A few days ago we received a letter from a prisoner, whose name is known
to our organisation. He first wrote to us some time ago, while he had his
freedom and the determination to fight tyranny. He loves poetry and historical films. Now
he is under a threat of death.
Taking a huge risk, he managed to let us know who commits torture and
how they bring the prisoners to death at the prison colony УЯ (UYA) 64/47. Evidently,
the author did not rule out that the letter could be intercepted by the
authorities. That is why he wrote it mostly in the first person, and signed on
behalf of all the prisoners, making it clear that there are many victims of
tyranny.
The author of the letter asked his family to circulate his letter to get
the support of the public and to remind us all of the dire conditions of the
prisoners.
No matter how much the
authorities intimidate the prisoners, they still find a way to tell us about
who tortured and where. The urge to let the truth to be known is stronger than
fear.
* * *
Dear readers and
dear leaders of my beloved motherland - Uzbekistan! I appeal to you, wanting to
open in front of you all the pain and sorrow of my soul, for I, too, am the son
of this country. Currently, our Great Yurtbashi (Leader of the country) is
carrying out a variety of reforms and measures aimed to benefit the future
generation. These reforms are allocated large amounts of funds. All of this is
done for the sake of the future of our children and our people. And these
reforms show that the people of Uzbekistan are, on par with all the peoples of
the world, boldly and resolutely, striding forward to a brighter future. However,
I was surprised that authorities at the prison colony No. 64/47 are engaged in
gluttonous and greedy behaviour which defeats these useful beginnings and progress.
They act exactly the way the characters in the book entitled “Shaytanat” (The
Kingdom of Demons) of the writer Tahir Malik, as if all institutions of this
kind in the country are leased to or turned into private property of their superintendents.
In the establishment
No. 64/47, a group of criminals in uniform of the officers of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, under the leadership of Captain Habib Atoyev, systematically commit foul
crimes. In order to nip the criminal activities, such as bribery, extortion and
other, at the root, the Government the Prosecutors promptly identify the
perpetrators and determined their sentences. But when the convicted are brought
into our facility, they are met with insults, moral and physical bullying. Their
torture in various ways begins immediately.
As I mentioned above, captain Habib Atoyev and his henchmen: Captain Inoyat Urimov, Captain (or Major) Maruf (we do not know his last name), Lieutenant Tolib Utov, Captain Ahmad Shukurov, Captain Hayat (we do not know his last name), Captain Shukhrat Gadoev and others are responsible for it all. This list of names is not exhaustive by all means.
Under the protection
of the institution, they all, quietly and relentlessly, continue the criminal arbitrary
treatment of the prisoners. They extort or simply take away money from the prisoners
who are brought in, in stages. For the sake of obtaining money or information they
can put a prisoner in a solitary confinement, hung him upside down and beat on
the soles with a rubber truncheon, use some other method of torture or simply
kill the prisoner.
All of their
illegal actions go unpunished. Even if someone comes to monitor the functioning
of the prison, the people who came to check on the prisoners end up blaming the
victim.
If an ordinary citizen committed such crimes during the course of his daily life, he would have received a punishment under the Article 164 [Assault with Intent to Rob], 240 [Evasion of Participants of Criminal Proceedings from Performing Obligations], 168 [Fraud], etc. and would be deprived of liberty for many years. However, these sort of crimes take place in this institution systematically. And no one is held to account for them. They feel they are unpunishable. Only the “kings of the underworld” are free of such punishments.
May be, this is
the case because they have a lot of money. Money extorted from the prisoners is
enough to bribe many. If they were afraid of being held to account for their
actions, they would not behave so impudently. No one dares to oppose them. And
if someone does dare to object to them, they swear, saying, “F*** you...".
They have no respect whatsoever for neither the Constitution nor the decrees of
our President, nor the requirements of the security departments, nor the laws, because
the institution No. 64/47 has its own laws, which are called “laws of the
jungle”. These “laws” justify any of their crimes.
These, so called, “laws” are
implemented by the “king” of the institution - a criminal Captain Habib Atoyev
and his henchmen: Prisoners Umid Umarov and Muzaffar Rasulov, who murder
prisoners on his orders.
They, together
with informant-prisoners, wrote a book called “The Voice of the Oppressed” and
become “heroes”.
Our government believed them and gave awards, promoted
them in rank.
This is the end of my appeal to you.
Prisoners of the Prison Colony No. 64/47.
