AP News, February 5th, 2008
Authorities in Uzbekistan have granted amnesties to two prominent rights activists in what could be part of government efforts to mend frosty ties with the West.
Saidjahon Zainabitdinov, who spent nearly three years in jail, said Tuesday by telephone from his home in the city of Andijan that he was released on Monday under an amnesty approved by the ex-Soviet republic's parliament in November.
Zainabitdinov had provided reporters and international rights organizations with accounts of the violent crackdown on a 2005 uprising in Andijan, saying troops fired on thousands of demonstrators, most of them civilians.
He was arrested a week later and sentenced to seven years in jail for slander and anti-government activities.
Rights groups and witnesses said hundreds of civilians were killed in the Andijan crackdown. The government blamed Islamic militants for the violence and said 187 people died.
The November amnesty, which was declared in connection with the 15th anniversary of the country's constitution, also applied to another prominent rights activist, Umida Niyazova, ending her seven-year suspended sentence for distributing anti-government publications and illegal border crossing.
Niyazova had initially been sentenced to seven years in jail, but the sentence was suspended after she pleaded guilty in court and read aloud a damning confession that also impugned the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch organization, which she worked for.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov rejected international calls for an independent inquiry into the Andijan violence, and responded to Washington's criticism by evicting U.S. military forces from a base that supported operations in Afghanistan. Karimov also stepped up his campaign against dissent after the Andijan revolt.
Uzbekistan's relations with the West have remained chilly, but Karimov said in December that he favored good relations with the United States and Europe.
Ivan Safranchuk, a Russian expert on Central Asia, was quoted in Tuesday's Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper as saying Karimov might be emboldened by the West's muted reaction to his winning a new seven-year term in December elections that were seen as neither free nor fair.
Uzbekistan is a key country in energy-rich ex-Soviet Central Asia, where Russia, China and the United States are vying for influence. Almost half the region's population lives in Uzbekistan, and its political course and stability are crucial for all of Central Asia.
Karimov is expected to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.
