Unfortunate!!!

Is this for real? Why would Grenada move to establish diplomatic relations with one of the most brutal regimes in Eastern Europe known as Uzbekistan?

This decision taken by the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government is quite baffling given the international track record of the regimes that have ruled the country since the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the dismantling of world communism.

It is well documented that Uzbekistan has been condemned by international human right bodies for harassing and jailing independent journalist and preventing political opponents of the government from operating freely in the country’s electoral process.

It is interesting that the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter David was a member of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) which constantly criticized late Prime Minister Eric Gairy and his labour party government for establishing ties with the bloody Pinochet military regime in Chile.

Forty- five (45) years later on, another administration in Grenada is establishing diplomatic ties with a regime in Eastern Europe with one of the most brutal records when it comes to human rights abuses and harassment of political opponents.

THE NEW TODAY gives an insight into our newest friend at the international level and its track record within the past two years from an international human rights watchdog body:

• Uzbekistan has been known as a deeply authoritarian state since becoming an independent republic after the fall of the Soviet Union. The rule of president Islam Karimov, which lasted more than a quarter century, was notorious for gross violations of human rights, widespread corruption, and isolation from the world.
• Human rights defender Elena Urlaeva was illegally detained, beaten, and forcibly hospitalised in a psychiatric facility in Tashkent for 23 days, preventing her from attending a meeting with representatives of the World Bank to discuss the practice of forced labour in Uzbekistan.
• Censorship, threats, and harassment against independent thinkers and journalists continued, even if to a lesser extent compared with past years.
• Independent journalist Bobomurod Abdullaev, who wrote about the internal politics and personal lives of the Uzbek elite on an opposition website under the pseudonym Usmon Haknazarov, was detained and placed under investigation.
• Nurullo Otakhonov, author of the book These Days, which harshly criticised the Karimov regime, was arrested on terrorism charges immediately upon his return from Turkey after living abroad for several years. Lawyers refused to defend Otakhonov for fear of being persecuted.
• Narzullo Okhunjonov, a former political radio commentator at the state-run broadcaster UzMTRK who had left Uzbekistan for Turkey in 2013, was arrested in Ukraine while seeking asylum, apparently in response to an international arrest warrant issued from Uzbekistan.
• Uzbekistan’s electoral system is designed to prevent any genuine political competition. Party registration is tightly restricted, vote tabulation is opaque, and ballot stuffing is the norm. The opposition party Birlik has been refused registration since the first national elections in independent Uzbekistan in 1991.
• Imprisonment of political opposition leaders has been an established practice since that time, and there is no true opposition party in the country. Uzbekistan has never held free and fair elections in its history.
• Uzbekistan still has one of the strictest regimes governing NGOs in the region. After the country expelled almost all foreign NGOs during the 2000s, independent civil society on the ground is practically nonexistent. There are strict rules for forming, operating, and funding NGOs or other forms of civil society, and huge administrative and criminal penalties exist for the slightest deviation from the regulations.
• Three prisoners of conscience were released after serving long prison terms: human rights defender Azamjon Farmonov from the notorious Jasliq prison, journalist Solijon Abdurahmonov from Shaikhali prison, and civil society leader Agzam Turgunovfrom colony number 49. These prisoners of conscience were held on technicalities or secondary convictions long after their original sentences were completed, a common practice with political prisoners in Uzbekistan.
• Despite the president’s talk of greater religious freedom, key aspects of the state’s repressive approach remain unchanged. For example, during the month of Ramadan and the Eid holiday, as usual, children were barred from entering mosques. Women and girls wearing headscarves continued to face harassment and discrimination.
• Criminal prosecutions and persecution of religious people continued. The government took credit for the release of some religious prisoners and their acceptance of the state’s official version of Islam, but to what extent these released prisoners are voluntarily accepting the state-approved version of Islam is unknown.
• Mirziyoyev’s government used Islam in its state propaganda and the enforcement of official and unofficial laws in 2017. Throughout the year, police and NSS agents continued to raid, surveil, seize religious literature, arrest, deport, fine, and sentence and torture without impunity people who practiced religion outside the state’s tightly proscribed limits, whether Islam or Christianity.
• Two sisters, Mehrinisso and Zulhumor Hamdamova of Qarshi, who were sentenced more than seven years ago for holding Muslim meetings for women without state permission, had three years added to their prison terms after their initial sentences expired.
• The prominent human rights lawyer Polina Braunerg, who represented a number of imprisoned human rights activists and political prisoners, died after suffering a stroke. Uzbek authorities had refused to issue her an exit visa to leave the country despite her needing medical treatment abroad.

The above is only a small sample of the regime that Grenada has now chosen to establish diplomatic relations.

THE NEW TODAY is convinced that there is something underneath the surface that will come to light at some point in time.

There is a lot of dirty money floating around in some of these Eastern European states and greedy eyes in St. George’s might be looking to cash in on some of the loot for their own personal advancement politically.

Time will tell.