A long overdue move. It is utterly shocking how much money the White House has pumped into Uzbekistan despite report after report, year after year, by the most respected human rights organizations detailing just how vicious and widespread state-sponsored human rights violations, including, crucially, surpression of the right to express political dissent.
How many innocents had to die for this end of US aid to a regime that is every bit as repressive as Saddam Hussein?
Uzbekistan, an authoritarian state with which Washington forged a controversial alliance to aid its war on terror in neighbouring Afghanistan, is set to lose its $100m (£55m) annual US aid because of its poor human rights record.
The withdrawal of the aid, due to US laws that prohibit Washington from supporting regimes considered too abusive of human rights, could have damaging consequences for the Pentagon’s strategic presence in central Asia. The US base at Khanabad, in southern Uzbekistan, both expanded America’s military reach within the former Soviet Union and aided the toppling of the Taliban.
But in April the state department is set to recommend that funds to Uzbekistan be stopped because it has made no progress towards ending police torture and other abuses. Such an open moral and financial censure by Washington may lead President Islam Karimov to re-examine the benefits of US military presence on Uzbek soil.
Under American law, the state department has to annually “certify” regimes that receive Washington’s financial aid as being sufficiently supportive of human rights. Without that certification, US assistance cannot be given.
Mr Karimov’s appalling human rights record was heavily publicised by Britain’s ambassador to Tashkent, Craig Murray, whose outspoken remarks in the run-up to the Iraq war about the compromises the US was prepared to make in its offensive on terror led to an investigation into his conduct. Critics of US policy said the publicity Mr Murray gave to Uzbek torture would make it impossible for the state department to re-certify the country.
Uzbekistan became a key US ally in the war on terror in October 2001,when the Pentagon set up the Khanabad base to aid its offensive against the Taliban. But Mr Karimov’s regime has been repeatedly condemned for its brutality. A crackdown on Islamic fundamentalists, for instance, led to prisoners being boiled alive.
The US state department called the use of torture by Uzbek police “routine”, yet in 2002 gave the same law enforcement structures $80m in aid - about a third of its total contribution that year.
Uzbekistan has received nearly $1bn in US aid since 1992. Assistance rocketed after September 11.
The state department’s hardening attitude towards Uzbekistan surfaced earlier this month when officials refused to certify it as “committed to human rights”, a requirement for the funding of a US programme assisting Tashkent in the disposal of old Soviet nuclear facilities.
A state department official said that the bulk of financial aid was covered by a different certification, due for review in April. Uzbekistan has to be seen to be “making progress in human rights” before April to qualify.
The official said: “If we could not certify that they were ‘committed to’ human rights, it would be hard to show that they were ‘making progress’ in these issues.” The official added that the April certification was a more exacting set of tests than those that Uzbekistan had already failed.
Peace Be Upon You!
Sarge Booker