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| Central Asia |
| US rebukes Uzbekistan on human rights |
| 2004-07-14 |
| In a rare rebuke of an ally, the Bush administration announced yesterday that it will cut $18 million in military and economic aid to the authoritarian government of Uzbekistan because it has failed to take a series of promised steps to improve its human rights record. The decision will not affect funding Uzbekistan receives from the Nunn-Lugar project to secure nuclear weapons material. Programs that support democracy groups and health care will also be exempt. State Department officials, who had been warning President Islam Karimov’s government for months that the additional aid package was in jeopardy, said they hope the move will send a tough message that political repression can be costly. But Congress, concerned about the country’s human rights record, conditioned the new money on substantial and continuing progress in meeting human rights commitments Karimov made during a visit to Washington in 2002. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |