Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Germany takes heat for EU decision on Uzbek arms embargo

EU ministers have lifted an arms embargo on Uzbekistan in a decision that has little to do with human rights and a lot to do with German military co-operation with the Central Asian dictatorship, analysts believe.

The EU statement on Tuesday (27 October) said the union is "seriously concerned" about human rights abuses in Uzbekistan and would "assess progress" in EU-Uzbek relations one year down the line, while scrapping the arms ban.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Uzbekistan: A strategic ally for Germany in Afghanistan and a popular destination for European tourists (Photo: Wikipedia)

The embargo was imposed in 2005 after Uzbek soldiers machine-gunned hundreds of civilians in the so-called Andijan massacre. Tashkent has refused to hold an enquiry. It continues to put political opponents in jail, torture prisoners and force children to pick cotton.

Germany says the arms move was an EU decision, not a German initiative, and that the Netherlands was the only country to voice reluctance. But Berlin made clear early on in the sanctions review process that it would not support a prolongation of the embargo, which required a consensus of 27 EU states to stay in place.

The Brussels-based NGO, the International Crisis Group (ICG), has taken Germany to task over its position, saying it has worked to unravel EU sanctions on Uzbekistan ever since 2005 in order to ensure that it keeps its military base in Termez, in the south of the country.

The Termez base, which supplies German soldiers in the Kunduz region of Afghanistan, grew in strategic importance earlier this year after Taliban fighters began attacks on German units in Kunduz and cut off another supply route via Tajikistan.

"Berlin has acted as a public relations firm for the Uzbek regime every step of the way," International Crisis Group spokesman Andrew Stroehlein told EUobserver. "Termez is playing heavily on their minds. They want to be seen as a leader on Central Asia policy in the EU and this base is important for their political self-esteem, to help them see themselves as a prominent player on the international scene."

The same day that the EU dropped the Uzbekistan arms embargo, it imposed an arms ban on the Republic of Guinea, in Africa, for a similar massacre in September in which 157 people died. The Uzbek decision risks undermining the impact of the Guinea move however, observers say.

"The EU is sending out the message: 'If we apply sanctions, don't take them too seriously, because if you have a protector in one of the big EU countries, you can get them lifted.' It's good news for dictators," Mr Stroehlein said.

Finnish green MEP Heidi Hautala, who chairs the EU parliament's sub-committee on human rights, added: "The signal to all other authoritarian regimes is clear: We speak but do not really care about your human rights if our economic and strategic interests are at stake."

Symbolic value

The Uzbekistan arms embargo was a largely symbolic EU measure.

Even prior to its imposition in 2005, Germany, for example, sold very little military equipment to Uzbekistan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, some German firms began to export surplus parts for army trucks and "dual-use" technology, such as gadgets used to intercept people's mobile phone conversations.

"I doubt there are lots of deals waiting to be made now, maybe some more telecommunications equipment, that's imaginable," Otfried Nassauer, an expert at the Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security (BITS), an arms-control NGO, said.

Mr Nassauer noted that the new German government coalition last Friday said in its manifesto that it would change its code of conduct on arms sales in order to fit in with EU norms.

The German code is currently tougher than the EU code, with the latter saying export licences should be declined only in the case of a serious breach of human rights. "The new coalition will scrap our code in the name of a level playing field, to go down to the EU level," Mr Nassauer said.

Germany in 2007, in the latest data available, sold over €270,000 worth of military goods to Turkmenistan, another Central Asian regime with an egregious human rights record, despite Berlin's existing in-house rules.

Correction: Ms Heidi Hautala was originally described as a liberal MEP, but she belongs to the Green political family

US and EU breaking taboos to restrain Israel

The US abstained and all EU states on the UN Security Council backed a call for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, as Europe prepares to also blacklist extremist Israeli settlers.

EU warns Russia over Moscow terror attacks

Europe has warned Russia not to use the weekend's terror attacks in Moscow as a pretext to escalate its war in Ukraine and crackdown on internal dissent.

EU summit risks failing Gaza once again, Ireland warns

Austrians and Czechs might block an EU statement calling for an Israeli ceasefire, Ireland warned, as leaders met in Brussels amid starvation in Gaza. Israel's conduct of the war meant it had "squandered the support they had", Leo Varadkar said.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us