Forgotten Season: Screening – Andijan: A Massacre Foretold, Forgiven, Forgotten

We knew he was a bastard, with 10,000 political prisoners and opponents being boiled to death. 
But he was our bastard – a close partner in the War on Terror.
Then he massacred 1.000 peaceful demonstrators.  We had never told him he couldn’t and hardly slapped his wrist when he did.
 
Doesn’t that make us responsible?

Andijan: A Massacre Foretold, Forgiven, Forgotten is a single narrative, investigative report into the relationship between the West and Uzbekistan, one of the US’ key allies in the War on Terror. The relationship was called into question when Uzbek troops fired on a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in the Eastern town of Andijan and began to cover the incident up.

The soldiers then confiscated all the cameras and mobile phones from those that fled the area.  With no footage of the massacre, estimates of the death toll have ranged from 300 to 5000 – many of them women and children.  Western governments in particular, were loath to bring attention to their embarrassing ally in the War on Terror and the story was buried.
 
Beginning with the time prior to the massacre, the investigation looks at why Europeans were willing to look the other way, even though experts were warning about the regime’s abysmal human rights record and systemic use of torture.

Directed by Michael Andersen
Length: 58 mins
Year: 2008

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