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«Б И Р Л И К» Х А Л Қ Ҳ А Р А К А Т И П А Р Т И Я С И
P O P U L A R M O V E M E N T «B I R L I K» P A R T Y
(Chairman - Abdurahim Polat: 1-703-455-9053, General Secretary – Vasila Inoyat: 998-97-131-4872, info@birlik.net)
February 02, 2012
To: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
From: Abdurahim Polat
“Birlik” Party of Uzbekistan
Chairman
Dear Madam Secretary,
I have recently read in the news (USA Today and Washington Post), the stories of six American civil rights activists in Egypt, including workers of the IRI, NDI and Freedom House, who are being prohibited from leaving the country and are being sheltered in the U.S. Embassy.
I have been cooperating with these American organisations for many years and even knew of the negative aspects of their activities at least in my country – Uzbekistan. I even mentioned this during my testimonial speech at the Helsinki Commission Briefing, the text of which can be found here:
About one year ago, I wrote a letter to Mr. Lorne Craner, president of the International Republican Institute (IRI), since I knew him from his work in the State Department, and suggested that we discuss existing shortcomings, and expressed confidence that we have to make appropriate conclusions in order to prevent the repetition of mistakes.
Unfortunately, I did not get any response. I still think that Mr. Craner could take some steps in order to prevent events like the ones in Egypt if he listened to my reasoning. I am still confident that I can help those civil rights activists in Egypt.
Currently, I live in the United States and want to deliver about myself just the following:
I was the only opposition leader from the former Soviet Union, who had the chance to meet with first level heads of the country, for example, with Prime Minister of the USSR Nikolay Rijkov (July 16, 1989).
I was also the only opposition leader from the former Soviet Union, who had a meeting with then U.S. Secretary of State Mr. James Baker when he visited most of the former Soviet republics in February of 1992.
On June 29, 1992 I was badly beaten by agents of the Security Services of Uzbekistan. On July 7, 1992 I was visited in the hospital by then U.S. Senator Larry Pressler. Later he gave an emotional speech before the U.S. Senate (see: L.Pressler. “Time for caution in Central Asia”, Congressional Record, 138, No 21, July 21, 1992, pages 1-3) where he described meeting with me. Following Sen. Pressler’s speech, the announced official visit of Uzbekistan’s President to Washington was cancelled.
In 2006 our Party advised the European Union to abstain from enforcing sanctions against Uzbekistan and attempt to isolate it from the outside world, because it is useless. There are historical examples - Cuba, Iraq, Northern Korea, etc. A more effective way is to integrate Uzbekistan into all the international institutions. Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy accepted our suggestions and thanked me personally by letter. Texts of our Appeal and letter from EU are attached.
Thank you for attention.
Sincerely yours,
Abdurahim Polat
Chairman of “Birlik’Party
