The emerging oppositional movement of Uzbeks in exile has already showed its intentions to draw attention to the political regime in the country. First, they founded People’s Movement of Uzbekistan (PMU) with branches in Canada, Sweden and Norway.

After that, they spoiled Islam Karimov’s Independence Day celebrations with a protest in Istanbul in front of the Uzbek Consulate, where some fifty participants were holding banners with demands in Uzbek, English and Turkish, such as: “We don’t forget Andijan!”, “Time to Change!”, “Stop Torture!”, “For every Pharaoh there is a Moses,” etc.

On exactly the same day PMU sent off an appeal to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stating that:

“The Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov and members of his clan have been carrying out the policy of state terror against own people over the last 20 years, turning the country into the Uzbek GULAG. Thousands of prisoners, including political have been imprisoned in camps, jails, and detention centers where they have been suffering from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”

As a proof, PMU refers to Human Rights Watch, United Nations and its Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven, US Department of State, as well as quotes former British Ambassador Graig Murray for The Washington Post:

“The next day, an envelope landed on my desk; inside were photos of the corpse of a man who had been imprisoned in Uzbekistan’s gulags. I learned that his name was Muzafar Avazov. His face was bruised, his torso and limbs livid purple. We sent the photos to the University of Glasgow. Two weeks later, a pathology report arrived. It said that the man’s fingernails had been pulled out, that he had been beaten and that the line around his torso showed he had been immersed in hot liquid. It had been boiled alive.”

PMU also mentions the tragic events in Andijan, in 2005, emphasizing President Karimov’s position on the fact that Europe had later lifted all the sanctions imposed on the government of Uzbekistan.

The massacre, the Uzbek government’s refusal to allow an international investigation, and the ensuing crackdown, led the EU to impose sanctions in October 2005 and to establish a set of human rights criteria for the Uzbek government. The Uzbek government has not met those criteria, but the EU gradually eased the sanctions and in 2009 lifted them completely.

Referring to the recent Arab Spring events, and situation in Syria in particular, activists remind Harper that “Canada [has] joined USA and other European counties and imposed immediate sanctions against members of the current Syrian regime in response to the brutal crackdown on protesters,” and that “Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov is the same criminal as the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the main destabilizing factor and the threat to the entire Central Asia.”

The appeal ends with a statement that the situation in Uzbekistan can be changed “only through the firm and immediate international sanctions.”

“Canada should re-examine its relationships with the Uzbek government in light of its atrocious human rights record and crimes against its own people. We call upon the Government of Canada to impose sanctions against the current criminal regime of President Karimov.“

As far as I know we do not really have tight diplomatic relations with Canada. The relations we have are mostly based on benefits-without-politics approach “based on equality, mutual trust and taking into account interest of each other.”

Not sure if the letter by PMU’s Canadian branch will help in chaging the mind of Mr.Harper but it could help in spreading a word about the real situation in Uzbekistan, “one of the Stans”, to Canadians who have no idea about it. This aim can be achieved way easier than the initial one on imposing sanctions and pushing the regime to leave the political scene in the country.