U.S. Treads Fine Line as It Thanks Uzbek Leader
Posted 03/12/2002 //WASHINGTON (Reuters)//by Elaine Monaghan
The United States balanced praise with criticism on Tuesday as President Bush met Uzbek President Islam Karimov, seen by Washington as a key ally in the war on terrorism but also an authoritarian figure who has denied his people basic human rights. Rights advocates say Bush risks worsening Karimov's human rights record if it gives him too much credibility for allowing the United States to use a local air base in support of operations across the border in neighboring Afghanistan. Washington has said it will not set up a permanent military base in Uzbekistan but wants long-term relations partly to keep tabs on Islamic militants who attacked Karimov's government and have been linked to Afghanistan's Taliban and al Qaeda forces. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov signed a declaration on strategic partnership and cooperation. The document emphasizes military security as well as the value of a market-based economy and an open, democratic system. In return for a U.S. pledge to "regard with grave concern" any external threat to Uzbekistan's security, Uzbekistan promised to intensify efforts for democratic and economic reform, the State Department said. The administration's own criticisms of Karimov, detailed in this month's annual report on human rights around the world, made an uneasy backdrop to a summit with a Soviet holdover who says his people are not ready for fundamental reform. "Karimov has been a solid coalition partner. At the same time there are problems with respect to human rights in Uzbekistan and we will not shrink from discussing them," Powell told a Congressional hearing on Tuesday. But it is unclear what role the U.S. criticism plays. Washington has criticized Karimov for extending his term from five to seven years in a plebiscite in January, after running the country almost uninterrupted since 1989.
U.S. PRESSURE ON RIGHTS Karimov dismissed the criticism, saying: "I do not want to overestimate my role. But if I had not resorted to authoritarian methods in the last 10 years to achieve certain goals, I am convinced we would still be running on the spot and not have moved anywhere." Spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Powell had made clear to the Uzbek leader that he expected progress. "The secretary stressed to President Karimov that the region's long-term security and stability are inextricably linked to the need to strengthen human rights and democratic institutions," Boucher said. A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bush would note recent improvements such as the first registration of an independent human rights body. "What we will do is urge him to continue to take these positive steps and to improve the human rights situation," he said. The State Department report suggested there was a lot of work to do, calling Uzbekistan an authoritarian state with limited civil rights and noting that most observers considered an election in 1991 that Karimov won neither free nor fair. It accused Karimov's government of driving Mohammed Salih, a nationalist opposition leader who lost the 1991 election, into voluntary exile. Human rights groups say thousands of people have been thrown in prison due to Karimov's crackdown on Muslim groups in recent years. The Uzbek leader accused the groups of planning to assassinate him in and of carrying out a series of bomb attacks that killed 16 people in 1999. Salih wrote in The New York Times on Monday that Washington could one day have to "tear down what it has helped create" in Uzbekistan, where repression could infect neighbors that had little tradition of democracy and human rights. "Mr Karimov shows them that it is possible to gain prestige and money and extend your rule on a whim -- and still gain American support in the post-terrorism world," wrote Salih, who won political asylum in Norway. He was sentenced in absentia to 15-1/2 years in prison in 2000 but set free by a Czech court in December that had detained him on an Interpol warrant issued by Uzbekistan.
