Islom Karimov

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Islom Abduganiyevich Karimov Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов

1st President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Incumbent
Assumed office 1991
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	January 30, 1938 Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Political party	Self-Sacrifice National Democratic Party
Spouse	Tatyana Akbarovna Karimova

Islom Abdug‘aniyevich Karimov (Russian: Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov) (born January 30, 1938) has been the President of Uzbekistan since 1991.

Karimov, a Muslim, was born in Samarkand to an Uzbek father and a Tajik mother, but he was raised in a Soviet state orphanage. After studying engineering and economics in Tashkent, he became an official in the Communist Party of the USSR.

He came to power as the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On March 24, 1990 Karimov became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He declared the independence of Uzbekistan on August 31, 1991 and won elections held on December 29 of that year with 86% of the vote. The elections have been called unfair, with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk (Freedom) Party, Muhammad Salih, had a chance to participate. Shortly after the elections, a harsh political clampdown forced opposition leaders into exile, while many have been issued long-term prison sentences and a few have disappeared.

In 1995, Karimov extended his term until 2000 through a widely criticized referendum, and he was re-elected with 91.9% of the vote on January 9, 2000. The United States said that this election "was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choice" [1]. The sole opposition candidate, Abdulhasiz Jalalov, admitted that he entered the race only to make it seem democratic and he voted for Karimov. On January 27, 2002, Karimov won another referendum extending the length of presidential terms from five to seven years; Karimov's present term, formerly due to end in 2005, was subsequently extended by parliament, which scheduled the next elections for December 2007.

The international community has repeatedly criticized the Karimov administration's record on human rights and press freedom. In particular, former British Ambassador in Uzbekistan Craig Murray pointed to reports of boiling people to death. The United Nations found torture "institutionalized, systematic, and rampant" in Uzbekistan's justice system.[[2]]

Karimov is fighting against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic terrorist groups trying to overthrow the secularist government. The IMU is believed to be responsible for bombings that occurred in late March 2004.^{[citation needed]} He had sentenced Tahir Yuldashev and Juma Xojiyev, also known as Juma Namangani, the leader of the IMU, to death in absentia.^{[citation needed]} Namangani is said to have been killed in Afghanistan, but Yuldashev, who is said to have merged the IMU into the Islamic Movement of Central Asia by 2003, is still at large.^{[citation needed]} HT members are routinely arrested and tortured.^{[citation needed]}

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Karimov's Uzbekistan was considered a strategic ally in the United States' "War on Terrorism" campaign because of a mutual opposition to regional Islamists. The country hosted an 800-strong U.S. troop presence at the Karshi-Khanabad air base, also known as "K2", which supported U.S.-led efforts in the Afghanistan war.^{[citation needed]} This move was criticized by human rights groups, who claimed that Bush was subordinating the promotion of human rights to the War in Afghanistan. U.S.-Uzbek relations soured in 2005, however, and plans to vacate the K2 base were cemented after the Bush administration's criticized the Andijan massacre in May of that year. In July of 2005, the U.S. was asked to leave an Uzbek airbase that the U.S. was using for operations in Afghanistan.[3]

Karimov is married; his wife, Tatyana Akbarovna Karimova, is an economist.^{[citation needed]} They have two daughters and three grandchildren. His elder daughter, Gulnara Karimova, serves as an advisor for Uzbekistan's ambassador to Russia and is believed to have built an extensive business empire that includes the largest wireless telephone operator in Uzbekistan, night clubs, and a large cement factory.^{[citation needed]}

Karimov appointed Ergash Shaismatov Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan.^{[citation needed]}