We've heard a lot lately about how U.S. military cooperation with Kyrgyzstan, namely the air base at Manas made the Americans sweep complaints about democracy and human rights under the rug. So, is the same thing happening in Uzbekistan, the hub of the Northern Distribution Network shipping U.S. military equipment into Afghanistan? IWPR checks and says, yes:
Umida Niazova, head of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, believes Washington is ignoring human rights, “It is clear that the new [Obama] administration is ready to cooperate with Karimov’s regime despite the deteriorating human rights record…. There is no indication that the Americans are aligning their cooperation agenda with the domestic situation, the situation with human rights and civil freedoms.
“Obsessed with a successful operation in Afghanistan, the Americans are strengthening dictatorships in neighbouring countries.”
It is not just advocacy groups that are saying this.
“We can definitely say that there is an improvement in the [US-Uzbek] relationship, and it runs the risk of repeating past mistakes,” said Sean Roberts, a Central Asian expert who is assistant professor of international development at George Washington University. “I am worried the US is not paying attention to domestic politics [in Uzbekistan]. And that might be interpreted to mean they are supporting violent dictatorship to profit their strategy for the Afghanistan war.”
Scott Radnitz, a Central Asia expert at the University of Washington, added, “It has been decided that the benefits of the NDN outweigh the costs of cooperating with a repressive regime. Right now, Uzbekistan is an ally of convenience due solely to its geographic position, sharing a border with Afghanistan.”
The IWPR reporters interviewed the U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan; not surprisingly, he disagrees:
“No one can say that there has been no progress in terms of human rights,” he said.
At the same time, he made it clear that the argument for respecting human rights could not be outweighed by citing security concerns such as the threat posed by extremist groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an armed group which was active in Central Asia in 1999 and 2000 and has since operated from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“As in every country including the US, there is a need to balance measures taken for national security with support for civil society and human rights,” he said.
Although the piece makes the argument that the human rights situation in Uzbekistan has deteriorated lately, and that the U.S. has not been pushing human rights because of the NDN, it doesn't make the connection that there is a causal connection between those two developments (which, of course, is a difficult thing to prove, but...) When I was last in Uzbekistan, human rights activists told me that the presence of the U.S. base at Karshi-Khanabad actually helped them:
"Thanks to the U.S. air base, the Uzbekistan government suffered our criticisms and had to close its mouth. And then when it left, the authorities called us American spies," says the UzHRD's Ahtam Shaymardan.
Adds Urlaeva: "We always say that our only defense is the U.S. Embassy, and our hopes are connected with the United States. We consider the United States to be the model of observing the law. We have more contacts with the U.S. Embassy than with any other embassy, and the Americans pay more attention to human rights defenders."
It seems possible that the presence of high-profile military cooperation, like the base at Karshi-Khanabad, might make the U.S. more responsive to the human rights situation than would a somewhat in-the-shadows form of cooperation like the NDN, because the high profile puts more pressure on them. Thoughts?
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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