the Disillusioned kid: Where's Peter Tatchell When You Need Him?
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Where's Peter Tatchell When You Need Him?

Uzbekistan watchers will recall that the EU announced plans to impose sanctions on Uzbekistan at the start of October. Included in these plans was a visa ban on all those officials implicated in the Andijan massacre, preventing them from entering the EU. At the time I suggested that the parallels with the sanctions targetted against Robert Mugabe's regime didn't exactly fill me with confidence. These too included visa bans, most notably a ban on Mugabe himself, although this doesn't seem to have done much to prevent Robert from visiting Europe on a number of occasions. (Pursued on many of these occasions by human rights activist Peter Tatchell.) Now I hate to say I told you so, but guess what?

According to Reuters and MosNews (via), Uzbekistan’s Interior Minister Zakirjon Almatov - who doesn't just get onto the list of Uzbek officials banned from entry into the EU, but manages to make it all the way to number one - has received a visa for entry into Germany. Although the Uzbek Embassy and International Neuroscience Institute in Hanover have both apparently declined to comment, it appears that Almatov made the journey for treatment on spinal cancer. The visa was issued in October, prior to the ban coming into effect yesterday (November 14), but a German spokesman explained that it had been run past the EU's executive Commission and Britain who hold's the EU's rotating presidency.

Germany claims that the visa was issued on "humanitarian grounds," and indeed the sanctions do allow for exemptions on such grounds. A number of questions still arise though. Firstly what does it say about the state of Uzbekistan's health system if one of its senior ministers feels the need to rush off to Europe for treatment? More worryingly, what interest does the country's elite have in improving that system if they can just fuck off abroad when they feel unwell? (This is hardly a uniquely Uzbek problem; if MPs have private health care and send their little brats to public schools why should we expect them to do anything positive about the NHS or education?) There is also a suggestion that Germany's motivations may not have been as high-minded as their rhetoric. MosNews suggests that the German government had initially refused Almatov a visa, but had relented in the face of threats from Tashkent that they would close down the German military base at Termez near the Uzbek-Afghan border.
|

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.