Germany "optimistic" on talks on Uzbek human rights

TASHKENT, Feb 1 (Reuters) Germany's ambassador to Uzbekistan, speaking ahead of a review of European Union sanctions against the authoritarian state, said he was ''optimistic'' about talks on improving human rights.

Germany holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, which next month is due to decide whether to renew a visa ban on top officials and arms sales restrictions imposed after troops shot and killed civilians in 2005.

The EU said in November it remained ''profoundly concerned'' about rights in the Central Asian state but resumed low-level contacts with the government of President Islam Karimov.

Asked about the talks, German ambassador Matthias Meyer said yesterday: ''We feel that lots is moving in that direction and we'll see how it develops further. Of course we don't just want to see words, we also naturally want to see things develop, concrete things.'' ''I must say we are optimistic ... we get nothing from being negative.'' Meyer gave no details on the talks or any concessions won by the bloc to date.

Rights groups have expressed concern that Germany, seeking alternative energy supplies in Central Asia to its mainstay of Russia, is pushing for sanctions to be eased, while others such as Britain have resisted the move.

Germany also operates a military base at Termez in the south of Uzbekistan which is used to support troops in Afghanistan.

Western states condemned Karimov after troops crushed an uprising in the Ferghana Valley town of Andizhan in May 2005.

Witnesses estimated that hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed although the government says it was acting against armed Islamist militants.

A Reuters correspondent in the town saw troops fire on a crowd of civilians, including women and children, near a government building that had been seized by armed rebels.

Following the crackdown, Karimov switched the focus of his foreign policy to Russia and China. The country expelled U.S.

troops from an airbase and courts have ordered the closure of many US-funded charities.

Uzbekistan has repeatedly rejected calls for an independent investigation into the Andizhan killings.

But, in a sign of improving ties, EU experts looking into the deaths were given access to a few prisoners last year.

Rights groups accuse the Uzbek authorities of widespread use of torture in jails, the mass jailing of young Muslims who do not subscribe to state-sponsored Islam and stamping out all dissent in the country of 25 million.

Paris-based rights group Reporters Without Borders urged the EU to maintain sanctions against Uzbekistan.

''The authorities have been cracking down on journalists and human rights activists ever since the May 2005 events in Andizhan,'' it said in a statement.

''Those targeted have been wrongfully arrested, imprisoned or committed to psychiatric institutions ... We urge it (the EU) not to ease them (sanctions) until the Uzbek authorities produce tangible evidence of an improvement in freedom of expression.'' Reuters SBA VP0522