By M Rama Rao - Reporting from India
New Delhi, 28 August (Asiantribune.com): Uzbekistan is replacing death sentence with penalties like life imprisonment and long-term imprisonment for various crimes. President Islam Karimov has asked the country's lawmakers to clearly define the crimes for which these new penalties could be imposed even as the rate of imprisonment at 184 per one lakh people in Uzbekistan is the lowest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Currently, terrorism and premeditated murder in 'aggravating circumstances' attract death penalty in Uzbekistan. Torture by law enforcing agencies is also deemed a crime under the Uzbek civil code.
Uzbekistan's Charge d' affairs to India, Alimdjaniov, said hundreds of specialists –lawyers, economists, journalists and other experts are engaged by his government in reforming the criminal laws and enforcement machinery. Public associations and citizens' self- government institutions and representatives of 'mahallys' are also involved in the task as 'improving the human rights practices and ensuring freedoms of the citizens are an article of faith and priority'.
About four years back, Uzbekistan embarked on widespread reforms of the court and judicial systems and liberalizing criminal law as its campaign to integrate more closely with the outside civilizations gained momentum and the security situation improved in Central Asia.
The Islam Karimov government is calibrating the pace of integration carefully. Government officials assert that ensuring of human rights and freedoms of citizens is of 'highest priority'
Already substantial changes have been made in law enforcement practices in matters related to arrest, detention and imprisonment even as the country's parliament adopted more than 120 laws and ratified over 60 international treaties on human rights, including six major UN human rights conventions.
These steps as also the on-going annual amnesty programme for convicts have dramatically brought down the rate of imprisonment when compared to other erstwhile Soviet Republics. And within Uzbekistan itself, the rate of jail term has decreased from about 47 percent to about 35 percent.
As a part of his human rights package, President Karimov has undertaken wide ranging prison reforms. His government is also increasingly providing the Human Rights organizations and the diplomatic corps easy access to prisons and jails across the country. In late 2003, President Karimov signed a decree easing restrictions on family visits for first time offenders of lesser crimes.
The Karimov decree stipulates that the death penalty should be removed from the Uzbek crime procedural code by 2008. The Justice Minister Buritosh Mustafoev heads the working group entrusted with the task of revisiting the crime code and approaching the 'Oliy Majlis', the country's parliament with necessary legislative documents. "The step-by-step submission should be completed by end of 2006, said Uzbek diplomats here in New Delhi.
Another evidence of Uzbekistan's further opening to the world, government officials say, is 'remarkable' penetration of the Internet despite the low per capita incomes. The country now boasts more than 530,000 Internet users, a dramatic increase over the 137,000 recorded in 2001.
India – Uzbeks Relations
India is keenly following the Uzbek progress in human rights field. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government is not allowing the 'dictatorship' of President Karimov to come in the way of the 'excellent' relations with Uzbekistan. In fact, it considers Uzbekistan an important country in the Central Asian region which Delhi believes is 'a part of our extended neighborhood'.
But what about India's advocacy on the one hand of democracy and on the other relationship with a dictatorship. How could it reconcile these two conflicting positions?
A senior Foreign Office mandarin has an interesting response. "I think we deal with the world as it is. We deal with many countries, including our neighbors, which may not be democracies. We try and develop mutually beneficial relationships with all countries".
Both countries have 'some shared' interest on Afghanistan. India is looking at transit to Central Asia via Iran and Afghanistan; The Zaranj-Delaram Road, which is being built in Afghanistan, could ultimately provide an avenue, or route to Uzbekistan which is the key Central Asian market.
Four months back Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook a visit to Uzbekistan at the invitation of President Islam Karimov, who paid a state visit to India last year. Indian officials said the visit provided a 'new meaning and substance' to the bilateral ties covering the political, economic, defence, energy, science and technology and cultural fields.
Pakistan Angle
Surprisingly, one week after tête-à -tête with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Karimov flew into Islamabad to meet his Pak counterpart Gen Pervez Musharraf and it was his first official trip to Pakistan in 14 years. Official explanation is that he was courting Pakistan to boost trade and security.
In recent years, Uzbek perception has been that Islamabad is not doing enough to fight suspected terrorists, including remnants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) that are hiding in the Waziristan tribal belt of Pakistan.
Karimov regards IMU as a major threat to Uzbek security. IMU leader Tahir Yuldosh, one of Uzbekistan's most-wanted fugitives, is thought to be alive and hiding in Pakistan. Uzbek authorities also complain that Pakistan officials do not grant them access to dead or captured Uzbek militants.
So, it is possible that President Karimov landed in Islamabad fortified with 'inputs' provided by Indian Premier.
Ahmed Rashid, Pakistani expert on Central Asia and terrorism, believes so. Karimov probably raised concerns about IMU encroachments and related security issues with Pakistani leadership.
"I am sure the Indians must have given him a lot of intelligence regarding that (counter terrorism), because there is a proxy war -- or a battle, at least -- going on between India and Pakistan,", Rashid was quoted as saying in a Eurasia Net commentary.
Both India and Pakistan are keen on Central Asia and want to tap its market. India is entering the region with certain inbuilt advantages. But for Pakistan, the motivation is its rivalry with India. As Rashid puts it, Musharraf is very keen to improve relations with Central Asia primarily to 'offset the Indian influence in Central Asia". Another reason could be the desire to see Central Asian trade flow through Gwadar and Karachi ports.
At the moment, certainly, Pakistan has very poor relations with the Central Asian Republics. India will soon have an air base in Tajikistan. It has very close relations with all the Central Asian states. It's buying up oil, gas, and drilling rights in Kazakhstan and in Azerbaijan.
One give away to the Karimov thinking and his charm offensive in Islamabad was the composition of his delegation. It included ministers of foreign affairs, justice, finance, and foreign trade, as well as the central-bank chief. Both sides signed in all nine agreements on bilateral trade, small and mid-size business, and agriculture in addition to an accord on counterterrorism.
Delhi Concern
The question that should engage the attention in New Delhi is whether there is more than that meets the eye in the emerging thaw in the Islamabad - Tashkent relations. Or to put it more naughtily, is this a mutual life-line of admiration.
Both have their compulsions; Musharraf wants to be acknowledged as the 'good boy scout' on the terrorism frontier. Karimov has to demonstrate that the Uzbek leadership has not been weakened by the souring of relations with the West in the wake of calls for 'an independent' probe into his government's crackdown in Andijon a year ago.
Certainly a sense of 'hurt' prompted Karimov to evict U.S. troops from Uzbek soil in late 2005. And, to step up pressure since July this year, on the US to close its air base at Karshi-Khanabad, which was set up to facilitate operations in Afghanistan at the height of offensive against the Taliban rule.
Significantly, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry took up the 'close air base' theme and came up with some 'justification' two days after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) called upon the US and its coalition allies in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing their military bases from Central Asia.
Uzbekistan justification for its demand was two-fold. One the Khanabad air field was allowed for military operations against the Taliban in northern Afghanistan after 9/11 and this objective is no longer valid. Second the United States had not paid takeoff and landing fees, as well as compensation for security services, new infrastructure, ecological damage and inconvenience to the local population. Kyrgyzstan has since joined Uzbekistan in calling on Washington to shut down its air base near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
The State Department has rejected both demands. Its view, as articulated by American envoy to Tajikistan, is that the U.S. military bases in the region continue to give active support to the 'continuing' operations of the coalition forces in Afghanistan. RIA Novosti news agency quoted him to say, the bases 'have been set up with express consent of the governments of the receiving states and will operate till each of the countries regards the facilities as a basis for its national security'.
Not Last Word
So it is clear that it will take a while for the last word to be heard on the issue. It is not germane to our discussion any how. The point that India should ponder is how deep the Uzbek is 'hurt' is, and what trade offs it will look for in Islamabad.
Consider what Musharraf had said (during Karimov's visit to Islamabad): "We expressed a mutual desire of developing communication linkages between our two countries through road and rail network, and we offered openly the use of our communication network in Pakistan and our ports at Gwadar and Karachi for the access of Uzbek trade and interaction with the world".
Like in politics, in the relations between countries also, there are never full stops, only comas and some times hyphens. Nonetheless, India has very little to worry about, at least in the short term, given the depth of its relations with Uzbekistan, and the commonality of concerns about drug trafficking, terrorism, separatism, and fundamentalism. It may, in fact, stand to notch incremental gains, if it continues, as it is doing already, to pat Uzbekistan's progress in the human rights arena.
The West would do well to follow the Indian line and give up its tendency to judge other nations by perching itself on the high moral ground and by ignoring ground realities. Terrorism, separatism and extremism are three evils and the three should be fought together and not in isolation of each other.
This is the message from the Indian experience. From what is happening in Uzbekistan and Russia also, for that matter. But the problem with the West, as is clear from its actions over the years, particularly after its 'experiments in democracy' in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq is, that it still believes precept is better than practice. A pity indeed!
-Asian Tribune -
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