uzbek Leader Chides West, Defends Firm Rule in Vote
By Dmitry SolovyovTASHKENT (Reuters) - Uzbek President Islam Karimov, voting in a referendum to extend the presidential term of office, chided the West on Sunday for demanding too much democracy too quickly in his Central Asian state.
Karimov, a 63-year-old former Communist party boss, has enthusiastically embraced the U.S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban in next-door Afghanistan and allowed the deployment of at least 1,500 U.S. troops at Uzbekistan's Khanabad airbase.
But hosting U.S. troops has not spared him harsh Western criticism for cracking down on the opposition and putting on hold economic reforms in his nation of 25 million.
"At a certain stage of historic change in your country, you need a strong will and a certain figure," Karimov said after casting his ballot. "And you have to use some authoritarian methods at times."
"Nobody should press us into moving too quickly," he said. "We must take (from the West) only what suits us, keeping in mind thousands of years of history and our national mentality."
The referendum asks voters to say "yes" or "no" to extending the president's five-year term to seven years. Though Karimov's name is not on the ballot paper, the West has criticized the poll as a ploy to prolong his stay in power.
Karimov's current second term, which constitutionally must be his last, expires in 2005 but an official hinted on Friday the constitution might be amended after the vote to allow Karimov to run for a third term.
Quizzed by reporters, Karimov said he would comment on a new term in office only after completing the current one.
More than 13 million people are eligible to vote. A Central Election Commission spokesman said the poll was already valid as over 80 percent of voters had turned out by late afternoon.
VOTERS LIKE "STABILITY"
With the opposition muzzled, the free press banned and thousands of opponents in prison, many view the referendum as a political routine act similar to sham Soviet-era polls. But many voters also hailed Karimov as a source of stability.
"I have just voted to prolong President Karimov's term in office by two years," retired school teacher Klara Shakarova told Reuters after voting at a station in central Tashkent.
"Just look at the map of the world -- we must be the only country living in peace. Many thanks to our leader for this."
Those voting in favor need only drop the papers in a ballot box, while those opposed must mark their choice in an adjacent booth in the same manner as Soviet-era elections.
Officials say monitors from 32 countries would attend the vote, including many ex-Soviet states.
But the United States said it would send no observers as previous votes had been "neither free nor fair." Human Rights Watch described the referendum as "a blatant grab for power."
A 1995 referendum, staged when Karimov was part-way through his first five-year term, extended his mandate to 2000.
Karimov, in power almost without interruption since taking over as the communist boss in 1989, overwhelmingly won a second term in January 2000 in a poll largely ignored by international observers who said there was no chance of a genuine contest.
Copyright 2001 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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