Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-23-Speech-4-185"
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"en.20031023.8.4-185"2
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"Mr President, today in Europe and every part of the civilised world it is Thursday, but in Turkmenistan ironically it is 'the day of justice'. Well, there is nothing just about life in Turkmenistan, but justice for the Turkmen people is what this debate is all about.
President Niyazov renamed himself. He renamed the days of the week. He named the months of the year after his national heroes, starting with himself and his mother. He has built lavish palaces; he has erected statues of himself while his people remain impoverished. From 1985 he has ruled as a tyrant. Since 1999 he has been president for life. In November last year the worst repression of all followed an attack on him.
Turkmenistan has become a land of torture and imprisonment, of death in custody, of intolerance towards political and religious views. The press is muzzled, human rights organisations are barred and opposition is driven abroad. Our resolution lists names, and we demand the release of those names, the end of ill-treatment in those cases where they are actually still alive, and access to them for the Red Cross. But they are the tip of an iceberg that needs to be exposed. I trust that the Commission will do just that.
Our delegation on Central Asia covers all the countries of Central Asia and Mongolia. Last May we were in Uzbekistan, the beautiful and historic country of Tamburlaine. We were made welcome and we saw some improvements in human rights and a willingness to open doors. But two days after we left Mr Ruslan Sharipov was arrested.
Ruslan Sharipov is a journalist who wrote about police and government corruption. He was arrested on charges of homosexual conduct, criminalised in that country under Article 120 of the criminal code, in contradiction with the provisions of the ICCPR ratified by Uzbekistan. On 28 August masked men kidnapped and severely beat his public defender, Surat Ikramov.
In September Mr Sharipov got out by letter allegations of his ill-treatment and of how he was threatened in prison by police and prison officers. In September the charge was reduced, but only reduced. He should never have been charged. He should be released now, and I ask the Commission to intervene in this case.
While we were in Uzbekistan, we also met the British Ambassador, Craig Murray. He is a fearless diplomat who told us the truth as he saw it. Perhaps he was unwise to do so, but he was right to do so. At a meeting in Tashkent on 17 October he said: 'I believe that people are born with an instinct for liberty and that freedom and democracy come naturally to people everywhere once they are given the chance'. Well, the British Government did not endorse or commend him. It summoned him home for treatment. I ask the Commission to issue a diplomatic 'habeus corpus' challenge to the British Foreign Secretary: restore a good man to his post and the gainers will be the Uzbek people and their leaders, but also the good name of British diplomacy."@en1
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