Watered down beyond Recognition
On October 15, 2007 the European Union once again relaxed the sanctions against Uzbekistan. The decision was based on short-sighted power politics and demonstrates a lack of principles, Marcus Bensmann argues
In Luxemburg the EU foreign ministers have suspended the prohibition of entry against eight members of the Uzbekistan government for half a year. This is the third time within two years that the punitive measures against Central Asian Uzbekistan have been watered down – now beyond recognition.
The EU had imposed the sanctions in October 2005 in reaction to the violent suppression of the uprising in Andizhan.
The massacre of Andizhan
On May 13, 2005 Uzbek security forces in armored cars fired upon a crowd of several thousand people. More than five hundred people, including women and children, are said to have been killed in the bloodbath.
This is denied by the Uzbek government, which speaks of the suppression of an attempted coup by Islamist terrorists, the USA and western journalists and NGOs.
After the massacre of Andizhan,the Uzbek government unleashed a wave of repression. Human rights activists and journalists were arrested or forced into exile, while NGOs and foreign journalists were expelled from the country. In show trials, prisoners bearing the marks of torture confessed to the state’s version of the events in Andizhan.
German interests
The punitive measures imposed in October 2005, including the suspension of the EU partnership agreement with Uzbekistan, an armaments embargo and prohibition of entry for twelve high-ranking government officials, were accompanied by the demand for an international commission to investigate the events in Andizhan.
In addition, the Uzbek government was asked to improve the human rights situation. So far Tashkent has fulfilled none of these demands.
German diplomacy bears a share of the blame for this. Berlin feared for the Bundeswehr base in Termes, Uzbekistan; in addition, as EU president, Germany wanted to successfully implement its Central Asia strategy in the first half of the year with Uzbekistan as its express partner.
German foreign policy followed a twofold strategy. On the one hand, Germany did all it could to make the sanctions as tolerable as possible for Uzbekistan. At the same time, German politicians declared that the EU’s punitive measures were unsuccessful.
The game paid off. The partnership agreement with Uzbekistan was reinstated in November 2006, and in May 2007 the travel restrictions were reduced to cover eight rather than twelve people. Only the armaments embargo remained in force for an additional year; however, the EU had never exported significant amounts of armaments to Uzbekistan.
"First steps"
The commissioner for foreign policy, Benita Ferrero Waldner, justified the latest relaxation of the sanctions by citing "first steps" by Uzbekistan, Including the penal reform, the abolishment of the death penalty, the release of several human rights activists, two rounds of talks on Andizhan and the beginning of a round of talks on human rights. However, these are steps that lead nowhere.
The expert discussions on Andizhan were arranged after Uzbek foreign minister Vladimir Norov visited Brussels in November 2006. A group of EU experts traveled to Uzbekistan twice to listen to nothing but Uzbek propaganda. They were provided with the investigation documents of the Uzebek authorities and allowed to speak with prisoners, who repeated the official Uzbek version in prison.
The abolition of the death penalty in 2008 is the only real success, but Uzbek president Islam Karimov has made this promise for years – since long before the massacre of Andizhan – and put it off over and over again.
No clarification of the massacre
However, the other penal reforms have had practically no effect on Uzbek reality. Torture continues to be practiced in Uzbek prisons and camps. The journalist Ulugbek Haidarov, who was released after Steinmeier’s visit to Uzbekistan in November 2006, was hardly able to walk after his feet had been beaten to a pulp with the bastinado.
Haidarov also reported that a young prisoner had been beaten to death before his eyes. The introduction of the "habeas corpus" principle has not altered the fact that Uzbekistan has no independent judiciary.
As a final consolation the EU made the suspension of the entry prohibition contingent upon the demand that Human Rights Watch and the International Red Cross be allowed to work in Uzbekistan within the next half a year and that imprisoned human rights activists be released. However, a second massacre would have to take place before the sanctions could be tightened again, a diplomat explained on Radio Free Europe.
Yet the recent EU council order on Uzbekistan makes no mention of clarifying the Andizhan massacre. Europe has buried the dead of Andizhan for good, politically as well.
Marcus Bensmann
© Qantara.de 2007
Translated from the German by Isabel Cole
Qantara.de
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