At a closed conference in the Uzbek capital on media freedom this month, speaker after speaker depicted Uzbekistan as a veritable paradise of free speech. Ordinary Uzbeks might have been surprised to hear it. Those who try to tell the truth in Islam Karimov's country are liable to be thrown behind bars.
Since the massacre in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005, when government forces killed hundreds of protesters, the Uzbek government has maintained a brutal campaign against human rights activists.
The failure of the European Union to condemn the politically motivated arrest of Umida Niyazova, a translator for Human Rights Watch in Uzbekistan, is a small example of Brussels' apparent determination to prioritise commercial and security interests over promoting human rights and democracy in Central Asia.
Dadakhon Khasanov's crime was clear: he wrote a couple of songs referring to what happened on 13 May last year in Andijan, eastern Uzbekistan. On that day there was an armed uprising, followed by a demonstration involving thousands of unarmed people, hundreds of whom were then slaughtered in cold blood by Uzbek security forces.
Uzbekistan’s Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov’s stay in Germany for medical treatment has presented Uzbek victims of abuse with a historic opportunity: to pursue justice for the serious crimes of torture and mass killings perpetrated against them and implicating Minister Almatov’s criminal responsibility.
Three months ago, there was a massacre in Andijan, in eastern Uzbekistan - a country which, even before the massacre, had become a byword for repression. On 13 May, the authorities slaughtered hundreds of protesters. There were no television cameras, and the Uzbek regime denied the massacre had taken place.
Elections in the former Soviet Union are stolen all the time, but governments get away with it by stifling democratic institutions. Western leaders need to support struggling civil societies in the region, before there is nothing left to support.
American democracy provides inspiration by example (rather than by military occupation) to people all over the world who are seeking justice and freedom. And it is important to note that democracy circumscribed at home can encourage anti-democratic forces abroad.
The dramatic but peaceful transfer of power in Georgia on Sunday must be rattling repressive leaders all across the region. The danger now is that governments in Central Asia and the Caucasus may step up political repression to head off a similar scenario.
With the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Uzbekistan only days away, a crucial question remains: Will this high-level gathering serve to promote political and economic reform in the host country, or reward one of the most repressive governments in the region?
At a closed conference in the Uzbek capital on media freedom this month, speaker after speaker depicted Uzbekistan as a veritable paradise of free speech. Ordinary Uzbeks might have been surprised to hear it. Those who try to tell the truth in Islam Karimov's country are liable to be thrown behind bars.
Since the massacre in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005, when government forces killed hundreds of protesters, the Uzbek government has maintained a brutal campaign against human rights activists.
The failure of the European Union to condemn the politically motivated arrest of Umida Niyazova, a translator for Human Rights Watch in Uzbekistan, is a small example of Brussels' apparent determination to prioritise commercial and security interests over promoting human rights and democracy in Central Asia.
Dadakhon Khasanov's crime was clear: he wrote a couple of songs referring to what happened on 13 May last year in Andijan, eastern Uzbekistan. On that day there was an armed uprising, followed by a demonstration involving thousands of unarmed people, hundreds of whom were then slaughtered in cold blood by Uzbek security forces.
Uzbekistan’s Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov’s stay in Germany for medical treatment has presented Uzbek victims of abuse with a historic opportunity: to pursue justice for the serious crimes of torture and mass killings perpetrated against them and implicating Minister Almatov’s criminal responsibility.
Three months ago, there was a massacre in Andijan, in eastern Uzbekistan - a country which, even before the massacre, had become a byword for repression. On 13 May, the authorities slaughtered hundreds of protesters. There were no television cameras, and the Uzbek regime denied the massacre had taken place.
Elections in the former Soviet Union are stolen all the time, but governments get away with it by stifling democratic institutions. Western leaders need to support struggling civil societies in the region, before there is nothing left to support.
American democracy provides inspiration by example (rather than by military occupation) to people all over the world who are seeking justice and freedom. And it is important to note that democracy circumscribed at home can encourage anti-democratic forces abroad.
The dramatic but peaceful transfer of power in Georgia on Sunday must be rattling repressive leaders all across the region. The danger now is that governments in Central Asia and the Caucasus may step up political repression to head off a similar scenario.
With the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Uzbekistan only days away, a crucial question remains: Will this high-level gathering serve to promote political and economic reform in the host country, or reward one of the most repressive governments in the region?