7. Islam Karimov - Uzbekistan
Karimov has been the leader of 'democratic' Uzbekistan since the fall of the USSR - which freed up the Central Asian 'Stans' - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan among them. These countries do not have much of a tradition of democracy. Instead, politics is fuelled by both ethnic differences and tribal affairs. Karimov was one of the puppet leaders installed in their role as 'head' of Communist Uzbekistan. He swiftly made the transition to dictator in residence when he declared Uzbekistan as an independent nation in 1991. He immediately clamped down on political opposition and his rule has been very strongly authoritarian. Karimov has based the state's legitimacy on ethnic and anti-Islam grounds. There have been allegations of vote rigging and corruption during Uzbek elections, with Karimov usually coming out with 90% plus of the vote. America has publicly denounced Uzbek election results as being fraudulent. Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, has very little ties to the West. Only 13 embassies exist in the city and these are nearly all fellow 'Stans'. There is an emphasis in Uzbekistan under Karimov that civil society should not be developed - for example, universities are there for learning and learning alone - no social criticism is allowed. Karimov is very frightened of Islam and in the wake of 9/11, he allowed US soldiers a base in Uzbekistan which outraged human rights observers. Karimov was smart enough to realise he could benefit from his nation's and the USA's antipathy towards the Taliban. The US soldiers based in Uzbekistan went into combat in Afghanistan in 2001. Eventually America realised that due to the authoritarian nature of Uzbekistan, its human rights abuses and downright crazy president - chumming about with Karimov would damage their reputation. US troops were taken out of Uzbekistan in 2005. Frightened now he had been abandoned, Karimov upped the state persecution against political Islam figures. He also made sure that life was not made easy for civilian Muslims. Despite the fact that he should have retired after two terms as President of Uzbekistan, Karimov boldly took up a third term in 2007. Karimov has come under fire in the international community for human rights abuses and clamping press freedom. Torture - such as being boiled alive - is routinely enforced by the government. There is a great display of press freedom but in reality, the editors would probably have their legs broken if they didn't follow State Diktat. Foreign press is strictly controlled and access to Russian TV has been extremely curtailed. There was even a massacre of protestors that killed 500 people in Andijan in 2005. Islam Karimov is just one more Authoritarian dictator in Central Asia which is full of them. I bet the Uzbek people are all secretly sick to death of him and wish he would bugger off but unfortunately the state interferes with their lives and freedom so much it renders them sadly impotent.