Analysis: U.N. calls for Uzbek openness

UPI December 7 A U.N. report warns Uzbekistan that political instability and withdrawal from cooperative efforts with other Central Asian republics could limit the nation's capacity to improve economic and social conditions. The United Nations fears Uzbekistan will further its isolationist policies and focus political attention exclusively on curtailing domestic unrest like that unleashed May 13 when the military killed more than 500 protesters in the eastern city of Andijan. "There is now a risk that governments in the region will focus once again mainly on the principal short-term goal of maintaining national political stability and cohesion, rather than on more intensive cooperation with each other," said the U.N. Development Program report released Wednesday. Isolationist policies already led the Uzbek government to stretch barbed-wire fences along its frontier with Kazakhstan in 2004 and other borders are periodically closed or blocked by landmines and watchtowers. A World Bank report rated border relations between Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states as the worst in the region. This isolationism, some experts say, prevents Uzbekistan and neighbor states from developing effective government practices necessary to prevent violent incidents like Andijan and their political consequences. Uzbekistan was condemned by the United States, European Union and human rights organizations worldwide for the killing of civilian protestors during the May 13 uprising. "Its kind of a Catch-22 where the security threats perceived by Uzbekistan lead to closing borders and making themselves wary of their neighbors," said Svante Cornell, an expert on Central Asian affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Applied International Studies in Washington in a telephone interview with United Press International. "This in turn alienates them from neighbors and the international community and they become more isolated, which prevents them from becoming a functional, transparent state and developing economically and politically," he said. The U.N. report released in Tokyo said regional cooperation among the five Central Asian states could more than double income levels in the region if better government practices and transparency are promoted by states including Uzbekistan. "Progress on the problems facing Central Asia, including a poor investment climate, threats from natural disasters, health epidemics and terrorism, is hindered by corruption, poor administrative capacity and lack of accountability," says Johannes Linn, who is the primary author of the report titled, "Bringing Down Barriers: Regional Cooperation for Human Development and Human Security," and who works at the Brookings Institution. Cornell said Uzbekistan is criticized unfairly by the United Nations because of its long history of human rights violations and incidents like Andijan, which the Uzbek government blames on Islamic radicals seeking to overthrow the state. "Uzbekistan is being singled out. The Uzbek government concluded that it needed to close borders in order to limit Islamic extremism," he said. "You have these types of problems throughout the region though." Uzbekistan ranks second to last Central Asian state on the Human Development Index, which measures education, gross domestic product, life expectancy and other statistics. The United Nations reports 10 percent of all educated Uzbek citizens emigrate each year, even though Uzbekistan requires exit visas for citizens leaving the country. Some Uzbek dissidents, like former government aide Farhod Inogambaev, who moved to the United States in 2003, doubts such efforts will change conditions under President Islam Kamirov's rule. "I don't think any sort of velvet revolutions like those that occurred in other Central Asian states could occur in Uzbekistan," he told UPI. "Karimov made it clear at Andijan how valuable power is to him." The five Central Asian republics make up one of the poorest regions of the globe and are the focus of intense geopolitical attention due to their location between the Russia and the Middle East. An abundance of natural resources, including hydrocarbons used to produce fuels, add to the region's strategic importance. The U.N. report calls on donors abroad and regional supporters to help the five Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to ease restrictions reducing movement of people, goods and investment across the region. The UNDP also cited some positive efforts to improve regional cooperation and recommended the creation of a U.N. Special Envoy to Central Asia in order to facilitate interregional cooperation. Cornell remains wary of the U.N. report's conclusion that increased cooperation between Central Asian states can occur and, if so, can improve economic and social conditions in the region. "If you want to put it simply, there has been a lot of talk about regional cooperation, but little action," he said. "These countries have been busy building sovereign states and differentiating themselves from one another since the fall of the Soviet Union."