Uzbekistan Cancels German Parliamentary Rights Committee Visit
The Uzbek government may be happy to accept a German trade delegation to discuss more than €1 billion in joint ventures, but the Uzbek Foreign Ministry has cancelled a trip by the German Bundestag Committee for Human Rights, eurasiantransition.org reported today.
The EU has been sending mixed signals, having quiet dialogues on human rights, even as its members maintain robust and visible political and trade relations.
Yet there are increasing signs of ambivalence about this relationship, even on its own terms with some German firms losing money on unreliable Uzbek joint ventures gone awry.
The moral ramifications of propping up the regime of President Islam Karimov have also become more evident lately. Members of two German parties – the Green and Free Democrats – have called on the EU to refuse a €3.7m grant to a charity run by the Uzbek president’s daughter Lola Karimova, uznews.net reported.
The scandal involving the EU's representation in Tashkent, Europa House, erupted earlier this month in connection with a libel lawsuit by the president's daughter -- a suit that rue89.com correspondent August Scalbert is confident that he will win when the verdict is announced tomorrow.
Deutsche Welle has reported today that the EU appears to be backing down from transferring the grant after a challenge from German MEPs to explain why almost all the funding for disabled children was being passed through the state-created non-profit of the president's daughter.
The Bundestag human rights mission was scheduled for November of this year, but cancelled by Uzbek officials due to a "tight schedule" as they are busy with "further democratic reformation," according to a statement from the ministry.
The cancellation may have been caused by the criticism faced from the German human rights commissioner by Deputy Foreign Minister Norov during his trip to Germany last month, and the MEP protests over Karimova-Tillyaev's charity.
Volker Beck, parliamentary spokesperson of the Greens for human rights, told eurasiatransition.org
Uzbekistan is too scared to talk about human rights issues openly, that they even are not willing to let German Parliamentarians into the country. Now I have my doubts, if a human rights dialogue with Uzbekistan can be fruitful.
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