Uzbekistan: Stop
Harassing Activists
Police Detain, Beat Rights Advocates
Scheduled to Meet Opposition Leaders
(New York, November 13, 2009) –
Uzbek authorities should immediately stop their new harassment campaign against
political activists and human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. Since
November 7, 2009, local authorities in six locations have detained at least
seven activists and beaten three of them, one of whom sought hospital
treatment.
The activists were scheduled to meet
with Bahodir Choriev, leader of the Birdamlik opposition movement, who returned
to Uzbekistan in October from exile in the United States, and Diloram
Iskhakova, another prominent Birdamlik leader. The campaign apparently was
intended to keep the activists from meeting with Choriev and Iskhakova.
“What happened this week is the
latest effort to silence people who speak out for human rights and to prevent
any kind of political activism,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia
director at Human Rights Watch. “This treatment needs to stop.”
Harassment, Beatings in Jizzakh
The latest series of moves,
apparently intended to harass and intimidate activists, began on November 9 in
the city of Jizzakh, two days before Iskhakov and Choriev arrived.
Police detained Bakhtior Khamroev,
chair of the Jizzakh regional branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan
(HRSU), for about four hours and released him after the chief of police, who
supposedly wanted to speak to him, did not appear.
Saida Kurbanova, chair of the
group’s Pakhtakor district branch,
was detained for about six hours the same day at
another district police station and told the same story. Khamroev reported that
police also went to the home of Mamir Azimov, chairperson of
the Jizzakh district branch, but left when they
saw he was ill.
The next day, a local police officer
appeared at the home of Uktam Pardaev, the chairman of Jizzakh District
Independent Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (IHRSOU), saying he had come to
invite Pardaev to tea. The officer made Pardaev sit in a café with him until evening.
When Pardaev asked the officer why they were meeting, he reportedly said, “We
are just sitting here.”
Pardaev told Human Rights Watch that
he had a similar visit from a police major on November 11. When Pardaev asked
why he was being detained, he said, the police major reportedly responded, “I
don’t know, let’s just go somewhere.” Pardaev was held for more than six hours.
Kurbanova had another visit from a
police officer on the morning of November 11, but was not taken into custody,
reportedly because she was ill. Khamroev received two phone calls that morning
from police asking about his health and then a visit at home from a man in
plainclothes who refused to identify himself. The man, whom Khamroev believes
to be a police officer, returned to his car and, with two other men, sat
outside Khamroev’s home for several hours. Khamroev said his house continued to
be under police surveillance throughout the rest of the day.
Azimov told Human Rights Watch that
two police officers detained him for several hours on the morning of November
11, but permitted him to go home for lunch on the condition that he would
return to the station afterwards.
At about 2 p.m. Khamroev, Azimov,
Iskhakova, and Choriev met at a café. Azimov told Human Rights Watch that he
barely had time to greet Choriev before he received a phone call from a police
officer, asking him to come out to the street. Two officers drove up, seized
his phone, and took him back to the police station, where he was severely
beaten and held for the rest of the afternoon.
Choriev, Iskhakova, and Khamroev
continued to talk and later moved into Choriev’s car. After a half hour, a
plainclothes officer came up to the car and said that they needed to move
along. Khamroev said the officer tried to pull him out of the back seat and
then punched Khamroev several times in the face. Iskhakova told Human Rights
Watch that when Choriev got out of the car another man in plainclothes punched
him. She said the men insulted and swore at her. The officers demanded that
they come down to the police station. Choriev reportedly agreed that they would
follow in his own car but did not go.
Azimov told Human Rights Watch that
when police took him to the station, they demanded to know why he was meeting
with Choriev, then beat him repeatedly, punching him all over his body,
particularly his kidneys, and slapping his head. Police also made Azimov stand
with his legs shoulder-width apart and hold a chair over his head for about an
hour, threatening to continue beating him if he lowered it. Azimov said his
head was spinning after the beatings he sustained and that he struggled to hold
the chair up.
Before releasing Azimov, a police
official warned him not to seek medical help at a hospital and threatened to
have Azimov’s arms and legs broken if he reported what had happened.
Azimov was released around 6 p.m.
and drove himself home. A short while later, he went to a hospital, was seen by
a doctor, and then discharged. He told Human Rights Watch he was still in great
pain.
Earlier on November 11, on their way
to Jizzakh, Choriev and Iskhakova tried to meet with Karim Bozorboev, a civic
activist in Sirdaryo, but he was summoned to the city prosecutor’s office about
15 minutes after he had spoken by phone with Iskhakova. Bozorboev told Human
Rights Watch that he was released around 5:30 p.m. after he was questioned by
an investigator, including about his affiliation with Birdamlik.
Detentions
in Fergana Valley
On November 7 and 8, Choriev and
Iskhakova went to Ferghana, Andijan, and Namangan—cities in the Ferghana
Valley—where people with whom they hoped to meet were similarly detained to
prevent the meetings. Iskhakova said that two cars with Tashkent license plates
followed her and Choriev the entire trip.
Akhad Nabiev, leader of the Ferghana
regional branch of Birdamlik, was reportedly detained on November 7 by National
Security Agency (SNB) agents. Iskhakova told Human Rights Watch that the next
day, after she and Choriev had left town, she received a phone call from
Nabiev, who told her that he had been released.
On November 8, Choriev and Iskhakova
tried to meet in Andijan with Abdukadyr Sattarov, the leader of the Andijan
Regional Branch of the Birdamlik Movement, but he did not appear, was not home,
and his cell phones were switched off.
Choriev and Iskhakova also tried to
meet with Saidjahon Zainabitdinov, a long-term human rights defender and former
political prisoner. Iskhakova said Zainabitdinov told her by phone that he was
on his way to their meeting, but he never arrived and did not answer his mobile
phone. She tried his house, but his son reportedly told her that his father had
already left to meet them.
In Namangan, Iskhakova and Choriev
had hoped to meet Nosir Zakirov, a journalist and former political prisoner who
worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Zakirov told Human Rights Watch
that about 10 men in plainclothes surrounded him at the café where he had met his
friend late that morning. He told Human Rights Watch that he knew if he tried
to leave that there would be problems for him as well as for Choriev and
Iskhakova, so he waited there for about two hours before he went home.
“It is shocking that the authorities
can get away with such blatant persecution of human rights and political
activists,” said Cartner. “It seems quite clear that the detention, beatings,
and harassment are intended to frighten and punish them.”
For more Human Rights Watch’s
reporting on Uzbekistan, please see:
http://www.hrw.
org/en/news/ 2009/10/27/ uzbekistan- eu-fails- human-rights- victims.
http://www.hrw.
org/en/news/ 2009/08/27/ uzbekistan- new-abuse- jailed-dissident.
http://www.hrw.
org/en/news/ 2009/08/18/ uzbekistan- rights-activist- arrested.
For more information, please
contact:
In Zurich, Holly
Cartner (English, German): +1-917-293-3090