US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday met Uzbek President Islam Karimov and officials from other Central Asian states accused of being among the world’s worst human-rights offenders.
In the talks in the ancient city of Samarkand, he tempered any public criticism as he sought deeper US ties with the region, which is seen increasingly as lying in the shadow of an assertive Russia and exposed to Muslim militancy.
Kerry was in Samarkand to meet his five Central Asian counterparts and reassure them of continued US engagement in the region and met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
He spoke to Karimov, who has led Uzbekistan for a quarter of a century and is often criticized internationally for heading a repressive government.
It was the highest-level US encounter with Karimov in years.
Most of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia have poor human-rights records, and a US official insisted that Kerry, on a four-day tour of the region, has not shied away from raising the issue “robustly” behind closed doors.
However, Kerry took pains to avoid direct public criticism as he pursued security and economic concerns at the top of his agenda.
“The United States does support the sovereignty and territorial integrity and independence of each country that’s represented here,” Kerry told the ministers’ meeting.
That message has taken on greater importance as Washington draws down its forces in Afghanistan, concerns mount about the threat to the region from the Islamic State, and Russia, fresh from forays into Ukraine and Syria, reasserts its influence.
It was Kerry’s first meeting as secretary of state with Karimov, one of several former Soviet Communist Party bosses in the region whose grip on power has tightened over the years.
Kerry made no explicit mention of human rights when reporters were allowed briefly into the room at the start of the talks.
However, he said he wanted to discuss with Karimov and Central Asian foreign ministers “the human dimension, the issues of individuals and their participation in society.”
As security men starting ushering reporters out of the room, one American reporter shouted a question to Karimov about the US Department of State’s scathing critique of his human-rights record.
Karimov ignored the query.
Kerry began responding, but the reporter was pushed out of the room before the US official finished.
A later summary of the meeting by the State Department said the two men had talked about “respect for human rights and political freedoms” along with security and economic issues.
A senior US official said only that Karimov “took on board that he would look into it” and that real progress would require persistent US pressure.
At the meeting of foreign ministers, Kerry also appeared to soft-pedal human rights in his public comments.
He advised the ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan that “in Central Asia as elsewhere, people have a deep hunger for governments that are accountable and effective.”
Though none of the other ministers mentioned the issue in their statements, a joint final communique said the states were committed to protecting human rights and developing democratic institutions, though it offered no specific reforms or timetables.
They also declared support for Afghanistan’s development as a “peaceful, thriving” state and an intention to counter cross-border threats such as terrorism.
International human-rights bodies list Karimov’s government as among the world’s most repressive. The latest State Department global report on human rights cites torture and forced labor in the Uzbek cotton fields, as well as “endemic corruption.”
A US official said Kerry’s aides raised with Uzbekistan’s foreign minister some specific cases of political prisoners.
At the same time, the administration of US President Barack Obama is mindful of Uzbekistan’s strategic importance.
It has been, for example, a reliable partner providing logistical support for the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS