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U.S. Keeps Military Program in Uzbekistan
The United States is continuing to its military relationship with Uzbekistan, including paying to disable nuclear weapons from the old Soviet arsenal, under President Bushâs waiver of rules that required improvements in the countryâs human rights record. Both the finding that Uzbek President Islam Karimovâs government failed last year to meet rights criteria of the Nunn-Lugar disarmament program, and Bushâs waiver on national security grounds, were effective Dec. 31, State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said Sunday.Umm, well, okay. Nunn-Lugar, named for its authors - Sam Nunn, a former senator from Georgia, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind. - established a program in 1991 to work toward elimination of strategic nuclear weapons. The program has destroyed thousands of warheads and launchers. To receive money under the law, U.S. partners in the program must satisfy human rights requirements unless the president says the national interest takes precedence. Fintor said an assistant secretary of state, Beth Jones, called in Uzbekistanâs ambassador, informed him of the two decisions "and emphasized the need for stepped-up efforts by Uzbekistan to improve the human rights situation. The United States will continue to work with Uzbekistan toward this goal." The State Departmentâs last report on Uzbekistanâs human rights record was released in March. It criticized Karimovâs government for its suppression of democracy and serious abuses of Uzbeksâ rights. Clean out the nukes and then educate them about this cause-effect thing on the rights record. Posted by: Steve White 2004-01-12 |
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