Uzbeks want EU aid in drug war

Date: 29/01/04

THE EU has been asked to support the establishment of a new centre to fight drug trafficking in central Asia.

The request was made on Tuesday (27 January) at a meeting of the EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council.

Sodyq Safaev, the Uzbek foreign minister, said the regional centre would be set up in Tashkent, his country's capital. He told European Voice it would provide coordination between law enforcement officers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, who are dedicated to the fight against what he called "narco-aggression".

Warlords in neighbouring Afghanistan are suspected of large-scale involvement in the heroin trade, while there has been a massive upsurge in the cultivation of opium poppy, the raw material for heroin, there since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Data collated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime suggests around 75% of the heroin imported into the EU originates in Afghanistan, with most of it smuggled through Uzbekistan.

Safaev said his government had not yet decided how much aid to seek from the EU for running the centre.

A partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and the former Soviet republic entered into force in 1999. Although this accord commits Tashkent to improving its human rights record, it has faced severe international criticism in recent years.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Teo van Boven visited Uzbekistan in 2002 and found that torture is systematic in its prisons.

According to Safaev, the government is taking serious action in response. "We have now recognized torture as a crime and 14 people involved in law enforcement were sentenced for abusing human rights last year."

Nevertheless, Human Rights Watch has criticized Tashkent over the alleged mistreatment of journalist Ruslan Sharipov, a strong critic of the government. He pleaded guilty to charges of homosexual behaviour (an offence under the Soviet-era Sodomy Law), and sex with a minor, in August and was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. Sharipov claims he was tortured.

Asked why Tashkent continues to treat homosexual acts between consenting adults as a crime, Safaev remarked: "Some 80% of our country are devoted - and often pious - Muslims. Such a crime is considered to be a huge moral and civil crime."

http://eeas.europa.eu/uzbekistan/index_en.htm http://eeas.europa.eu/uzbekistan/index_en.htm

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