Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-27-Speech-4-139"
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"en.20051027.17.4-139"2
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".
Mr President, Uzbekistan is an ancient cultural landscape which, having brought forth such states as the Khanates of Bukhara and Kokand, fell victim to aggressive colonialism. Today, we have been discussing European colonialism in Africa, but in this instance the colonialism was Soviet and Communist in character, following on the heels of Tsarist colonialism in Central Asia. It was only in 1989, with the overthrow of the Communist regime in Central Europe, that this colonialism was brought to an end – something I would like to say for Mr Kohlíček’s benefit.
We are under the obligation to consider the situation there in a realistic light. These countries were punished by being turned into monocultures, they were plundered and bled dry, and now they have set out on the laborious road to statehood. One has to have a certain sympathy for their situation, and they also need all the intensive help we can offer. That does not mean, however, that we can turn a blind eye to human rights abuses.
What we call for is clear and unambiguous: we demand that the Uzbek Government should cease from obstructing the investigations that are already overdue, that it should release all detainees and grant fundamental and human rights. If we are to make any headway here, though, it will be by dialogue and not by treating the other party as a child.
We have to be aware of the presence of terrorists and destabilising elements throughout the region, not to mention the continuing influence of Moscow, which has recently been supplying Uzbekistan with large quantities of plate mines, which we have often had cause to discuss in this House, and which are intended, among other things, for the further fortification of the borders. Russian troops are still present, acting as if this were still colonial territory. That is something else that we cannot accept just like that, since this is a region in which the powers’ vital geo-strategic interests collide, not least in the energy sector.
So let it be said loud and clear that, in this area, there are two opposites: human rights and open and fair partnership on the one hand, and colonialism in whatever shape or form on the other."@en1
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