EU Sanctions Ruling Unjustified – Uzbek Rights Activists

Uzbek human rights activists say hopes of an improvement in the human rights situation have receded as a result of the European Union’s decision to ease sanctions against the country.



The EU decision of October 13 relates to sanctions put in place against Uzbekistan in November 2005 after the government refused to allow an independent international investigation into the Andijan violence of May that year, in which hundreds died when security forces fired into a crowd of demonstrators.



Welcoming what it said was progress achieved over the last year, the EU urged the Uzbek government to address a number of outstanding issues.



It extended an embargo on arms sales to Uzbekistan for one more year, but lifted a visa ban applied to eight named officials, including National Security Service chief Rustam Inoyatov and former interior minister Zokir Almatov.



Originally there were 12 officials on the list, identified as having taken part in the use of force in Andijan, but in October last year, four were taken off the list as a concession to Tashkent.



The EU’s decision has dismayed human rights activists who say they had been expecting a more robust and adequate response from the international community to continuing abuses in Uzbekistan.



As evidence of the dire state of affairs, rights activists cite the ten-year jail term handed down to independent journalist Solijon Abdrahmonov just three days before the EU decision, the ongoing trial of human rights activist Azam Turgunov, a rise in cases of torture and death in custody, and the refusal to allow the rights watchdog Human Rights Watch to operate in the country.



“All the facts point to a complete lack of signs of improvement on human rights,” said Umida Niazova, an Uzbek human rights defender now living in Germany.



On the eve of the sanctions review, the Tashkent-based Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan issued a statement urging a renewal of the measures in light of new evidence of judicial malpractice and the continuing use of child labour.



“We expected that the sanctions would be tightened, given that nothing has changed,” says Oleg Sarapulov of the Human Rights Alliance. “The extension of the arms embargo doesn’t fill us with hope.”



Nadezhda Ataeva, head of the Human Rights in Central Asia Association based in France, says standing up for one’s rights in Uzbekistan can be a life-threatening affair, while publicising one’s attempt to do so will bring immediate persecution.



“I cannot understand how the sanctions can be lifted or eased when the authorities are sending out so many [negative] signals,” she concluded.



(NBCentralAsia 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.)