General background
Human rights movement in Uzbekistan is on the verge of survival, it is oppressed everywhere by the authorities of any rank. Human rights activists
enjoying confidence of the population and international observers, experience
total control of the law-enforcement agencies. Their open criticism of the weaknesses of national
mechanisms of human rights protection and violations of the standards of
international law is perceived by the authorities as a crime.
According to the data available to our organization, at present time 17 human rights activists serve sentences in prisons on trumped up criminal charges; over the years, more than 50 members of
human rights organizations were prosecuted under administrative or criminal legislation; 75 civil society activists were forced to leave the country. Emigration process of human rights activists became most active
in 2005 and is growing in intensity.
When any form of public expression of disagreement with the official
doctrine occurs the Repressive State apparatus responds with torture. According to IGIHRDU[1], and “The Club of Ardent Hearts”, non-governmental
organization, about 1000 employees of the law
enforcement agencies and medical institutions were involved in practices of
torture. Methods of applying physical and moral pressure of these butchers are very refined. Any attempts to prosecute the officials responsible turn against the victims and human rights activists.
Biased estimate by international monitors of current situation actually encourages targeted
reprisals against country’s human rights movement representatives by the Uzbek
government. This results in sheer moral and physical exhaustion of the human rights workers and defeat of hopes for justice of all
victims of human rights violations.
Estimate of the OSCE observers’ reports
The director of the OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Janez Lenarcic illogically came
to conclusion that Uzbekistan stepped up
in development of human rights in the country. In his analysis, he notes that:
- improvement of conditions of detention. This conclusion can hardly be considered objective as there is still no public control of respect for human rights at places of imprisonment, the authorities refuse to cooperate with non-governmental
organizations and the penal system remains subordinated to the Ministry of the
Interior[2]. The fact that 200 deaths of prisoners occurred for the last 2 years, as stated by the IGIHRDU, destroys any illusion of
improvement;
- abolition of the death
penalty. Officially the death penalty is not
applied in
the country.
But in fact those sentenced to life imprisonment are doomed for suspended death. The prison for
prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment was constructed on the grounds of Soviet test chemical weapons test facility. Inhuman condition of
detention is worsened
further by severe climatic
conditions in the zone of Aral ecological crisis. Keeping the prisoners there itself would
amount to torture as staying in such constitutes carries unrecoverable health
risk;
- release of some human rights activists. Individual cases of release of political prisoners, considering respective context, at best, can be classified as manipulating the observers: when some political prisoners go
free under pressure of international community the available place in prison
remains free a short while – it is occupied soon by other victim of arbitrary treatment. For several years the
regime uses all possible means of reprisals against human rights activists,
prosecuting them, depriving of liberty for long terms. Cases of forced testimonies against
oneself and one's colleagues became more frequent. All this thumbs the society down and restricts flow of reliable information;
- active cooperation of the OSCE and
Uzbekistan on human rights. In Uzbekistan the absolute majority of human rights
activists perform their activities informally. For instance, organizations The Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (created in 1992) and Mothers Against Death Penalty and Torture (created in 2000) made unsuccessful
attempts to get registration in the Ministry of Justice.
It is worthy of noting that in the period of active cooperation of the OSCE with Uzbekistan in field of human rights, the human rights activists lost their right to appear as social
defenders therefore right to participate in criminal proceedings. Prior to this
change, a human rights activist had a right to present evidence, take part in
studying the evidence and perform other duties of an attorney.
Our organization observes
that it is getting harder and harder to access the alternative sources of
information on dismaying situation of human rights in Uzbekistan. It is hard to
understand why the broadcast time of “Deutsche Welle”, International French
Radio (RFI), “Voice of America and other western mass media is degreased.
Internet is accessible hardly to one tenth of population
in Uzbekistan.
Moreover access to the internet resources with content unwanted by the authorities
is being blocked by the security service. So population in Uzbekistan is
deprived of the last breath of fresh air in close informational atmosphere of the Central
Asian regimes.
The authorities still deny
broadcast
permission in the country to
the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and BBC World Service.
Uzbek human rights activists face severe problems not only because they have to work in tough conditions but
also are struggling to survive. Much to our regret the OSCE and European Union
follow cynical pragmatics of geopolitics instead of
morals of the Bill of Rights.
Reprisals against human rights
activists
The imprisoned human rights activists are in the most difficult condition. Agzam Turgunov, director of “Mazlum” human rights center, who is sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment, in his recent letter wrote: “Here it is the most difficult to
survive and remain a human able to face reality no matter what…”. Activists in custody suffer
particular oppression for openly defending the ideals of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. By all possible prohibited measures they are forced to admit offenses alleged to them. Many of them are
physically exhausted, suffering from tuberculosis and other serious diseases. (The list of imprisoned human rights activists is attached).
On August 28, 2009, the Senate of the
Parliament of Uzbekistan adopted a decree on amnesty. Many of prisoners from the list have ground
for claiming for premature release according to Paragraph 3 of the document (on release of persons
who suffer severe diseases, which makes it impossible to serve a sentence). Though, we know it
for sure that before the act of amnesty was issued many of them had been charged
with violation of the discipline by prison administrative decisions. Some of them had been
prosecuted under Article 221 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan (On disobedience to
lawful requests of prison administration).
The crusade against human rights activists in continued since the year 2004. Analysis of evolution
of treatment of human rights activists by the authorities gives us a picture that
the policy is purposefully pursued:
In 2004 main mechanism of oppression against the protesting, consisted of intimidation and organized attacks on human rights activists who were later accused of
alleged acts of hooliganism, notwithstanding being victims of such acts planned
by the authorities.
In 2005 all leading human rights activists advocated the request of
the European Union concerning carrying out international investigation of the
Andijan events by a team of experts including independent ones. The response of the authorities were accusations of blackmail, economic crime
and defamation. All of this was done aiming at discrediting the
human rights movement.
In 2006 with the purpose of suppressing all efforts of dissemination of
materials with objective estimation of the events in Andijan human rights
activists and other civil society representatives were accused of dissemination
of prohibited literature and crossing the border illegally.
In the years 2007-2008, during the period of actively intensified EU-Uzbekistan dialog on human rights, arrests of human
rights activists accused of defamation continued, torture and made up
accusations against political prisoners proceeded. Simultaneously pressure
on their relatives aimed at forcing the prisoners to write to the
president of the country petitions asking forgiveness increased.
In 2009 we received reports concerning falls accusations against human rights activists related to derogation of the foundations of the
constitutional system and other grave offenses. During pre-trial investigation they are denied a lawyer.
It is impossible to underestimate the geopolitical position of Uzbekistan.
And the authorities of the country are well aware of it. Short-term gain from arranged cooperation of the West with Karimov’s
regime betrays slim hope of population of
Uzbekistan for justice.
Recommendations for the OSCE and
European Union
Human rights activists try to inform parties of the dialog on human rights between the OSCE, European
Union and the government of Uzbekistan to attain conditions for stable legal
system to be created.
1. Keep the issue of release of human rights activists who suffered for their activism in the agenda of the Dialog until all of
them are released;
2. In the
context of implementation of the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE of 2007 concerning human rights activists and national human rights institutions:
· To draw attention to the
fact that the Decree of the Senate of Oliy Madjlis of the Uzbekistan of 28 August
2009, “On amnesty in celebration of the eighteenth anniversary of the declaration
of independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan” caused: a) a tide of reprisals
against imprisoned civil society activists, especially of those who eligible for release according to the provision of the
Article 3 (on the release of persons who suffer severe diseases, which makes it
impossible to serve a sentence); b) intentional refusal of proper medical aid
and ignoring obvious facts of deterioration of health of imprisoned civil
society activists;
· To support human rights
defenders who sustain their activities in circumstances of their threatened
security;
3. Ensure
visit of the Committee of the “Red Cross” to imprisoned human rights activists
whose state of health calls for special concern. The list is attached;
4. Promote adoption of legislation regulating law enforcement bodies of the country in performing their duties in Uzbekistan, such as: a) the Law on Militia of the Republic of Uzbekistan; b) the Law on the National Security Service of Uzbekistan; c) the Law on Criminal Investigation Activities of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
5. Insist on adoption of the
Law on civil control of respect for human rights in detention to meet the obligations under the Helsinki agreement, adopted by the government of Uzbekistan;
6 Register human rights
organizations of Uzbekistan.
[1] IGIHRDU — Initiative group of
independent human rights defenders of Uzbekistan
[2]The Central Administration of Executing Punishments is
subordinated to the Ministry of Interior providing fertile ground for the
practice of torture against the convicted. It is appropriate to hand over this
department to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan which does
not comprise the activities to detect and investigate crime.
