To President of TOP 09 party Mr.Karel Schwarzenberg, Prague Mayor Mr.Hudeček Tomas.

“… Our party is based on democratic ideals of freedom and humanism, which have managed to survive even the period of totalitarianism in our country… We do not want to be popular at any costs, or at the cost of unrealistic campaign promises…

Profit should not take precedence over the law and morality. Compliance with laws and ethical principles of negotiation should be one of the conditions for profit …” (From TOP 09 party program).

Dear Sirs,

As you know, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov will arrive in Prague on the official visit on February 21, 2014 during which he will discuss several mutually beneficial matters and suggestions with his Czech counterpart.

We, together with our partners, intend to use the Uzbek president’s visit, who has concentrated unlimited power in the hands by having completely subjugated dissent and freedom of speech and having turned the country into a police state, in order to draw attention to the human rights situation in Uzbekistan through public protests in Prague.

Our organization supports the program of TOP 09 party (Tradition, Responsibility, Prosperity), the basic idea of which is commitment to European moral values ​​and spiritual traditions. We are also aware of the long-term position of Party President Mr.Karel Schwarzenberg against authoritarian regimes.

And we also know that Mr.Karel Schwarzenberg said that Karimov’s visit to Prague is an example of a new diplomacy, where money and interests play a more important role.

On 4 February, official Czech media reported that the Mayor of Prague Mr.Tomas Hudeček said: “There is no reason for Prague to participate in the meeting with the Ukrainian president. Besides, it is absurd to have President Yanukovych landed at the airport, which bears the name of Vaclav Havel… If the president of Ukraine comes to Prague, the city authorities will not hold any events provided for such visits, and in particular will not invite Yanukovych for a traditional reception in the city hall.”

We were very much surprised by such a selective statement made by Mr. Tomas Hudeček. In the near future, the airport named after Vaclav Havel, a dissident, a human rights activist, one of the founders of the Civic Forum and the first president of the Czech Republic will receive planes of the Presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, who are the heads of the most repressive countries in the Eurasian continent (www.praguepost.com/czech-news/36362-zeman-to-welcome-uzbek-dictator-in-mid-february).

On May 1, 2014, it will have been 10 years since the Czech Republic became a EU, which is not a long period of time to have forgotten about the bloody times of dictatorial soviet communist regimes. Apparently, Mr. Tomas Hudeček is still very young and cannot remember all horrors which soviets committed in his country, and cannot remember that so many of his countrymen gave their lives for the Independence.

We really appreciate your desire, Mr.Tomas Hudeček, not to meet and not to sit at the same table with the head of the authoritarian country. However, if your intention is sincere, then you should have mentioned in your statement the visits of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, whose crimes against their peoples excel those of Viktor Yanukovych multiple times and whose regimes in their countries are totalitarian.

Islam Karimov, who has been ruling Uzbekistan for 25 years, has turned one of the most promising countries in Central Asia into a police state, which allows the government keeping the population in fear and submission, where there is no freedom of speech, and repressions against representatives of the of civil society have become routine.

There are a great number of politically motivated criminal cases against the progressive part of the population and subsequent accusations of religious extremism or terrorism. Tortures, violence, humiliation of prisoners in the country’s prisons are systemic. Most of the working population, completely impoverished, is forced to seek jobs in neighboring countries, often becoming slaves of the 21st century.

Karimov committed one of his major crimes against his own people on May 13, 2005 in the city of Andizhan, when he ordered to shoot peaceful demonstrators from large-caliber weapons. Until today, there is no objective information about the exact number of killed people, and the authorities carefully conceal the real scale of the tragedy.

Those tragic days, the world watched Islam Karimov’s brutality and lawlessness. Thousands of people have fled the country to avoid being cooked in boiling water alive. “Islam Karimov has managed to bring poverty and repressions to a level higher than that in the Soviet times,” wrote in his memoirs Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan,.

The Czech Republic is one of the countries, which in 2005 sheltered Uzbek refugees from Andizhan. After 9 years, the country, which sheltered victims of the crime, provides high honors to the dictator, who has committed crimes against his people.

It is very convenient and safe to criticize the country’s leader after criticism has been made by leaders of the U.S. and Europe.

Mr.Tomas Hudeček,

Your statement is populist and contradictory to the program of your party. In addition, it is also evidence that European countries use the policy of double standards.

Mr. Tomas Hudeček, Fiery Hearts Club international human rights organization strongly recommends that you adhere to the principles contained in the program of your TOP 09 party, and make best efforts so that the Czech Republic does not become a haven for dictators of the 21st century.

Mr.Schwarzenberg,

Fiery Hearts Club international human rights organization invites you and your party members to join our protest, which aims: to release all convicted prisoners languishing in prisons in the country; to provide conditions for smooth operation of non-governmental organizations in the country and guarantee freedom of speech; to stop tortures of detainees and prisoners; to conduct an international investigation into the Andizhan 2005 events and punish those responsible for mass shootings of civilians.

Along with this, the protest action will be dedicated to the anniversary of the assassination attempt against famous Uzbek cleric Obidkhon kori Nazarov, who was critically wounded in the head on 22 February, 2012 in the Swedish town of Stromsund.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of “Fiery Hearts Club” international human rights organization

Paris, France

February 6, 2014