Uznews, Tashkent, 02 Apr 2009 – The office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reassured the Real Union of Journalists of Uzbekistan which asked the German leader to get involved in the case of convicted journalist Salijon Abdurahmanov that Germany is working on his release.
In response to the RUJU’s letter, the office wrote to Galima Bukharbaeva, the chairwoman of the RUJU and editor-in-chief of Uznews.net, that Germany was closely watching the case of Abdurahmanov, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison last October.
The chancellor’s office wrote that it shared the RUJU’s concern about the fate of Abdurahmanov and shared its suspicion about the legality of this case.
The office said it had doubted about the legality of the detention of Abdurahmanov and the criminal case against him long before his conviction.
The German government sent its demand that he should be released through European Union institutions, the letter says.
The office also said that Germany was raising the issue of Abdurahmanov’s release at high-level meetings.
Chairwoman of the RUJU Galima Bukharbaeva was very upbeat about the reply of the chancellor’s letter and grateful for it.
She expressed the hope that Germany and other NATO countries which are concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and need Uzbek bases would pay attention to the situation President Islam Karimov has created in the country.
“Germany, the USA and other countries should understand that the solution to the Afghan problem lies in stabilisation in countries that surround it but with Islam Karimov’s dictatorship, which benefits them while they do not pay proper attention to it, they will get a second Pakistan in the north of Afghanistan,” Bukharbaeva said.
The Islam Karimov regime, which has deprived the Uzbek people of any right and possibility to disagree with the government, every day sowing seeds of anger among people which will manifest in a spontaneous and dangerous form, like in Andijan on 13 May 2005, when Karimov ordered the killings of hundreds.
After the Andijan events US Senator John McCain said that Uzbekistan’s main problem that caused terrorism was its President Karimov who terrorises his own people and creates a favourable soil for radicalising people, Bukharbaeva said.
“NATO should force Karimov to make immediate concessions in the human rights sphere, stop terrorising its people, stop imprisoning the country’s best people and release journalist Salijon Abdurahmanov and other colleagues of ours if they want to succeed in Afghanistan,” she added.
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