SHANNON, May 16: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday called for political reform in Uzbekistan. Ms Rice’s comments about Washington’s ally in its ‘war on Terrorism’ were the strongest from the United States after Friday’s bloodbath in the town of Andizhan, where troops fired at protesters, killing 500 people according to some estimates.

“We have been encouraging the Karimov government to make reforms, to make the system more open, to make it possible for people to have a political life,” said Ms Rice, who spoke to reporters as she flew home after her trip to Iraq. “And this is a country that needs, in a sense, pressure valves that come from a more open political system.”

Ms Rice said Uzbekistan, where autocratic President Islam Karimov has ruled since Soviet times, had a political system that was ‘too closed’. She said details about last week’s events were still unclear, but the main priority now was to avoid further violence and assist refugees.

“But this kind of problem is also going to be helped if you can get a more open political system in Uzbekistan,” she said. Uzbekistan became an important US ally when Washington invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and now hosts a major US air base.

But the ex-Soviet state, where only state-sponsored Islam is tolerated, has repeatedly been criticized by human rights groups for jailing dissident Muslims and using torture. Ms Rice’s comments followed criticism from the European Union, which said the protests came as a result of the government’s failure to respect human rights and the rule of law. —Reuters