Uznews.net – The EU is ready to turn over the page in its fight for human rights in Uzbekistan. An attempt to protect human rights has turned out to be a burdensome task for European politicians and they are slowly backtracking, lifting sanctions imposed against Uzbekistan after the Andijan massacre in May 2005 and forgetting about their claims and demands.
On Monday, 26 October, a play that has been staged for the past four years under the title of “the EU’s sanctions for the Andijan massacre on 13 May 2005” will come to an end.
On that day, foreign ministers of EU countries will draw a line under the sanctions at their meeting in Luxembourg.
Islam Karimov and his government will rejoice, celebrating their victory over spineless and unprincipled European politicians, while the EU will have to give up its claims to play any role in defending human rights in Uzbekistan and other countries in the future.
The issue of lifting the last sanctions – an embargo on weapons supplies to Uzbekistan by EU member states – will not even be discussed: diplomats have already drafted a resolution which says that the sanctions will be lifted to encourage further reforms in the human rights sphere in Uzbekistan.
The document says that Uzbekistan has already taken positive steps, such as taking part in a human rights dialogue with the EU, releasing some human rights activists, adopting Habeas Corpus legislation and ratifying UN conventions on banning child labour, which means the sanctions were successful and achieved its aims.
However, European politicians ignored that the main objective of the sanctions was an independent international probe into the Andijan events.
German MP Volker Beck, who is the Green party’s spokesman for human rights, thinks that the abolition of the sanction is a merit of the German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Both prioritise Germany’s strategic interests over human rights in foreign policy, Beck said. Merkel showed this in relations with China and Russia where Germany’s economic or energy interests were higher than human rights in these countries, even though she likes to talk about human rights, Beck noted.
Merkel’s government needs a military base in Termez for supporting its troops in Afghanistan, which is why Tashkent enjoys Berlin’s goodwill, Beck said.
However, Germany would not have lost its base even if it had protected human rights in Uzbekistan, he thinks.
“Defending human rights would have cost nothing to Germany, but even if it were, I am ready to pay the price,” Beck told Uznews.net.
He said he was convinced for 90% that the last sanctions would be lifted in return for nothing from Uzbekistan – the Uzbek government would not even need to release anyone from prison.
Only the public opinion in the EU could reverse its decision to abolish the sanctions and if the media starts a campaign, Volker Beck believes. However, the problem is that the German media are not interested in Uzbekistan, he said. When he tells people that Germany is using Uzbekistan’s despotic regime’s assistance to build a free Afghanistan, he has to show Uzbekistan on the map, he said, adding that even this did not help draw attention to Uzbekistan.
The decision to abolish the sanctions against Uzbekistan will undermine the EU’s future role in international politics when it will come to human rights, Beck thinks.
“Uzbekistan’s example shows that if there is a debate with the EU on human rights, one should not leave a negotiation table but wait until European politicians forget their demands and principles,” Beck said.
The German MP suggested after the abolition of the sanctions Uzbekistan would start buying European weapons to use them against its own people.
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