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Uzbekistan
's Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, right, talks with U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell at this week's NATO meeting.
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NEW
YORK, May 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A human rights group
has urged the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
to reconsider holding its 2003 meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan until
that country’s human rights record improves, as four Uzbek women
were convicted Friday of belonging to a banned Islamic group, news
agencies reported.
"Uzbekistan
does not deserve the prestige attached to hosting such a
meeting," Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe
and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based
international human rights group.
"The
Uzbek government has a terrible human rights record, and Tashkent is a
terrible symbol for the Bank's principles."
The
conviction of the four Muslim women comes amidst concerns among rights
activists that Uzbekistan has launched a campaign against Muslim
dissenters in the country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Tashkent
city court handed down suspended sentences of two to three years
against the four women for anti-constitutional activities such as
preparing materials considered threatening to the social order.
They
were accused of possessing leaflets of the Islamic party Hizbut
Takhrir which wants to create an Islamic state by peaceful means in
Central Asia and has been banned in Uzbekistan.
The
Uzbek regime has used the threat of Islamic extremism as a pretext to
wage a bitter campaign against religious dissent in the former Soviet
republic, HRW has said.
The
group expressed concern this month that the Uzbek authorities, after
harassing and jailing thousands of men, was now extending its
crackdown to women, in a press release issued on May 1.
Four
Uzbek women were sentenced to probation and up to four years
imprisonment last month for belonging to Hizbut Tahrir.
Uzbek
human rights activist Mikhail Ardzinov attributed Friday's suspended
sentences, considered lenient in Uzbekistan, as a sign of the intense
pressure from the West on the country to clean up its poor rights
record, AFP reported.
"Today's
sentence is a sign of the influence of the international coalition and
the West on Uzbekistan," said Ardzinov.
Uzbekistan
has emerged as a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan
to root out the Al-Qaeda network following the September 11 attacks in
the United States.
Mathilda
Bogner of the HRW’s Tashkent office said that the authorities might
fear that the children of the women would be left orphans if they were
jailed.
In
many cases, the husbands and male relatives of women, accused of
anti-constitutional activity, have already been jailed for Hizbut
Tahrir membership.
The
cases against the women come as discontent rises in Uzbekistan among
the relatives of the thousands of men jailed by the strongarm Uzbek
regime for affiliation to Islamic groups.
Human
Rights Watch noted earlier this month "a steady rise in the
number of people, particularly women, willing to risk the enormously
dangerous move of peacefully voicing their dissent."
In
light of these increasing problems, HRW sent a letter, along with more
than 50 other NGO’s, to the EBRD urging it to set benchmarks for the
Uzbek government to fulfill before they agree to have a meeting there,
the press release said.
"Holding
such a high-level gathering in Tashkent without requiring anything in
exchange will send the wrong message to the Uzbek leadership, which
will be able to flag it as an endorsement of its repressive
policies,” Anderson said. “The Bank must use this opportunity to
seek meaningful reforms from the Uzbek government.”
