[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       HUMAN RIGHTS IN UZBEKISTAN

                                 ______


                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 26, 1994

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, Uzbekistan's regime continues to flout CSCE 
commitments by cracking down on opposition activists and violating 
their human rights. Even more alarming, Uzbekistan's security agencies 
have reached beyond the country's borders to attack and intimidate 
Uzbek human rights activists abroad. The United States must communicate 
to Uzbekistan that such behavior is intolerable.
  Under President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's democratic opposition has 
been terrorized out of existence. Erk and Birlik, the two largest 
political groups, have been shut down and their leaders hounded into 
exile. Mohammad Solikh, the chairman of Erk, now lives in Istanbul, 
after going underground in his homeland to escape the security 
services' dragnet. Also in Istanbul is Abdurrakhim Pulatov, the 
chairman of Birlik, who was nearly killed when he was beaten on the 
head with metal rods in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital.
  Pulatov's brother Abdumannob, a member of Birlik's leadership, 
received special attention from Uzbekistan's coercive apparatus. While 
attending a human rights conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in December 
1992, Uzbek security agents kidnaped him and forcibly brought him to 
Tashkent, where he stood trial on trumped-up charges of ``insulting the 
dignity of the president.'' Fortunately, a groundswell of international 
publicity and interest in the case saved him from prison: the court 
convicted him, but he was amnestied and now lives in the United States.
  Apparently undeterred by the international condemnation connected 
with that incident, Uzbek security, it seems, last week tried the same 
tactic. Uzbek agents went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to inquire about Uzbek 
human rights activists assembled there for a conference organized by 
the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Informed about the Uzbeks' 
presence and likely purpose, Kazakhstan's authorities promptly deported 
them, for which they deserve credit.
  No Uzbek activists suffered harassment in Kazakhstan. In Uzbekistan, 
however, two members of the opposition group Birlik were reportedly 
detained to prevent their travel to Kazakhstan for the conference.
  What underlies this behavior was an attitude that Uzbek Government 
officials recently made explicit at a CSCE-sponsored Seminar on the 
Human Dimension in Almaty. They argued that, as Uzbekistan is not a 
European state, perhaps Western concepts of human rights were not 
applicable there.
  Mr. Speaker, Uzbekistan in 1992 voluntarily joined the CSCE, by which 
act it freely obligated itself to fulfill CSCE commitments. The very 
basis of the CSCE--and of modern, civilized countries--is the belief 
that human rights are inalienable and universal, regardless of history, 
cultural traditions or values. If Uzbekistan's president and government 
do not subscribe to this belief, maybe they should reconsider their 
membership in CSCE and the benefits it confers. Meanwhile, they should 
expect continued criticism of their repressive policies, which are 
impeding the improvement of United States-Uzbek relations.

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