Uzbeks shut second U.S. charity in four days
Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 08:39 CDT
By Shamil Baigin
TASHKENT (Reuters) - Uzbekistan, increasingly hostile toward foreign non-governmental organizations it accuses of fomenting revolution in the ex-Soviet state, has shut a second U.S. charity in four days, the charity said on Tuesday.
A worker for U.S.-based educational charity IREX, who did not want his name to be disclosed, told Reuters that Tashkent city court ordered the organization on Monday to suspend its activities for six months.
"The decision was motivated by IREX's refusal to provide information about Uzbek citizens who studied abroad, being supported by IREX," he said adding that other charges included the use of an unregistered logo.
Court officials could not be reached for comment.
Last Friday, an Uzbek court ordered U.S.-based Internews, which helps media in 50 countries, to close its office. Last year Uzbekistan closed the office of Open Society, a charity run by U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
President Islam Karimov, who has subdued political opposition to his 16-year rule, says international NGOs are trying to stoke a peaceful revolution in Uzbekistan like the ones which changed governments in ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia.
Human rights bodies say dozens of Uzbek dissidents have been jailed and international charities have come under pressure since May, when according to witnesses troops killed more than 500 people, quelling riots in the eastern town of Andizhan.
Karimov resists Western calls for an independent investigation into the Andizhan events and accuses foreign media, humanitarian bodies and charities of waging "an information war" against Uzbekistan.
The authorities say the Andizhan uprising was orchestrated by "extremist foreign forces" and insist that only 187 people, including 94 "terrorists," died in the town.
In another sign of its new hostility toward the West, Tashkent gave the United States six months in July to leave a key airbase in Uzbekistan.
Source: REUTERS
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