EU vows to raise human rights during Uzbek president's visit

Jan 22, 2011, 17:11 GMT

Brussels - The European Union will press Uzbek President Islam Karimov to defend human rights when he visits Brussels on Monday, officials said as civil groups called for tough action.

Karimov has ruled his country with an authoritarian hand since it broke from the Soviet Union in 1990. In 2005, he was blacklisted by the EU for refusing to allow an international probe into the killing of hundreds of demonstrators in the city of Andijan.

The EU lifted its sanctions in 2009, but human-rights groups say that his regime still carries out major abuses.

Karimov is to meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday, with human rights 'as the first point of the agenda,' commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said.

Since lifting the sanctions, 'The entire EU has decided not to follow a policy of isolation with this country, but rather a critical and conditional engagement ... It's rather by having a robust and strong dialogue with the authorities of this country that we could push for further reforms on human rights,' Bailly said.

Barroso is the highest-ranking EU official to meet Karimov on this visit. The president of the council of EU member states, Herman Van Rompuy, is not to meet the Uzbek leader, with officials saying that this was because of previously arranged meetings.

Karimov asked for the meeting with Barroso, Bailly said. He is due to meet NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen later on Monday.

Ahead of the meeting, pressure group Amnesty International wrote an open letter to Barroso demanding that he raise directly with Karimov the issue of attacks on human-rights workers in Uzbekistan and call for an international probe into the Andijan killings.

'Given the serious, persistent nature of the human rights violations in Uzbekistan, it is imperative that your meeting is used to raise these concerns and to obtain specific commitments,' the letter read.

Bailly said that Karimov's regime had made 'some progress' on human rights, but that 'there is a lack of substantial progress in some aspects of human rights, so we will continue to press for that.'

Uzbekistan is a key player in Central Asia, with direct land links to Afghanistan and major energy reserves. On Monday, officials from the Uzbek government and the commission are due to sign a memorandum setting out how their relations on energy issues should develop.