RESTRICTIVE MEASURES AGAINST UZBEKISTAN
Letter from Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Minister
for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Chairman
I am writing to let your Committee know of plans
to renew EU sanctions against Uzbekistan.
The current EU sanctions against Uzbekistan
expire in November 2006. The EU is currently discussing whether
to renew sanctions (targeted visa ban, arms embargo and partial
suspension of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement) adopted
in November 2005. The Uzbeks still reject an international enquiry
into the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force at Andizhan
in May 2005 and have refused to co-operate with a variety of UN
Rapporteurs and an Independent Expert. The human rights situation
in the country has continued to deteriorate alarmingly.
With the sanctions due for renewal, the Uzbeks
have belatedly offered to discuss Andizhan with the EU and offered
a separate human rights dialogue. There will be an EU-Uzbekistan
Co-operation Council (CC) on 6 November. These promises have not
been accompanied by any action to improve the human rights situation
on the ground. Nevertheless some EU Member States wish to see
the outcome of the CC before taking a final decision on the sanctions.
There are three options under discussion:
(iii) extension of the arms embargo for 12 months.
The sanctions text is due for adoption at the
GAERC on 13-14 November. Unfortunately the final proposed text
of the sanctions will not be available in enough time to allow
proper scrutiny due to the ongoing discussions outlined above.
With this in mind the Clerk of the Commons Committee has recommended
that I write warning that there is unlikely to be enough time
for you or the Commons Committee to scrutinse the Decision.
In light of the need to allow the unbroken enforcement
of EU sanctions against Uzbekistan I hope the Committee will understand
if I decide to agree the Decision before scrutiny has been completed.
26 October 2006
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