Crackdown fills up Uzbekistan's jails

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,12674,1187830,00.html
Crackdown fills up Uzbekistan's jails

Peter Baker in Tashkent
Guardian Weekly

They stood outside the gates as the gruff guard waved his Kalashnikov. "Go
away," the guard barked. It started to rain. The mothers pleaded for
information about their missing sons. The officer growled again, then turned
his back. Saida Mamurova stared at the imposing prison behind the gates.
"How terrible," she lamented. "It's so hard for us. I'm out here, and my son
is in there."

The authorities came for her 34-year-old son, Dilshod, one night last week
and took him away, a fate that has befallen other young Muslims in the Uzbek
capital as the government launched a new crackdown after a series of suicide
bombs. Mamurova's two other sons are already in one of Uzbekistan's prisons.
"What will I do now if they're all in prison?" she asked. "I'm a lone woman."

Arbitrary arrests and torture have been routine under President Islam
Karimov's rule, according to the U.S. government and human rights groups,
which estimate that about 7,000 people are being held in Uzbek prisons
because of their political or religious beliefs. In the aftermath of five
days of explosions and gunfire that killed at least 47 people last week, the
authorities are again going door to door inspecting documents, making what
they call "preventive" arrests of people on watch lists and even rounding up
more prosperous Uzbeks so they can extract money for their release,
according to witnesses.

"We're concerned that police and security forces . . . are going to be given
carte blanche and the international community is going to turn a blind eye,"
said Acacia Shields, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch and primary
author of a 319-page report on political repression here. Human Rights Watch
has documented the arrests of 12 people with no known link to terrorist
attacks, mainly religious dissidents and their relatives - and Shields
suspects there have been dozens, even hundreds, more. A diplomat here
estimated that at least 200 people had been swept up, and told of visiting a
police station where he saw 50 detainees, some of whom were kicked and
beaten in front of him.

The arrests follow the deadliest violence here since Uzbekistan became a key
ally of the United States in the war on terrorism in 2001. Most of those
killed were combatants, according to official numbers released last week,
which listed 10 police officers and 33 militants, seven of them women. "The
investigation continues," Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov said. "We're
taking care of the city. I promise you that the criminals will be found and
punished."

Kadyrov, who put on display assault rifles, pistols, ammunition, detonators
and vests of explosives seized in the last few days, said the militants had
trained outside Uzbekistan. Also on show were militants' passports,
including one apparently pierced by a bullet. Police had seized 55 explosive
belts and two tons of explosive materials, he said. Kadyrov said 19 people,
including four women, had been arrested as accessories to the violence. A
wanted poster listed eight other suspects being sought.

The violence comes at a delicate time for Uzbekistan, which faces three
crucial decisions in the United States and Europe in coming weeks over
whether its human rights record warrants sanctions. President Bush called
Karimov last week to reiterate U.S. solidarity as Uzbekistan fights
terrorism, and human rights groups feared that the attacks could generate
sympathy for Karimov's authoritarian government.

Unless the State Department certifies this month that Uzbekistan has made
significant progress in human rights, $50 million in direct aid will be cut
off. The U.S. government also must decide whether to include Uzbekistan on a
list of "countries of particular concern" because of religious persecution.
And the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has soon to
determine if Uzbekistan has met human rights benchmarks, a prerequisite for
further loans.

Gulsara Makhmudova described how officers burst into her apartment late one
night last week to seize her son, Bobur Makhmudov, 34, whose father, Mamadli
Makhmudov, is a writer and political prisoner. Gulsara said she had been
scouring prisons and police stations in an effort to find him, only to be
turned away.

She is convinced he is being abused. "They beat everyone," she said quietly.
"With my husband, they put something hot under his nails, both toes and
fingers, to make him say, 'I am the one who is bad.'"

Makhmudova was one of a small band of mothers who stood outside the state
criminal administration headquarters last Friday, seeking their sons. With
them was Allison Gill, a Human Rights Watch researcher, and Raban Richter, a
Ger man diplomat. They stood in the rain for an hour, but guards refused to
let them inside, even into the reception area normally open to visitors. The
diplomat and the activist asked to see a major they had met before. "I don't
know where he is," the guard said brusquely. "Maybe he went home."

"Please," the diplomat said again, "take us to your boss." The guard rolled
his eyes and shook his head. Another officer came over. "Go away," he
barked, even more impatiently.

"There's a big problem here," Richter told him, trying to explain that he
had a right of access to the prison. "It's your own law."

"Not allowed," the officer snapped.

"I'm a representative of Germany," the diplomat said. "Not allowed."

"I'm just trying to talk to you."

"Not allowed."


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