Hillary Clinton Tours Central Asian Countries – Attends OSCE Summit in Kazakhstan

Hillary Clinton arrives to Kazakhstan

On December 1, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, started the diplomatic tour of Central Asian countries by attending summit meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital.

Also, many heads of government and top foreign affairs officials from across Europe are attending the summit, which is the first top-level meeting of the 56-nation group in 11 years. The group had not gathered since a summit in 1999 in Istanbul. 

The secretary’s next stop is Kyrgyzstan which has been site to considerable political upheaval in recent months. This spring, violence in the small Central Asian republic forced its president Kurmanbek Bakiev to flee to Belarus while the interim government subsequently struggled to hold on to power. Also, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced as a result of the unrest in southern Kyrgyzstan because of ethnic tensions, which the Kyrgyz government blamed ex-president and his son in instigating these tensions. As a result of the ethnic violence, hundreds were killed, thousands injured and more than 2,600 homes destroyed.

Clinton also will visit Uzbekistan, the most populous republic in Central Asia but also less democratic, for the first time in her nearly two years as secretary of state. The country where elections have never been fairly judged by international observers and the executive branch wields most actual power. Dissidents are persecuted. Opposition parties are not allowed to exist and foreign media have been driven out of the country.

Clinton urged the president, Islam Karimov, who has been in power since 1990, “to demonstrate his commitment through a series of steps to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are truly protected.”

The State Department has stated that the Clinton's visit to Uzbekistan as a chance to promote political reform, but it also an opportunity to affirm security cooperation. Uzbekistan is one link in what the United States call their Northern Distribution Network which brings supplies to Afghanistan through Russia and the different  states of Central Asia.

According to the New-York based Human Rights Watch, Clinton should use her impending visits to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to promote concrete human rights improvements.

• In Kyrgyzstan she should call for a thorough and impartial investigation into the violence in April and June 2010, fair trials for defendants in cases resulting from the violence, and improved security around the court hearings.
• In Uzbekistan she should call on the government to free wrongfully imprisoned human rights defenders and journalists and to end repression of civil society.

“Clinton’s meeting with Karimov is a chance for the US to set the record straight on the need to respect rights,” said Rachel Denber, acting Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Urging the Uzbek government to release imprisoned human rights defenders is a good place to start.”

Human Rights Watch also called on Clinton to urge the Uzbek government to allow the unimpeded operation of nongovernmental organizations, both domestic and international; issue invitations to the eight UN special rapporteurs who have requested access; guarantee freedom of speech and of the media; and implement the conventions against child labor, including by allowing the International Labor Organization to conduct independent monitoring during harvest season.