Bush Waives Restrictions on Nonproliferation Support for Uzbekistan

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush last week waived restrictions placed on U.S. nonproliferation aid to Uzbekistan (see GSN, Aug. 13).

In a Dec. 14 memorandum, Bush removed the restrictions placed on aid provided in fiscal 2005 to Uzbekistan through the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which seeks to secure and dispose of former Soviet weapons of mass destruction.

Before support can be provided to a former Soviet state through the program, a U.S. presidential certification must be made that the country is:

— making a substantial investment of its resources for dismantling or destroying such weapons;

— forgoing any military modernization program that exceeds legitimate defense requirements and forgoing the replacement of destroyed weapons of mass destruction;

— forgoing any use of fissionable and other components of destroyed nuclear weapons in new nuclear weapons;

— facilitating U.S. verification of weapons destruction;

— complying with all relevant arms-control agreements; and

— observing internationally recognized human rights, including the protection of minorities.

For at least the second year in a row, however, Uzbekistan has failed to meet the human rights requirement, a U.S. State Department official said Friday, noting the “broad pattern” of abuses in Uzbekistan (see GSN, Jan. 12).

In a fact sheet released early this year, Human Rights Watch described Uzbekistan as “one of the most repressive countries in the Central Asian region.” Among the concerns listed were the use of torture by Uzbek authorities and persecution of independent Muslims.

In his memorandum last week, Bush said the waiver of restrictions placed on CTR aid to Uzbekistan was “important to the national security interests of the United States.”

Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) introduced legislation that would, in part, eliminate the conditions placed by Congress on the program (see GSN, Nov. 15). Lugar was one of the original architects of the CTR effort.

The State Department official said that Uzbekistan was set to receive CTR funding in the “low tens of millions” of dollars in fiscal 2005, which will be used to help eliminate the lingering Soviet-era WMD infrastructure there. Uzbekistan was home to several Soviet biological and chemical weapons-related sites, including two-thirds of the largest biological weapons field test site on Vozrozhdeniye Island. 

The United States is engaged in an “ongoing dialogue” with Uzbekistan concerning human rights, the State Department official said. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Richard Lugar serves on the board, of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. NTI is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.]

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