The Hindu : Protest against Uzbek policies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003

International

International - Globescan

Protest against Uzbek policies

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Muslim human rights groups in Britain have accused the Western Governments of turning a blind eye to the allegedly "repressive'' policies of the Uzbek regime of the President, Islam Karimov, (in the picture) and launched an international campaign to highlight the issue. "The imprisonment, torture and killing of Uzbek Muslims have been ignored by the U.S. and European Governments who view the Uzbek regime as a close ally in the so-called war on terror,'' said Imran Waheed, a spokesman for the Britain-based Hizb-ut-Tahrir which organised a demonstration in London last week to protest London's "silence'' on what is going on in Uzbekistan. He said the "widespread killings and torture'' of dissidents in Uzbekistan had been documented by Human Rights Watch in an article published by its London director, Steve Crawshaw. "The Uzbek regime has unlawfully arrested tens of thousands of Uzbek Muslims, tortured thousands and killed hundreds in extra-judicial killings,'' Dr Waheed alleged. His organisation has published a report on the "persecution'' of Muslims in Uzbekistan.

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