Comments on: UNHCR expelled from Uzbekistan

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:18:08 +0000

Laurence. Chris Patten was indeed European Commissioner and in that role worked in the Balkans but he did not have a leading position there. Governor of Hong Kong, head of a commission on policing in Northern Ireland, Chancellor of Oxford are all posts he has held but “British diplomat in the former Yugoslavia” is not one of them.

“Declaration of war” completely overstates it. It is a cogent, well argued piece calling for effective steps to minimise the impact a terrible government has on its neighbours. Why do you always embellish anything to do with ICG. I heard you once got rejected for a job there which accounts for your bitterness about them.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 02:45:23 +0000

Switching subjects, I stumbled across this link which has Nathan’s movie about a Mongolian John Wayne. It’s calld “Top 10 movies that went wrong”. It’s up there with the likes of Battlefield Earth and Glitter.
http://www.2spare.com/item_49476.aspx

By: karakum

karakum — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 20:44:35 +0000

Rustam – you have a point there. Agree.

By: Rustam

Rustam — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:41:57 +0000

What You say is plausible Karakum, however who is to guarantee that tomorrow, God forbid, another Andijan will not take place as a consequence of ever increasing torture and paranoia of Karimov. Then who is going to help those who will run for their lives to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan for that matter. Who will be there, being a witness to how SNB and MVD are forcibly bringing people from the bordering regions of neighbouring countries, who will assist them to leave these “neighbours”, who have showed that they will readily give up anyone whom Karimov will ask. With this logic, then let’s close UNHCR office in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well.
To Dolkun, I don’t know who are You, never met You here before, I would say that it is not funny, I wish that You could live through what those old women, pregnant mothers and children felt running for their lives to Kyrgyzstan, those injured who were killed with a shot in their head, get bitten and tortured in the basements of SNB and MVD, live in kishlaqs, without ever seeing a meat, eggs and butter for weeks.

By: karakum

karakum — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:27:39 +0000

Funny but stupid.

By: Dolkun

Dolkun — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:06:05 +0000

Karakum,

Absolutely, the UNHCR is no longer needed, because the 2,000 refugees from Afghanistan have all been given spacious houses with riverfront or mountain views. The World Bank and EBRD also aren’t needed, because Uzbekistan has the most solid macroeconomics in Central Asia. In fact, Uzbekistan ought to open up its own UzAID and export its incredibly successful model to other less fortunate countries.

By: karakum

karakum — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:46:45 +0000

In that case then maybe: the overall effort has been quite clear and bold from the Uzbek authorities’ part. Except that I think UNHCR presence/non-presence is very peripheral from the civil society perspective. UNICEF, UNDP and others – yes; hope those will stay in the country.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:22:36 +0000

If it were this move alone, I’d almost agree with you karakum. I am more than aware that some UN offices and jobs seem primarily to be there in order to keep money and jobs flowing (that being said, some UN offices do run efficiently). But as david so pointedly indicated (which is an amazing statistic, BTW), this move is just another step to take control over all civil society.

By: karakum

karakum — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:54:10 +0000

Again, I feel at odds to “defend” an authoritarian regime, but there seems to be no business case for UNHCR presence in Uzbekistan to begin with. The country is not signatory of any of those multilateral conventions, mentioned in the press release; they don’t have refugees from the mid-90s Tajik civil war any more; those 2000 are Afghans (almost certainly of Uzbek stock) who have integrated into the society long ago. I don’t see why the need to add to all this a controversial spin. Just because a country/regime is “bad” so all news coming out of there have to be “bad” too?

By: david walther

david walther — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:34:47 +0000

Correction: that should read, “last year alone.” That is, 2005.