Uzbekistan: Rights Group Threatened for Alleging Abuse

[struggle4progress]

05 Feb 2005 00:05:15 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch

(New York, February 4, 2005)-The Uzbek government threatened an independent human rights group after it reported on possible government abuse of a prisoner who died in custody, Human Rights Watch said today. The Uzbek Ministry of Justice issued an official warning to Ezgulik, an independent human rights group, for reporting on the January 2 death of Samandar Umarov, and calling for an investigation. <snip>

On Wednesday, February 2, the Ministry of Justice summoned Vasila Inoiatova, chair of Ezgulik ("Goodness"), which is one of only two independent human rights organizations registered in Uzbekistan. The deputy minister of justice who oversees nongovernmental organizations reprimanded Inoiatova for Ezgulik's activities and issued an official warning letter against the group. The letter alleges that Ezgulik violated the terms of its charter and the law on the freedom of information by reporting on the death in prison of Samandar Umarov.

The Ministry's letter further states that in the event of a second offense, the Ministry of Justice will "take all measures" against Ezgulik. The letter does not specify which measures are contemplated, and the deputy minister did not elaborate.

Ezgulik-as well as several other human rights groups and journalists-reported that Umarov died while in prison. According to the reports, authorities who brought the body home pressured Umarov's relatives not to open the casket and to bury him quickly, without washing the body in accordance with Muslim custom. On January 5, Ezgulik wrote to the Prosecutor General requesting that the authorities undertake an independent investigation to determine the cause and circumstances of Umarov's death. <snip>

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/b41935559c25fd23d2411a30ac4033eb.htm

[chookie]

1. Don't hold your breath, Uzbeks

The "March of FreedomTM" is not coming your way. Your leaders are far too useful to Mr Cheney.

[htuttle]

2. Damn, my irony meter broke again

It just pegged out when I read that headline.

BTW, is this the guy that names everything after himself and boils people, or some other charming Central Asian 'ally'?

(checking) Oh, I was thinking of Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan is the ally where General Dostum is from, who locks people into shipping containers, then peppers them with machine gun bullets before burying them in the desert.

[MisterP]

4. TURKMENistan is the one where the Dear Leader names things after himself

(and his mumsie).
Kazakhstan is somewhat corrupt, but cleaning up a little.
Belarus has an autocratic Prez, but their real sin is not selling everything the Thatcher way--that's why Rice is going after them

[Judi Lynn]

5. Yep, you're right about Uzbek. President Islam Karimov + boiling folks

There's no actual justification for maintaining cordial relations with this monster, yet _Bush couldn't be more appreciative of him.

Hope an American President will never get lower than this, but _Bush still has four more long years ahead.

From Amnesty International's 2003 report on Uzbekistan:

The bodies of Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year-old father of four, and Khusniddin Alimov, aged 34, were brought from Jaslyk prison in the Northern Karaklapakstan region to their families in Tashkent on 8 August. Muzafar Avazov was reportedly tortured to death; an eyewitness said the body showed signs of burns on the legs, buttocks, lower back and arms. Reportedly, there was a large wound on the back of the head, bruises on the forehead, and the hands had no fingernails. The authorities reportedly restricted viewing of Khusniddin Alimov's body.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/us-and-uz.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mother of 'boiled' man jailed
12/02/2004 13:36 - (SA)

Tashkent - A woman whose son was allegedly boiled to death in a prison in Uzbekistan was jailed for six years on Thursday on charges of religious extremism and plotting against the state, in a ruling critics slammed as a political witchhunt.
(snip/...)

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1482825,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The envoy who said too much

One minute he was Our Man in Tashkent, the next he was a major embarrassment for the Foreign Office. Craig Murray, ambassador to Uzbekistan, talks to Nick Paton Walsh about his turbulent year

Thursday July 15, 2004
The Guardian

Six hours after Jamal Mirsaidov met with the British ambassador, the limp and mutilated corpse of his grandson was dumped on his doorstep. The body was battered and one arm appeared to have been immersed in boiling fluid until the skin had begun to peel off. Mirsaidov is a literature professor in the ancient city of Samarkand. His mistake had been to write a letter to Tony Blair and George Bush alerting them to the daily torture meted out to dissidents in Uzbekistan, their new ally in the war on terror.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1261480,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists

Uzbekistan's president steps up repression of opponents

Nick Paton Walsh in Namangan
Monday May 26, 2003
The Guardian

Abdulkhalil was arrested in the fields of Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year. The 28-year-old farmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to overthrow the constitutional structures".
Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time".
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,963497,00.html

[LynnTheDem]

3. Is the big pot on the boil?

Uzbekistan is fond of boiling people. That's ok tho, Uzbekistan is bush's good pal.

[cire4]

6. Why isn't Uzbekistan one of the "outposts of tyranny?"

Oh thats right....They let the US build military bases in their country. Well, we can definitely overlook the human rights abuses then.