Uzbekistan shuts down US charity

Reuters May 4 Uzbekistan, increasingly hostile toward Western-funded entities, shut down the local office of Counterpart, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization that runs humanitarian projects, on Thursday, the group said. Uzbekistan, an authoritarian Central Asian state, has cracked down on foreign aid groups and media since Western countries criticised the bloody suppression of an uprising in the town of Andizhan a year ago. "Today a Tashkent civil court issued a judgment that called for the liquidation of Counterpart International's representative office in Uzbekistan," David Holiday, head of the organization in the country, told Reuters. Holiday declined to say why the court had ruled to shut it down and did not say whether Counterpart planned to appeal. Court officials could not be reached for comment. The authorities have closed down the local offices at least three other U.S. non-governmental organisations as well as the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and broadcaster Radio Liberty. Britain's BBC closed its office in the country last year, citing official harassment. Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has crushed political opposition to his 16-year rule, says foreign NGOs want to stoke a revolution in Uzbekistan. Russia and other former Soviet states blamed foreign NGOs for the "people's revolutions" that swept through Ukraine and Georgia. Witnesses in Andizhan last year said troops opened fire on civilians, killing hundreds. Karimov's government maintains that 187 people -- all either "terrorists" or police -- were killed and has accused the Western media of fabricating their reports. Uzbek media have reported that Counterpart was accused of conducting work outside its NGO mandate and not cooperating with state financial auditors. Counterpart, in Uzbekistan since the mid-1990s, runs a variety of humanitarian projects. According to its Website it has trained 6,000 people in southern Uzbekistan in conflict prevention and has set up democratically elected community improvement councils to run small infrastructure projects.