Rights Watch Group Forced to Shut Its Uzbek Office

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Rights Watch Group Forced to Shut Its Uzbek Office
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
Published: March 15, 2011

MOSCOW — Uzbekistan’s government has forced Human Rights Watch to shut down its office in the Central Asian country, which has become known both for human rights abuses and a strategic role as a key transportation link for NATO forces in Afghanistan, the organization said on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York and has been registered in Uzbekistan since 1996, said in a statement that it had received notification March 10 from the country’s Supreme Court that its office in Tashkent, the capital, would be shut down.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in the statement that, with the action, “the Uzbek government sends a clear message that it isn’t willing to tolerate critical scrutiny of its human rights record.” He added: “But let me be clear, too: we aren’t going to be silenced by this.”

Mr. Roth called on the United States and European Union, which controversially received the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, last January, to make unequivocal statements on Uzbekistan’s human rights violations and to make clear that the policy is not “cost-free.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16iht-uzbek16.html?_r=1&ref=world

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Where was HRW during the _Bush occupation?

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http://www.sras.org.nyud.net:8090/img/photo/ca-karimov-americans.jpg http://www.richardneville.com.nyud.net:8090/Journal/webimages/030605_15.jpg http://www.world-crisis.com.nyud.net:8090/images/uploads/karimov_terror_1.jpg http://earthhopenetwork.net.nyud.net:8090/Uzbek_President_Islam_Karimov_colin_powell.jpg

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