11.8.20

Kyrgyzstan: No forced return to Uzbekistan

On 9 August, Uzbekistani journalist Bobomurod Abdullayev was arrested in Bishkek by officials of the State Committee for State Security (SKNB) of Kyrgyzstan. Amnesty International, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), Civil Rights Defenders, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), Freedom House, Freedom Now and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) urge the Kyrgyzstani authorities to protect him from forced return to Uzbekistan where he would be at real risk of torture and other ill-treatment. In Uzbekistan, the journalist is wanted on what appear to be trumped-up anti-government charges O carrying a punishment of up to 20 years’ imprisonment, the groups said.

Bobomurod Abdullayev
In an official statement made on 9 August, the Kyrgyzstani security services stated that Abdullayev had been arrested under the 1993 Minsk Convention for Legal Assistance and Legal Relations on Civil, Family and Criminal Matters pursuant to an extradition request from Uzbekistan. He is currently being held in a security service temporary-detention centre in Bishkek.

We remind Kyrgyzstan of its non-derogable international obligation under Article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which forbids any state from returning, extraditing or refouling any person to a state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture – Abdullayev must not be sent back to Uzbekistan”, said Brigitte Dufour, Director of IPHR.

In early 2020 Abdullayev became worried about his security after the Canada-based Uzbek journalist Ismat Khushevim named him as the possible author of several articles criticizing the authorities on an anonymous website.

In February 2020 Abdullayev travelled to Bishkek from Germany on an official invitation to follow a four-month course as part of a programme for independent journalists and former political prisoners at the American University of Central Asia which ended on 1 July. When his stay at the university ended, he was unable to leave Kyrgyzstan as the borders were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 July, the American University of Central Asia informed him that officials from the Kyrgyzstani security services were trying to locate him. Earlier in July 2020 Abdullayev told AHRCA  that he was concerned about his security as he feared the Uzbekistani security services wanted to question him or abduct him after several anonymous persons had posted online accusing him of being the author of the above mentioned critical anonymous publications.

When Bobomurod Abdullayev was last in the hands of the Uzbekistani security services, they tortured him for days on end – and there is a significant risk that he would be tortured yet again if sent back”, said Nadejda Atayeva, President of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia.

Abdullayev is wanted for prosecution in relation to charges including attempting to overthrow the President (Article 158 of the Criminal Code) and the Constitutional regime (Article 159), punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment. The charges are believed to be linked to a series of publications critical of President Mirziyoyev and his family posted on Facebook under the pseudonym Qora Mergan and on an anonymous site registered in Canada under a different pseudonym. Abdullayev has categorically denied being the author of these publications and the Uzbekistani authorities have reportedly produced no credible evidence to seriously implicate him.

On 10 August, Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek held a remand hearing and ruled to detain him until 8 September 2020. The Kyrgyzstani court confirmed that he is wanted in Uzbekistan on the above-mentioned charges. On 10 August, Abdullayev applied for refugee status.

Bobomurod Abdullayev is being targeted as an independent journalist.  Kyrgyzstan must live up to its international human rights obligations and release him so that he can seek asylum,” said Marie Struthers, Director, Amnesty International Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.“

Background:

Abdullayev was arrested on 27 September 2017 in Tashkent by officers of the State Security Service on anti-constitutional charges which were widely believed to have been politically motivated. He was held for several months in detention during which time he reports being tortured in order to force him to testify against himself and several other people including political opposition leaders, critics, civil society activists, and former diplomats. At a court hearing in 2018, Abdullayev admitted writing a series of articles under the pseudonym “Usman Khakhnazarov” which were critical of former President Karimov. Abdullayev was released from 7 May 2018 and vowed that he would not write anonymous articles again.

Since his release from detention, Abdullayev has been regularly subjected to surveillance and harassment by Uzbekistani security services.


4.8.20

Uzbekistan: Yelena Tsarevskaya, a resident of Tashkent, made a video message to the President with an appeal: "Help your people!"

 

Yelena Tsarevskaya
access the video address: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVs6f0GVPog&feature=youtu.be

#СOVID19 

Good afternoon. It has been a long time since I recorded a video. Please do not mind me, as they say, the more time I spend at home, the less homely I look.

 

Today I would like to address our esteemed President, Shavkat Miromonovich.

Dear Mr. President,

I have watched so many video messages addressed to you, but I do not have any anger, I do not have angry addresses, or wishes and so on for you. The only thing I want to ask you is that either you take a fresh look at your entire, so called, inner circle and remove all corrupt officials from it, or in the near future, Uzbekistan simply will not have any future left, because you should pay attention at what is happening in our Republic now.

No more people are dying of Covid or pneumonia than of hunger. I hope you appreciate that at the moment people have no money to just sit at home without work, and employers have no money to just pay.

It has to be said that you have allocated a certain amount of money, however, you have not announced when it will be paid, in September, October, November, this year, at all or not?

Therefore, now people are simply storming the mahalla committees asking for help.

What are they being told by the mahalla? – There is no money, no money. Well, where is it? Where did the money go? Were the funds plundered before they reached the mahalla? At the Khokimiyat? Or even higher up? Please, explain it to us.

The people are simply terrified right now. I am failing to find the words to describe it. I do not know what to do. People try to reach out to the mahalla asking for help, and the mahalla replies: “but you have a refrigerator, you have a TV, sell them and live on the proceeds”. The thing is that no one is willing to buy a refrigerator or a TV, no one needs it. People need food or money. Where do I store the food if I sell my refrigerator? And how can I distract the children in quarantine if I do not have TV? What to do? This is some kind of vicious circle. Do you understand?

Why don't you appoint certain people who would check the mahalla committees? Even when there was help of 1197, the mahalla brazenly stole food: chickens, milk, eggs. In other words, some people simply received torn packages or boxes from which certain products were missing. They were told lies to their faces: "it was missing, that is the end of it."

You have huge embezzlement, misappropriation of state funds going on. So many of your officials have stolen money, but you are not doing anything about it. Khokims only know how to apologise. I do not know what to make of it, is this some kind of new trend in Uzbekistan? Have you stolen? Apologise! Have you made people kneel in the water, locked them in the bus in the heat? Apologise. Well, what do we get out of your khokims’ apologies? Nothing.

You understand that now the people will just get up and go. People will die of hunger. Looting will start over a can of tinned meat. Because there is nothing to feed the children.

Currently, you are locking down people at their homes for two days. With all due respect, they are free to go anywhere for five days a week, and who can guarantee that they will not get infected during those five days? And the fact that they are under a lockdown at home for two days and the bazaars are closed does not mean anything. Absolutely. I do not understand what this is. Who invented this? What kind of moronism is this?

People walk on foot. Public transport is not available. Cars are not allowed at certain times. And what if a family, a person has only one car? And if he leaves early in the morning and returns late in the evening. When are they supposed to go to the bazaars? Where are they supposed to shop? I can say from my own experience that I walk three kilometres to get to the bazaar, to buy cheaper greens, dairy products. I am ashamed to admit, but I bargain for a hundred soums, because money is short. And I am not alone, there are many people like me in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan - in Nukus, in Khorezm, anywhere. There are many people like me. I hope you appreciate the situation. What are you doing about it?

People have been writing a petition seeking the resignation of the Minister of Health, because he failed. There are no ambulances. Ambulances arrive only after three and a half hours, because they have to go through block-posts, bypass concrete fences that have been placed on the roads. Can you please explain to us what these are for? The ambulance either does not show up, or arrives in three and a half hours, by which time it is too late for person seeking the help. The ambulances are not taking patients to hospitals, because they say that hospitals are closed - there are no beds. But if you have "tanish-bilish" (if you know the right people in the right places - Editor's note), you can get a hospital bed. How come?

And you say that you are fighting corruption? No. It is the people who are fighting it. They are somehow trying to upload videos and everything else. Please help us. Please explain to us. How we, the people, should live?

Now, let's say, someone gets paid benefits, a certain amount for each family. If there are two people in the family, they will get somewhere in the region of five hundred thousand soums. But, excuse me, out of these five hundred thousand they must also pay for the "communal services". You could at least provide for easing of some of the payment requirements so that utilities would not be charged. For electricity, for gas, for the Internet. Well, the Internet, it seems to me, is no longer as interesting as simply hot water, heating, electricity, gas. You are not even providing for the easing of the payments for the people. And how should the people live? What on? Should they go beg? If so, almost half of the population of Uzbekistan will be on the streets doing just that. Please explain to us, what should we do. How should we live on?

Now we need to get the children to school - there is no money. Will online teaching be provided? We are going to have a generation of uneducated children. I am telling you, we will have an uneducated generation. Because online teaching is utter rubbish. And some may wave their hands and says: “Oh, this is so great” - yes, maybe it is great that the child is at home, but you know that he is at home, but you also know that he is not learning. He needs control, he needs to be explained thirty-three times. What will happen next? Now majority of Universities will teach online. What kind of education will the Universities be providing? What should be done? Please explain this to the people.

Make some sort of normal decision. Take matters into your own hands. Make sure no one steals. Help people. You did not declare this an emergency. Because even people already know that if you declare it an emergency, you must pay a certain amount of money. But there is no money. But you are borrowing funds. And who will pay them back? People again? And this money has already been plundered along the way. The funds have been siphoned off even before they were received.

Shavkat Miromonovich, please help your people. The people are indeed requesting it. They are requesting, asking. What will happen next? Please help us.

I know that many people wrote to you - both by posting video messages and angry posts.

I have no negative attitude towards you. I have a negative attitude, probably, towards our Khokims, ministers. Sometimes what they voice and say on the air, as they say, it is all taken out of context. It feels like they all went to the same school and graduated from the same institute. Because, I do not know how much brains power one should have to say such nonsense, to make it up.

So what are we going to do? What should the people do? Please help, because as soon as the first flights open, it seems to me that several million people will be missing. Maybe even half of the population of Uzbekistan, because many will leave, they do not see a future here - neither for themselves, nor for their children.

No future. You promise us a peaceful sky overhead. Well, yes - blue sky. And then what?

People have nothing to eat. Look what is happening in the regions. People have no money, and you impose fines. No mask? Fined. Did you go by car? Fined. A bike? Fined. Where should people get their money from?

You want to lock us down at home. This is awful. We cannot do it, nor can our children stay at home for a long time. Especially those with small children. They need walks. Parks are closed, they can only walk near their homes, where patrolling cars drive around.

So what should the people do? Shavkat Miromonovich, please help us. Because, I cannot be sure, but this is probably the last straw for the people. Our patience is running out. Please take some drastic action. Please help us.

I would like to thank you for the fact that, probably, someone will bring this to your attention, and you will see it and draw a conclusion for yourself.

Thank you all and goodbye.  

 

2.8.20

Mutabar Turgunova, wife of Uzbek human rights activist Agzam Turgunov, passed away


Mutabar Turgunova
The Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) expresses condolences to human rights activist Agzam Turgunov in connection with the passing of his wife Mutabar Turgunova. We all knew her as a loyal and courageous person who unflinchingly shared all the ordeals that befell her husband and her family.

Mutabar Turgunova died this morning in the hospital in Tashkent.  She was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Throughout her husband's decades-long struggle for human rights in the region, Mutabar identified his plight and his beliefs as her own. Alone, during her husband’s long prison sentence, she took over the responsibility for raising their children. This gave strength to Agzam, who was imprisoned for many years. Anyone who knew Mutabar-opa personally will remember her as a warm, caring and loving person.

May her heart and soul find peace and comfort.


The staff of the AHRCA