They even visited Turkmenistan…
UPDATE 2 The OSCE did in fact visit Uzbekistan. Apologies to our readers for the mistaken reporting!
UPDATE: There is some question as to the accuracy of the below information. Nathan has the lowdown at the Registan on who is saying the OSCE visited Uzbekistan, and who says they didn’t. The link to the eurasianet story that said they did not went dead (which might be indicative in and of itself), so I replaced it with the RFE/RL version where it was also carried.
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The OSCE recently toured all the Central Asian countries… except Uzbekistan. In the ultimate snub, the OSCE is even trying to engage Turkmenistan, but has chosen to ignore Uzbekistan completely.
De Gucht’s omission of Uzbekistan from his itinerary but inclusion of Turkmenistan was likely meant to send a message to Tashkent that its image abroad is suffering.
If Uzbekistan needs that message spelt out for it, then its government is even more dire straits than observers are reporting. This cycle is self-perpetuating. As Uzbekistan isolates itself from the West, it is subject to harsher and harsher criticism, and now brazen insults, which will push the country even further away.
What the OSCE tour does emphasize is just how alone Uzbekistan is these days, even with regard to its own neighbors. The country may have some success reaching out to countries like Russia, but most other countries (like South Korea) are unlikely to seriously jeopardize their relation by allowing Uzbekistan to take diplomatic refuge.
on April 1st, 2006 at 10:34 am
Hi,
You again misleading readers. De Gucht visited Uzbekistan on Friday and met local officials, including Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
on April 1st, 2006 at 4:41 pm
If I am misleading readers, it is not knowingly. Do you have a source on that? If so I will update the post. I cited my source in the link….
on April 1st, 2006 at 9:45 pm
According to REGNUM, De Gucht actually visited Uzbekistan on 1 April:
“Islam Karimov and OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht exchanged opinions on the issues of the current state and prospects of relations between Uzbekistan and the OSCE
as well as on the issues of further development of Uzbek-Belgian cooperation.”
The Russian version of the press-service’s website says the same.
on April 2nd, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Hi,
OSCE head visited Uzbekistan and I have seen video feed on Uzbek TV with de Gucht and Karimov with participation of Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ghaniev and delegates of the OSCE.
The meeting took place on Saturday, 1 April and I assume that OSCE office was on weekend holidays.
Besides, the Uzbek president’s web site www.press-service.uz also made report on the visit.
I have also read reports of Interfax and BBC Monitoring on the visit of de Gucht.
I think RFE/RL made wrong reports and mislead readers. This is usual case for them.
on April 2nd, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Jack, Olesya: You were right; please accept my apologies.
on April 3rd, 2006 at 7:39 am
That’s OK. People are making mistakes usually and do not trust media for 100%.
on April 3rd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
James, that was April fool’s day joke, right?
on April 6th, 2006 at 3:38 am
If it was, the joke was on us…