US Urged to Take Stronger Line on Human Rights

Human rights activists in Uzbekistan say the United States should be taking a much tougher approach on human rights in the country. At the moment, they say, Tashkent is merely offering one-off, cosmetic concessions such as the release this week of leading human rights advocate Mutabar Tajibaeva.



On June 2, Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, concluded a visit to Uzbekistan with a press conference at which he said “progress is being made” on human rights.



He noted the abolition of the death penalty and the release of several political prisoners this year.



The day the press conference was held, the Uzbek authorities unexpectedly released Tajibaeva, a human rights activist jailed in 2006. Her eight-year sentence was altered from imprisonment to parole.



Boucher said human rights would be a subject for further discussions between the State Department and President Islam Karimov, with Washington prompting the Uzbek government to fulfill its obligations in area of democracy, civil society, and press freedom.



Uzbek state media reported that Tashkent and Washington intended to develop their relationship on the basis of a strategic partnership and other agreements signed in 2002.



US-Uzbek relations soured in 2005 after Tashkent refused to accept western demands for an independent investigation into the violence of May that year, when security forces caused hundreds of casualties by firing on a crowd of demonstrators in the eastern city of Andijan. The Uzbek authorities ordered American forces to leave the Khanabad airbase they were using and stopped them using the country’s airspace for military overflights to Afghanistan.



Some observers interviewed by NBCentralAsia believe Boucher’s visit heralds the resumption of a visible US presence in Uzbekistan, which might in turn create the space for non-government organisations and consultancies working on civil society issues to become more active.



However, most local activists remain pessimistic, and harbour no hopes of radical change.



According to one commentator based in Tashkent, “Karimov’s authoritarian regime drew its own conclusions from the earlier period when it had a closer relationship with the West. Now it will seek to ensure that democratic trends encouraged by the US will go only as fast, and only in a direction, compatible with the Uzbek leader’s own plans for domestic policy.”



A local media-watcher said that for its part, Washington would work with Tashkent only where that promoted its policy on Afghanistan and other geopolitical interests.



Nadezhda Ataeva, who heads the Human Rights in Central Asia Association, based in France, believes the US is merely sounding out the situation. Both sides have an interest in discovering more about each other’s position.



For the moment, Ataeva suspects the US will not be raising awkward questions.



“One can say with some certainty that the US will not exert the same degree of influence on the Uzbek government as it did in the period between 2001 and May 2005,” she said.



By contrast, Surat Ikramov, leader of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan, argues that US diplomacy can have an influence on the Uzbek authorities and could improve the human rights situation.



He says it is time to begin a real dialog, adding, “Wouldn’t it be simpler if American politicians just told Karimov bluntly that he should end repression in Uzbekistan? Then many of the human rights problems could be solved.”



Ikramov recalls that 14 human rights activists and about 40 individuals convicted in politically-motivated cases are still serving prison terms. Besides these people, other detainees report illegal arrest and torture, according to their relatives, while ordinary citizens are persecuted for having dissident views.



In Ikramov’s view, the release of Tajibaeva, timed as it was to coincide with Boucher’s visit, is no more than “political manoeuvring” on the part of the Uzbek government.



“When they take steps of this kind, the authorities start claiming that they are meeting the international society’s demands. This kind of political manipulation continues to be evident,” he said.



(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)