Activists criticise EBRD for meeting in Tashkent

Rights groups have strongly criticised a decision by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to proceed with its annual meeting and business forum in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Sunday. The government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov has a poor human rights record, and activists maintain that the two-day meeting will send out the wrong message both domestically and abroad. "It is an unfortunate decision that the bank is holding the meeting in a country like Uzbekistan," Matilda Bogner, the office director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Uzbekistan, told IRIN from Tashkent. Despite its poor rights record, the government would use the meeting to promote itself to the international community, she warned. Bogner noted that the level of the persecution being perpetrated on in Uzbekistan was so significantly high, that Tashkent stood out as one of the worst rights abusers in Central Asia. Echoing her view, Petr Hlobil of CEE Bankwatch, an international body monitoring investment and financial organisations in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and their impact on human rights and the environment, described the atmosphere in Central Asia's most populous nation as a throwback to the communist era that ended more than a decade ago. "On a personal level, walking on the streets with hundreds of police, including non-uniformed ones, and seeing people's fear to speak about issues related to the government or the president, brings back my memories of living in a communist regime," he told IRIN from Tashkent. Agreeing with Bogner, he pointed out that the Uzbek media remained largely state-controlled and that they would therefore exploit this meeting to claim that the EBRD was endorsing the government's policies. "If the banks in the shareholder governments are not prepared to handle the meeting right, it will be definitely counterproductive, and will undermine years of effort by NGOs and the international community, including UN agencies such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, to promote human rights in the country," he maintained. And while rights group, including the Vienna-based Helsinki Federation Human Rights (IHF), praised the EBRD's decision in March to link investment in Uzbekistan to an improvement in its human rights record, most felt much more was needed. "We welcomed this, but it is unfortunate that the conditions were not linked to the meeting itself." Bogner asserted. At the time, Aaron Rhodes, the IHF executive director, told IRIN that "no society suffering under human rights abuses like those currently endured by Uzbek citizens can be stable or prosperous. International financial institutions like the European Bank must try to see the social reality of Uzbekistan behind the government's promises and excuses." But despite the criticism, bank officials on the eve of the meeting remain upbeat. EBRD President Jean Lemierre told reporters that the meeting would provide an unprecedented opportunity for the open exchange of views by a wide cross section of participants. "This is a gathering of civil society that has probably never been seen in Central Asia, that the EBRD is proud to have made possible," he said. EBRD's first annual meeting to be held in Central Asia is expected to draw well over 100 representatives of NGOs, many of them from the Central Asia region. Close to 500 business guests have registered, and delegates, journalists and officials will bring the level of participation up to about 1,600. According to Lemierre, the meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss democracy and human rights, both of which are fundamental factors for strengthening the investment climate. The Bank official is expected to submit a message on the importance of open markets, while cross-border relations will provide another theme of particular relevance to landlocked Central Asia, where international links and trade have the potential to spur economic growth.