UN panel kills resolution on abuses in Uzbekistan
Source: Reuters
By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A key General Assembly panel killed a resolution on Monday that would have rebuked Uzbekistan for arbitrary arrests, stifling dissent and locking up activists in psychiatric wards, among other abuses. A "no action" motion in the committee handling human rights passed by a vote of 74 to 69 with 24 abstentions, thereby cutting off debate. The vote means no action will be taken in the 192-member Assembly. The defeat of the resolution is part of a trend among many developing nations to exclude country-specific "name and shame" documents in U.N. bodies. Still the assembly's committee adopted one against North Korea last week and the Geneva-based Human Rights Council passed three against Israel. The measure was introduced by Sweden and sponsored by European Union Nations, Australia, and the United States, and supported by numerous Latin American nations. China argued that the draft was confrontational and that Uzbekistan had taken steps to improve its rights record since a similar resolution was passed by the Assembly last year. At that time the Assembly was reacting to events in May 2005 in the eastern city of Andijan when a riot broke out over the trial of 23 members of a local religious group. Government troops fired on a crowd of several thousand with witnesses saying more than 700 were killed and the United Nation documenting 450 cases. But the Tashkent government said fewer than 200 died in what it called a terror attack. This year the draft resolution chastised Uzbekistan for not allowing an independent inquiry on Andijan and detaining representatives of local organizations who wanted to watch secret trials of some 266 defendants. The draft also expressed "grave concern" at Uzbekistan's closure of 200 non-governmental organizations in the last year as well as the U.N. refugee agency office in Tashkent. It accused Uzbekistan of arresting witnesses to the Andijan shootings, harassing journalists and suppressing any dissent. Uzbekistan has also committed human rights activists to psychiatric wards and was reported to use forced labor, including children, the draft said. The resolution was based on a report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this month, saying there had been no rights progress over the past year, including "ample evidence" of torture by security authorities. Until Andijan, criticism of Uzbekistan had been muted in Washington after the former Soviet republic allowed the United States to take over a major former Soviet air base at Karshi-Khanabad to help wage war in neighboring Afghanistan. Uzbekistan's government wrote to Annan before his report, saying it had adopted number human rights laws and said that a ban on torture was "final and absolute," pointing to the conviction of 15 law enforcement officers.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
