ACAT (Action by Christians for the Abolition of
Torture)/ Association for Human Rights in Central Asia - Press release
Today and
tomorrow, the Uzbek Minister of Foreign Affairs should meet discreetly Laurent
Fabius, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well French Senate and
National Assembly members. ACAT and the Associationfor Human Rights in Central Asia express their surprise and deep concern regarding
this secret meeting with the high representative of a regime in which torture
is systematically
used.
No
information has been released on the official agenda of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, or on the other French
political institutions’. ACAT and the Association for Human Rights in Central
Asia found out about this meeting only on the official agenda of the Uzbek Ministry. It reveals that an Uzbek
delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov should meet his
French counterpart, some members of the Senate and the National Assembly, as
well as business representatives. Only International Medef, the French Business
Confederation, announced this meeting.
According
to Christine Laroque, Asia-Central Asia-Russia desk manager at ACAT, “The Uzbek dignitaries are rightly shunned by most western leaders.
It is surprising and shocking that the highest French institutions organize
today, in secret, such meetings. The silence surrounding this visit shows their
political embarrassment as well as a clear lack of transparency from the
political power to the civil society.”
According
to Nadejda Atayeva, president of the Association for Human Rights in Central
Asia, “Since Islam Karimov becam head of State 25 years ago, the
Uzbek government is one of the worst torture and repressive regimes in the
world. Torture is systematic in police custody and in prisons.”
The United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) severely criticized Uzbekistan last year.
Dozens of
human rights defenders, journalists and peaceful activists are held on
politically-motivated grounds. Thousands of people are locked up simply for
practicing their religion - Christians as well as
Muslims.
In 2013,
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stopped visiting prisoners
in Uzbekistan because the government refuses to cooperate with ICRC standard
procedures. Over the last 12 years, every United Nations expert has been denied
access to the country to monitor the human rights situation. No international
NGO is allowed since the expulsion of Human Rights Watch in 2011.
Uzbek
activists take high risks to defend human rights, sometimes until death, like
Abdurasul Hudoynazarov, a prisoner who was supported by ACAT for a long time.
This activist, well-known for his work
against corruption of police officers and security forces, spent 8 years in
prison suffering from torture. Deprived of medical treatment and submitted to
repeated abuses, his health severely deteriorated. He was released last May for
medical grounds, before dying a few weeks later, on June 26th, the
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
Since
2005, no independent investigation has been conducted and no one has been held
accountable for the Andijan massacre,
in which the security forces shot into crowds of mostly peaceful protestors, killing
hundreds in that city. As a consequence, France along with other European Union
(EU) countries put targeted sanctions on the Uzbek government between 2005 and
2009 that were linked to improvements
and respect of specific human rights criteria.
ACAT and
the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia consider that such meetings
involving economic negotiations and potentially strategic and military
cooperation with French authorities should take place only when the Uzbek
government will have proved credible evidence of its real intention to comply
with human rights. ACAT and the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia urge
French authorities at least to use this opportunity to express publicly and
directly to the Uzbek Minister France’s concerns regarding the human rights
situation in Uzbekistan.
Contacts presse:
•
Pierre Motin, ACAT, +33 1 40 40 40 24 / +33 6 12 12 63 94, pierre.motin@acatfrance.fr
(English, French);
• Nadejda
Atayeva, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, +33 6 49 38 86 59, asiecentrale@neuf.fr
(Russian)
