http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/80462-0/A year after Islam Karimov’s regime suppressed the riot in the town of Andijan, the principal “interested parties” have not changed their attitudes towards the Andijan events. The United States and European Union have taken an extremely negative stand on Karimov while Russia has sided with Tashkent.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington last Friday, official representative of the U.S. Department of State Sean McCormack said that the U.S. might impose sanctions against Uzbekistan due to a refusal of the Uzbek authorities to allow an international investigation into the Andijan tragedy. “The United States is calling again on the Uzbek government to allow a full-scale and open international investigation into the events in Andijan. The United States also exhorts Uzbekistan to stop persecuting civil society and take steps to fulfill its international obligations as to human rights protection,” said McCormack. Earlier last week Senator John McCane (Republican, Ariz.) and Congressman Christopher Smith (Republican, NJ) proposed a bill aimed at imposing sanctions against Uzbekistan. The U.S. lawmakers submitted the bill to Congress as though to mark the first anniversary of Andijan tragedy. If passed by Congress, the bill would ban high-ranking Uzbek officials from entry to the United States, freeze their bank accounts opened with U.S. banks, and put an embargo on weapons and equipment sale to Uzbekistan. Senator McCormack said the U.S. administration was likely to back the bill.
Javier Solana, Secretary General and High Representative for the Common Foreign Policy and Security of the EU, has made a special statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of Andijan events. Solana extended his condolences to the families of the victims. He also took the opportunity to remind Tashkent of its commitments the UN and OSCE. “It is deeply regretful that the Uzbek authorities still refuse to heed the calls of the UE and other organizations to conduct a full investigation of those events,” says Solana’s statement.
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Bush has Iran being sanctioned and Chavez and now Uzbekistan. No wonder Putin was furious at Bush...