Öppet brev till Carl Bildt, Sveriges utrikesminister.
Hej!
Herr Carl Bildt!
Härmed skickar jag till dig ett brev av 14 uzbekiska
flyktingar som sitter inlåsta sedan Juni 2010 i häkte
Kazakstan (total 28 flyktingar sitter inlåsta, en redan utvisades till diktatorsstyrd
Uzbekistan och bara en släpptes fri).
De skriver till Dig och andra politiker världen över som snart ska resa till
Kazakstan, till OSSE Summit i Astana.
Dessa flyktingar hoppas på att ni kan hjälpa de genom att lyfta upp deras
ärende och hjälper de att komma iväg till tredje land och deras rättigheter
uppfylls.
Kazakstan har brutit mot många internationella och egna lagar när det gäller 30
uzbekiska flyktingarnas rättigheter.
I dag Kazakiska regeringen förbereder sig inför Summit och vill avsluta sitt
ordförandeskap av OSSE på ett positiv sätt. Viljan är en sak men verkligheten
helt annan sak.
Vi som representerar demokratiska samhället och demokratiska värderingar kan
inte acceptera när ett land som fick äran och ett sådant uppdrag att leda OSSE
i ett halvår ska bryta mot mänskliga rättigheter utan att blinka, utan att tänka
om konsekvenserna.
Herr Carl Bildt!
Jag verkligen hoppas att du gör en viktig insats för
mänskliga rättigheter. Jag vet att du har bra erfarenhet av internationellt
arbete i Balkan och samarbete med OSSE. Dina ord alltid spelar sitt roll i internationella sammanhäng, i OSSE, i Europa och
världen.
Med vänliga hälsningar
Hazratkul Khudojberdi / Norrköping
Här flyktingarnas brev:
To: The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon;
OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut;
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres;
Chair of the UN Committee Against Torture Claudio Grossman;
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu;
President of Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE Petros Efthymiou;
All participants of OSCE Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan
APPEAL
Dear Sir /Madam,
We, the 28 Uzbek refugees, are appealing to you to help us.
14 of us are kept in the Almaty City Police jail, the
other 14 are kept in DNSC (the Deparment of National
Security Committee) jail.
We have been detained for more than 6 months under extradition arrest. All of
us were registered in UNHCR in Kazakhstan from 2005 through 2010. 17 of us had
refugee status from UNHCR. After the new “Law relating to Refugee Status” was
passed in the Kazakh Parliament, our cases were transferred to the Department
of Immigration Committee of Almaty City.
We were informed about this by UNHCR officers and were told it was normal,
standard procedure. All of us were registered in the Department of Immigration
Committee and obtained asylum seeker certificates.
But soon after our application, more precisely, on June 9, 2010, the police and
DNSC officers visited the apartments, where the refugees were officially
registered. Under the pretence of checking our documents, took all the refugees
to the Migration Police Department. By the evening, some of the detained
refugees were released. But, the refugees who were declared wanted by Uzbek
government were locked in Almaty jail.
UNHCR Almaty office, Almaty
Police Department, the Department of Immigration Committee, Migration Police
knew that they were declared fugitive. So, it wasn’t news for them. Courts of
several Almaty districts issued extradition arrests
for the refugees and they were locked in SI-1 jail of Almaty
and DNSC.
After two months, in the absence of lawyers and in total isolation, we were
interviewed by Committee for refugee status determination.
As a result, all of us were rejected, except one refugee. We found out about
the result only a few weeks later, from the letter of General Prosecutor’s
office. It was stated in the letter that General Prosecutor’s office decided to
extradite all refugees for trial and prosecution.
After ten days, Mrs. Altynbekova, a director of the
Department of Immigration, visited us. She explained us the reason for
rejection, pointing that the committee didn’t find the arguments of refugees
convincing.
She also said, UNHCR cancelled the refugee status of
all 17 refugees who had status before. She explained that the reason for
cancellation was the crime against UN principles. She said, “As UNHCR rejected
you, we have all the more reason to reject you”.
She also warned that we could no more call ourselves as “mandate refugees”.
We were shocked after hearing this and felt betrayed.
We still can’t understand what crime we have committed that was against UN
principles.
Why not a single UNHCR officer dared to visit us and explain the reason of
status cancellation? Didn’t we apply to them risking our lives and freedom?
We thought UNHCR was truly international, independent, unbiased, and unpolitical organization.
We legalized ourselves, fully trusted this organization, told everything
openly. Most refugees were registered in UNHCR long before they were wanted as
fugitives in 2010.
Why UNHCR gave us hope that we were under international protection? When Uzbek
government wanted us to punish for daring to complain about it, we got under
threat of extradition and UNHCR rejected us.
It was the very time when we needed international protection, most of all!
If we committed a crime which was against UN principles in Kazakhstan, we would
be accused and tried by the police and DNSC. We always were under watch and
bugging. But no one accused us of anything or tried. Because
we didn’t commit any crime before or after applying UNHCR.
This is our honest word! If honest word still means something in our days.
Otherwise, they have to prove our guilt. Or, doesn’t the presumption of
innocence apply to us?
After we were rejected by the Department, we filed an appeal to Migration
Committee at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
Recently, we received rejection from them. Mr. Khabylsayat
Abishev, chief of the committee, wrote in his
conclusion, that after thorough investigation of our case, based on law and
international conventions, the committee decided to leave the Department of
Migration’s decision unchanged. Because they concluded there was nothing to
threaten the refugees in their home country.
Mr. Abishev either doesn’t know the situation in
Uzbekistan, or he had an order from top, meaning, from the government.
Otherwise, how can this be explained?
It is well-known that Uzbek government violates basic human rights, freedom of
speech. The court system is corrupted and fully controlled and manipulated by
the government. Any disagreement is persecuted, torture is used systematically.
Also, it is well-known that the UN Committee Against
Torture listed Uzbekistan as a country that uses torture systematically, in
2003. Since then, Uzbekistan didn’t fulfill the committee’s any recommendations
to prevent torture.
In the annual reports of the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International and other human rights organizations, Uzbekistan is considered as
a country which uses torture systematically. As for government corruption,
according to Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index,
Uzbekistan scored 172 among 178 countries.
So, why we fled from Uzbekistan leaving our houses, relatives, properties
behind us if there was no threat?
Now, our lawyers will appeal the Department of Immigration’s decision in court.
But we have another problem. The Department of Immigration Almaty
office was dissolved and transferred to Ministry of Internal Affairs. At
present, it is not clear who will inherit the Department.
The General Prosecutor’s office is openly ignoring the law “Relating to
Refugees”, article 18, paragraph 2 which prohibits to expel or return a refugee
in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or
freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
They also ignore:
1. UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 (article 33,
paragraph 1), ratified by Kazakh Parliament on December 15, 1988.
2. UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (article 3)
3. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
(articles 7, 18, 19, and 22).
The General Prosecutor’s Office is still insisting in extradition of the
refugees based on Minsk Convention, regarding them as criminals. As if we
committed crime and now hiding in Kazakhstan. But we didn’t hide,
we were registered in UNHCR, the Department of Immigration and Migration Police
on time. Our children went to Almaty schools and we
lived only in the registered apartments.
As for the accusations of Uzbekistan, they are all standard accusations for persecuting
believers and dissidents. All this is done just to return the refugees and
punish them to show their power, as if they have long hands to reach everywhere
and they can punish anyone who dared to disagree with the government. How else,
you can explain that some of refugees are incriminated by 34 articles of
Criminal Law of Uzbekistan?
Is it logical, that a single person can commit so many crimes without being
sentenced or noticed? Some of the accusations are groundless and can’t be
proved.
If Uzbekistan had fair and just court system we would not be afraid to go back
and prove our innocence. Returning to Uzbekistan is synonymous to going to
death.
Under unbearable tortures anyone can confess of any fabricated crimes. Other
innocent people are also victimized. Under torture they are made to witness
against accused people. Tortures are used not only in jails but continue in
prisons after being sentenced. Prisoners are beaten up, raped, insulted,
humiliated, tortured and infected with incurable diseases like Tuberculosis,
typhus, AIDS.
What will happen to our families? What will happen to 72 children of refugees?
Now, they can hardly survive because their fathers, who were the only
breadwinners, are in jail. Either they will face miserable return to Uzbekistan
or wander to find some place to survive.
Some of the refugees underwent all of these pains. Family members of most
refugees were also harmed. To take revenge, the government sentenced their
brothers, relatives, friends, colleagues. Their properties were confiscated.
Even after fleeing the country an Uzbek refugee can’t feel safe.
We can’t understand what is our guilt before world community so all of them
closing their eyes to our tragedy?
Maybe the biggest crime we committed is we were born in Uzbekistan?!
Or, after seventy years of atheistic regime we returned to our forefathers’
religion?!
Why must we and our family suffer?
At present, prisons and jails are overfilled by politically sentenced people:
opposition party members, art representatives, poets, journalists, and mostly
religious people. The real criminals may be less than the third of all
prisoners.
Dear Sir/Madam,
We think we are part of the world community. We are neither extremists nor
terrorists! Otherwise we wouldn’t apply UNHCR.
We chose legal and civilized way of protecting our rights, as we are sure about
our innocence.
We came to Kazakhstan, thinking that it was democratic and law-bound state,
which was independent of Uzbekistan.
We believe that the country chairing OSCE protects us from this. We trusted
UNHCR and came with our families.
Now, Kazakhstan refused to give us a refuge. Of course, any country has that
right to reject or accept. Apparently, it doesn’t want to have problems with Karimov’s regime.
But why doesn’t Kazakhstan allow the refugees to leave its territory? On the
contrary of the domestic and international laws, Kazakhstan is sending the
refugees to death, torture, and humiliation?
Why is UNHCR, to whom we trusted, silent? Where are eyes of the world community?
Why is the whole world indifferent to the fates of these people, their children
and wives?
We suppose that the only problem is that we’re Muslims. These days, every
Muslim, first of all, has to prove he is not extremist and terrorist. Imagine, if 30 Christians or Jews were arrested by the requirement
of Uzbekistan.
The whole world would stand to protect these insulted and humiliated people.
But here is a bunch of Muslims.
Who cares about these “terrorists” or “extremists”?
If this is wrong assumption, we ask You to help us in
this situation and protect these innocent refugees. Don’t allow us to doubt
about our choice to protect us, our family by legal and civilized ways.
Otherwise, if we are returned to Uzbekistan and miraculously survive, then
neither we nor our children will believe in democracy or high UN principles,
which are applied, in our notion, only to particular group of people, not
universally. We ask you not to reject us!
Truthfully yours,
Uzbek refugees:
1. Boltayev Ahmad
2. Jalolhonov Saidakabar
3. Nurillayev Bahriddin
4. Ostonov Ulugbek
5. Pardayev Isobek
6. Pulatov Oybek
7. Kurbanov Kobiljon
8. Turayev Ravshan
9. Tolipov Sirojiddin
10. Kholturayev Olimjon
11. Khurramov Sarvar
12. Rakhmatov Uktam
13. Sharipov Otobek
14. Shodiyev Akmaljon
15-11-2010