“Each of these countries is plagued by repressive governments with poor human rights records,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “The Secretary-General should use his visit to press for specific human rights improvements. He can also help invigorate efforts to encourage these governments to cooperate with the U.N. on human rights.”

In China, Human Rights Watch urged the Secretary-General to promote greater freedom of association for grassroots activists combating HIV/AIDS, and to ensure that the government’s proposed measures to stop illegal collection of unsanitary blood in rural areas are implemented.

Other key issues he should raise with Chinese leaders include:

• The impact of growing protests by laid-off and dislocated workers, and the need to respect workers’ rights to organize and join trade unions of their choice, as well as to engage in collective bargaining to seek redress of their grievances.

• China’s attempts to justify intensified repression of ethnic Uighurs on counter-terrorism grounds, without distinguishing between peaceful and violent dissent among Uighurs calling for autonomy or independence in Xinjiang.

“Kofi Annan should urge China to open up Xinjiang to unrestricted access by U.N. and private human rights monitors and legal observers,” said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Human Rights Watch’s Washington director for Asia.

Human Rights Watch concerns in Central Asia pertain to political and religious repression, widespread torture, severe restrictions on the media and the imprisonment of human rights defenders. Human Rights Watch asked the Secretary-General to raise the following issues:

In Kazakhstan:

• The jailing of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) co-founders Mukhtar Abliazov and Galymzhan Zhakianov. Courts sentenced them separately this year on what appear to be politically motivated charges of abuse in office. Government harassment of DVK has risen as this new opposition political party’s popularity has widened.
  
• The criminal case against journalist Sergei Duvanov for “insulting the honor and dignity of the President.”
  
• The growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kazakhstan, which is largely driven by human rights abuses against injecting drug users.

In Kyrgyzstan:

• The continued imprisonment of former vice-president Feliks Kulov, arrested in 2000 and later convicted on trumped-up charges. Kulov was Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev’s most serious rival in the 2001 presidential elections.
  
• The plight of jailed rights defender Bakhodir Akhmedov, who works with victims of religious repression.
  
• The need for an independent commission of inquiry into police killings during the March 2002 demonstrations in Jalal-Abad province.

In Tajikistan:

• The registration of opposition political parties and independent television and radio stations whose documents have been submitted in accordance with the law.
  
• An end to forced return of Afghan refugees, over the protests of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and diplomatic missions in Dushanbe.

In Turkmenistan:

• General concern about the appalling state of human rights in the country, one of the most repressive in the world, and the need for access to it for U.N. and nongovernmental human rights monitors.
  
• The release of Mukhametkuli Aimuradov, imprisoned in 1994 on absurd and politically motivated charges of attempting to assassinate the Turkmen president.

In Uzbekistan: