Chairman-in-Office urges Uzbekistan to allow OSCE monitors into closed trials of alleged terrorists

LJUBLJANA, 2 December 2005 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, has written to the Uzbek Government, recalling its promise to give international observers the opportunity to monitor trials arising from the violent events in Andijan in May this year.

Reacting to news that closed-session trials involving 58 persons charged with offences including murder and terrorist acts, have opened this week in Uzbekistan, Minister Rupel pointed out that experts from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) were available to return to the country.

In his letter to Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev,  the Chairman-in-Office recalled the Uzbek Government's commitments concerning the openness of trials relating to the Andijan events and the invitation to ODHIR experts to monitor them. Monitors were ready to arrive in Tashkent to start trial monitoring as soon as possible.

He also recalled that the Secretary General of the OSCE, Marc Perrrin de Brichambaut, visited Tashkent on 28 and 29 July, encouraged by a number of OSCE States, with the aim of re-establishing a genuine dialogue and maintaining working relations between the OSCE and Uzbekistan.

The fact that the trials are closed should not exclude international monitoring. The OSCE has extensive experience from the Balkans in monitoring closed trials, keeping full confidentiality.

The background to the despatch of the letter was confirmation in a press statement, issued by the Supreme Court in Uzbekistan, that a further 58 people, in addition to the 15 found guilty last month, were now involved in closed-court proceedings at four locations, on various charges arising from last May's events in Andijan.