Brussels, 14/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Two years after the violence in the city of Andijan, the Council remains “seriously concerned” at the human rights situation, but is conducting a partial re-examination of the regime of sanctions against Uzbekistan. On Monday, the Foreign Affairs Ministers took account of certain signs of openness on the part of the Uzbek authorities and decided to review the list of persons subject to a visa ban. Modifying the joint position of November 2006 (EUROPE 9305), which extended the embargo on arms by one year and the visa ban by six months, they have decided to remove four names from this list, which previously ran to eight (Zakirjan Almatov, Tokhir Mullajonov, Ruslan Mirzaev, Pavel Ergashev, Vladimir Mamo, Gregori Pak, Valeri Tadzhiev, Rustam Inoyatov). These new visa restrictions will be in force for six months and may, therefore, be revised at the same time as the weapons embargo. In its conclusions, the Council states that it is “ready to consider the lifting of restrictions if the Uzbek government engages constructively (…)” in favour of human rights, the rule of law and the fundamental freedoms.
In these conclusions, the Foreign Affairs Ministers nonetheless voiced concern at prison terms pronounced against human rights defenders Gulbahor Turaeva and Umida Niazova. The latter was freed on 8 May, just before new dialogue opened on human rights between the EU and Uzbekistan, and the Council is now calling for Ms Turaeva and other human rights defenders still held to be freed. It also hopes to see the rapid implementation of Tashkent's decision to resume its cooperation with the International Committee Of The Red Cross (ICRC) in the near future, and welcomes both the dialogue on human rights, held in the Uzbek capital on 8 and 9 May, and new discussions between experts, on 2 and 3 April, on the violence at Andijan. (ab)