OlehGirl.com
2000 civilians murdered; 400,000 Uzbekis flee for their lives –where is the outcry on their behalf?
The United Nations estimated that at least 400,000 ethnic Uzbekis fled their homes from fear of the deadly riots taking place against ethnic minorities in Kyrgyzstan. The interim president of Kyrgyzstan announced Sunday that approximately 2,000 people were killed thus far, pulled from their homes and murdered in the streets. The majority of the dead are women and children. None of those killed were engaged in any sort of armed uprising, nor indeed had any means of defending themselves from the murderous mobs that set upon them.
It is likely the entire but tiny 1200 member Jewish community in Kyrgyzstan will seek refuge in Israel if the violence continues –and it appears to only be escalating. 12 members made aliyah just yesterday, seeking a place of safety out of reach from their neighbours turned suddenly homicidal.
Where is the world outcry on this? Where are the marches, where are the calls in articles and on TV, where are all the college students around the world? Where are the calls to boycott Kyrgy academics? And I mean, the Uzbekis are not even black. Yet all we have is world hysteria over the Palestinians who have a higher standard of living (yes, even in Gaza today) than Arabs in all the other neighbouring countries; who are not being killed — though they remain dedicated to killing us — and frequently launch rockets at our civilians; who are actively oppressing their own civilians and imposing a culture of fear.
Talk about disproportionality.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Yael on June 22, 2010 at 11:38 am, and is filed under Israel. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
(Photo by Dani Machlis)
about 2 months ago
The insincere Far Left is silent on this, but no one should be surprised. There is no interest for them; it does not involve an opportunity to demonize Israel. The Left does not really care about people, not really, just a select few who they themselves who have identified as “victims” or those who identify themselves as “victims”. Looking back from my years and years on the Left, I realize the immaturity and the narrow-mindedness of myself and those involved in “Peace movements”, all Far Left leaning. The professors that I then admired were biased, shallow, and artificial as they promoted political action from the safety of their university offices, as they selectively doled out “facts” about events, situations, and history. There was certainly an anti-US component to their rants. I began to come to my senses slowly and realized that I did not have to look as far away as South America to find a cause, there were actions I could take in my own city, just a few miles from home: teaching education classes, helping low-income families, organizing and holding free tutorials after school for those kids that needed it, helping a girl get a prom dress, buying a few school supplies…. lots and lots of opportunities to help right in my own town. I began to actually HEAR the things people on the Far Left were saying…anti-Israel, anti-Semitic (I heard that Helen Thomas was anti-semitic years ago from someone who heard her remarks first-hand). I am sure that the same charges can be made about those on the far Right as well, which is a case for trying to be informed and moderate—-investigating issues on your own. There should be an outcry and some help for these people who are trapped in Kyrgyzstan in the most dangerous situation. I did hear that Israel is trying to get people out. What concrete and specific action is the UN taking? Anything?
about 2 months ago
The U.N. sent in a planeload of food so far for 30,000 people and is working on sending in more food (according to their website).
Israel is trying to get endangered Jews out but it is difficult as we don’t have an embassy there and so are having to work through the embassy in Uzbekestan (embassy members crossing the border to try to locate potentially endangered families and help them out — we got 12 out so far, but many have refused to leave their homes). An acquaintance of mine who was involved in setting up the IDF hospital in Haiti has said they are looking into the feasibility of sending a medical team to the Uzbek border to help deal with the many gunshot/axe/knife injuries fleeing people are coming in with.
about 2 months ago
Aren’t the attackers ethnic Uzbeks , closely connected to Uzbekestan?
about 2 months ago
No, the Uzbeks are the ones who are being attacked. They are Kyrgyi citizens (for generations) but ethnically Uzbeki.
about 2 months ago
I have a Zen Koan (of my own making) for you. Answer it and you will understand. For my purposes here, I’m defining the Middle East in a larger sense as stretching from Central Asia west across North Africa.
So here’s the Koan.
If somebody dies in the Middle East and a Jew can’t be blamed, does anybody care?
Later
about 2 months ago
It’s exactly as I have said.
The world only respects the Bad Boy. The ones who can get a little crazy.
So, stop whining about the international community doesn’t do anything when bad countries do bad things. Get a little bad yourself.
Israel should start supplying rebel Uzbekis with weapons if you really want to help them. If they win perhaps you have found yourself an ally.
about 2 months ago
There is a reputable UK-based Christian charity called the Barnabas Fund; they have had contacts and small local-run projects on the ground in Kyrgyzstan (as well as other parts of Central Asia) for some time. Anyone who wants to do *something* can google their website, then drop a few dollars in their collection basket…they can get help through, if anyone can. They have just put up a report about the civil strife on their website; among other things they mentioned that some of the Kyrgyz Christians (there is a small Kyrgyz church composed primarily of apostates from Islam) have been risking their lives to shelter ethnically-Uzbek Christians (and probably not just Christians) and help them to escape.
about 2 months ago
Sylvia thanks for the info, will definitely google them and donate as well.