13 December 2006
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AT RISK
The international community must act urgently to help stop the persecution of human rights defenders in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch says. In the 18 months since security forces massacred peaceful protesters in Andijan on 13 May 2005, Uzbek authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown on civil society.
More than two dozen human rights defenders have had criminal charges brought against them, and according to the Uzbek human rights group Ezgulik, at least 17 are currently in prison.
Dozens of others have had to flee Uzbekistan, following unrelenting persecution. Numerous others have been beaten by unknown assailants, threatened by local authorities, set upon by mobs, and placed under house arrest, says Human Rights Watch.
The Uzbek government uses methods that range from intimidation, threats and harassment to physical attacks, imprisonment and torture.
Human Rights Watch has published a report that profiles human rights defenders currently at risk and details the methods the Uzbek government employs to silence them.
The publication of the report comes as the European Union considers whether to extend trade sanctions imposed on Uzbekistan in October 2005 as a result of the Andijan massacre.
Uzbekistan has resisted calls for an international inquiry and has denied access to Andijan for any international monitors, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who sought access there soon after the massacre.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has named Uzbekistan one of the 10 most censored countries in the world.
Under President Islam Karimov, the government "relies on brutal political intimidation to silence journalists, human rights activists, and the political opposition [and] an informal system of state censorship to prevent the domestic media from reporting on widespread police torture, poverty, and an Islamic opposition," says CPJ.
Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/uzbekistan/portraits06/index.htm
- The Andijan Massacre: http://hrw.org/campaigns/andijan/
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/censored/censored_06.html
- IFEX Alerts on Uzbekistan: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/185/
- Freedom House Report: http://tinyurl.com/ycmhw4
- OSCE: http://www.osce.org/documents/rfm/2005/03/15195_en.pdf
RSS