Uznews, Tashkent, 24 Aug 2008 – The EU will consider sanctions imposed against Uzbekistan for the massacre in Andijan in 2005 in September or October, the German Foreign Ministry has said.
The ministry’s press service said that the next meeting of EU foreign ministers would discuss Uzbekistan’s fulfilment of demands set by the EU in Luxembourg in April 2008.
The EU decided then to freeze the sanctions for six months because Uzbekistan made some improvements in the sphere of human rights, such as releasing few human rights activists from prison, allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to Uzbek jails and abolishing the death penalty.
The EU is concerned about the human rights situation in Uzbekistan and urged the Uzbek government to guarantee freedom of speech and enable independent media to operate in Uzbekistan and stop intimidating human rights activists who have not been jailed yet.
The EU also demanded accreditation for Human Rights Watch and Uzbekistan’s cooperation with the UN rapporteur on torture.
The German Foreign Ministry said Uzbekistan had made certain steps to fulfil the EU demands but it had done it selectively.
The ministry said that the German government was following the situation around journalist and human rights activist Salijon Abdurahmanov who was arrested in Nukus on 7 June on drug charges.
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