Urgent visit to Uzbekistan requested by UN Expert on Arbitrary Executions by SBS News / UN News / The Guardian 10:57am 21st May, 2005   21.5.2005.    "Uzbekistan resists UN Probe". (SBS World News)    Uzbekistan has resisted demands for an international investigation into a military crackdown that reportedly left hundreds dead, as the US said it was scaling back its military presence in the region.    United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan had a telephone conversation with Uzbek President Islam Karimov on Thursday, in which the Uzbek leader rejected an investigation, a spokesman said.    The Uzbek president "told the secretary general that sending an international commission to investigate the May 13 developments was not necessary and that the situation was under control," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.    But on Friday Uzbek officials hinted at possible compromise. "The possibility of international organisations participating in the investigation into the events in Andijan is not ruled out," a senior Uzbek official told news agency AFP.    A US State Department spokesman said Washington was disappointed by Mr Karimov's rejection of a probe, adding that some US aid hinged on human rights improvement. "We're disappointed that so far they have not welcomed international participation in an inquiry to get to the bottom of what happened in Andijan," Richard Boucher said.    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later reiterated that Washington was trying to persaude Mr Karimov to comply. "We're urging the Karimov government to allow inquiry into the events that took place there," Ms Rice said. "We have been for quite a long time talking to the Karimov government about the importance of an open political society," she said.    The European Union has called for an independent, international investigation into the events in and around Andijan.    The Uzbek government says it deployed a military force as an emergency response to an attempt by armed Islamic extremists to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state. It claims 169 people died.    But local and international human rights group say the crackdown was an indiscriminate slaughter by the military of as many as 1,000 people. The International Committee of the Red Cross has called on Uzbek authorities to provide information on missing persons presumed dead or under arrest.    The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights says Uzbek security forces may have gunned down up to 1,000 civilians in Andijan and surrounding areas. "The attacks on demonstrators have been followed in some cases by summary executions of the wounded, and by arbitrary arrests and detentions," the group said in a statement issued in Vienna. "The attack can be interpreted as an act of brutal repression aimed at further intimidating the Uzbek population in the face of democratic changes in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia," the group said.    It was hard to verify the death toll because the government has not allowed foreign diplomats and journalists free access to Andijan to assess the situation.    Britain, the European Union and the United Nations called for an international enquiry into the unrest. Although Washington has stopped short of demanding an international probe, a senior US official hinted the US could re-evaluate its economic aid to Uzbekistan if the government didn’t fully investigate the clashes..    20 May 2005 (UN News)    The United Nations expert on summary or arbitrary executions today requested an invitation from the Government of Uzbekistan for an “urgent” visit following reports that hundreds of people were killed in the eastern city of Andijan last weekend when Government troops opened fire on a protest march.    In a statement issued in Geneva, Philip Alston, the UN Commission of Human Rights’ Special Rapporteur dealing with extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions made the urgent request to assess the situation, indicating that he was “gravely concerned about reports that hundreds of people, including women and children, were killed on 13 May when Government troops fired indiscriminately to disperse a demonstration in Andijan.”    The New York University law professor also stated that he was particularly troubled by reports that the measures had been connected to efforts to eliminate terrorists. “Quite apart from the need to distinguish political opponents from terrorists, the point is that governments are clearly obligated to address any such situations within a framework clearly governed by human rights law,” he said.    Mr. Alston echoed the call of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour for the Government to establish an independent commission of inquiry into the incidents, but he noted that his visit was also an essential part of an effective and comprehensive response by the Government.    The statement said that a visit to Uzbekistan would enable the Special Rapporteur to speak with all those involved in the recent events and to formulate positive recommendations to support efforts to end impunity for human rights violators in accordance with international standards.    Ms. Arbour’s spokesman said indications were that the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, would not welcome an international investigation at this time. He said the High Commissioner hoped that Mr. Karimov could be persuaded to see the interest that the people of Uzbekistan and the international community have in setting the record straight on the recent events in that country.    19 May 2005    UN human rights chief urges independent probe into recent violence in Uzbekistan.    Deeply concerned by the recent violence and loss of life in Uzbekistan’s eastern city of Andijan, the top United Nations human rights official is urging that an independent investigation be conducted to look into the causes and circumstances of the incidents.    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour pointed to disturbing reports from the region telling of indiscriminate and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, followed by the imposition of restrictions on local and foreign media.    A statement issued yesterday in Geneva said the High Commissioner also urges the authorities to adhere strictly to the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and to guarantee the rights Uzbekistan has pledged to uphold under international law, including the freedoms of assembly and expression.    May 17, 2005    "Uzbekistan: Balance of terror". (The Guardian)    Uzbekistan may be a faraway country of which we normally know very little, but the weekend bloodshed in which the security forces reportedly killed hundreds of people requires our close and urgent attention. If the figures are correct, the crackdown in Andijan and elsewhere has been the most violent in Asia since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. President Karimov is an autocrat but an ally of the US, and Britain. Both countries have embassies in Tashkent - though the UK has been more publicly critical of the regime's well-documented human rights abuses. President Karimov has provided valuable support for the "war on terror" in neighbouring Afghanistan. But it is unacceptable that foreign ambassadors, journalists, the Red Cross and other observers have been prevented from visiting Andijan, and right that Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, has condemned the carnage and demanded immediate access.    Comments from Washington have been less satisfactory, with US spokesmen maintaining a careful balance between the forces of law and order and the opposition, calling on both sides to exercise "restraint". Not for the first time, it is is hard to avoid the impression that double standards are being applied: while George Bush promotes the cause of freedom in Iraq, Ukraine and Lebanon, but he merely pays lip service to it in Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Palestine. If freedom means Islamists taking power, then "outposts of tyranny" can remain undisturbed.    Every government, of course, has the right to defend itself against violent enemies, and there is no doubt that Uzbekistan faces some dangerous ones, including the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, responsible for past attacks. Friday's violence apparently began when armed insurgents stormed the prison in Andijan, freed inmates, including 23 businessmen accused of religious extremism - falsely, supporters insist - and took policemen hostage.    Yet there is worrying evidence that the entire Uzbek opposition is being tarred unjustly and misleadingly with the brush of militant fundamentalism, when the real issue is a volatile combination of poverty and mass unemployment as market reforms have progressed - while the media is strictly controlled by authorities who are notoriously quick to resort to intimidation and brutality. Experts have long warned of the danger that Muslim radicals, convinced that the west is blindly backing a corrupt and unrepresentative government, could help trigger wider disturbances. That is exactly what seems to have happened.    Part of the problem is that Islam Karimov, an unsavoury combination of old-style Communist apparatchik and Uzbek nationalist, has some powerful friends. Vladimir Putin, alarmed by the fall of pro-Russian regimes in the old Soviet "near abroad" - Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan - has backed him for fear of further change that could affect Chechnya; Russia blamed the "Taliban" for the Andijan attack. Mr Bush appreciates the strategic value of the Khanabad airbase, while the CIA has gathered intelligence from prisoners tortured in Uzbekistan. Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Tashkent, resigned last year in protest that the UK was using this sort of information.    Uzbekistan's killings should be investigated impartially and the perpetrators brought to justice. But harsh words that will quickly be forgotten are not enough. The US should use its immense power more wisely to get the balance right between geopolitics and democracy. It and other western countries, including Britain and its EU partners, must do more to help the emergence of a legitimate democratic opposition - so that people power in central Asia ends up wielded by the right sort of people.
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