Dyuymovochka
03-04-2003, 02:58 PM
West must exert more pressure on Uzbekistan to improve human rights and prevent terrorism, rights group says
Sat Mar 1, 7:54 AM ET
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The United States and other Western governments must keep strong pressure on Uzbekistan to improve its dismal human rights record and prevent today's victims of abuse from becoming tomorrow's terrorists, the head of a leading international human rights group said Saturday.
"The violations of human rights in Uzbekistan pose a security threat because they give credence to radical ideologies, including militant Islam," Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said in an interview during a two-day visit to Tashkent.
Rhodes said recruits to radical groups are often relatives of those who have been tortured or killed in prison, or arrested simply because of membership in an independent religious group.
"It is in the strategic interest of the United States to exert more pressure and show more solidarity" with human rights activists here, Rhodes said. Human rights "abuse poses not only a threat to Uzbekistan but to Western governments like the United States."
The United States established a strategic partnership with Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11 attacks when Washington needed a base for military forces close to Afghanistan. U.S. forces continue to use a tightly guarded air base in the southeastern village of Khanabad to support missions into neighboring Afghanistan.
U.S. and European diplomats have insisted the new partnership would not mean they would soften their criticism on human rights. Recently, they have become slightly more critical in remarks about the Uzbek regime.
But Rhodes insisted there can never be too much tough talk on human rights, noting that dissidents in the Soviet Union were able to go on with their criticism of the regime because of strong rhetoric and support from the West. Silence on the issue, however, leads to increasingly anti-Western sentiment, he said.
"The population in Central Asia is becoming increasingly anti-Western in their approach because they have many expectations: They expect pressure on their governments and they expect solidarity," Rhodes said.
Sat Mar 1, 7:54 AM ET
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The United States and other Western governments must keep strong pressure on Uzbekistan to improve its dismal human rights record and prevent today's victims of abuse from becoming tomorrow's terrorists, the head of a leading international human rights group said Saturday.
"The violations of human rights in Uzbekistan pose a security threat because they give credence to radical ideologies, including militant Islam," Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said in an interview during a two-day visit to Tashkent.
Rhodes said recruits to radical groups are often relatives of those who have been tortured or killed in prison, or arrested simply because of membership in an independent religious group.
"It is in the strategic interest of the United States to exert more pressure and show more solidarity" with human rights activists here, Rhodes said. Human rights "abuse poses not only a threat to Uzbekistan but to Western governments like the United States."
The United States established a strategic partnership with Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11 attacks when Washington needed a base for military forces close to Afghanistan. U.S. forces continue to use a tightly guarded air base in the southeastern village of Khanabad to support missions into neighboring Afghanistan.
U.S. and European diplomats have insisted the new partnership would not mean they would soften their criticism on human rights. Recently, they have become slightly more critical in remarks about the Uzbek regime.
But Rhodes insisted there can never be too much tough talk on human rights, noting that dissidents in the Soviet Union were able to go on with their criticism of the regime because of strong rhetoric and support from the West. Silence on the issue, however, leads to increasingly anti-Western sentiment, he said.
"The population in Central Asia is becoming increasingly anti-Western in their approach because they have many expectations: They expect pressure on their governments and they expect solidarity," Rhodes said.