Reports of Widespread Torture in Uzbekistan

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday February 14, 2006 01:56 by Liam Mullen - Freelance journalist mullenl at eircom dot net 17 Cranford Court, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 086-1732700

Calls were made recently for the arrest in Germany of Uzbekistan’s Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov. Almatov was in Germany to receive medical aid following a diagnosis of cancer.

In a report given by Jeff Julliarj, of Reporters without Borders, systematic abuse by Uzbekistan authorities is still taking place today.
Previous reports from Human Right’s Watch and the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo van Boven, highlight serious cases of torture in the former Soviet republic. The case filed on December 12th last year by survivors of the Andijan massacre and alleged torture victims calls on the German prosecutor to open criminal proceedings against Almatov on three counts: individual crimes of torture, torture as a crime against humanity, and the Andijan massacre as a crime against humanity.
The Andijan massacre occurred on May 13th 2005 in Bobur Square when Uzbek security agents opened fire indiscriminately on people who had assembled to protest against the Uzbekistan government’s policies.
Theo van Boven remains convinced that Almatov and others within the judicial system in Uzbekistan have a case to answer and he is quoted as saying: “The fact that there is no accountability for torture in Uzbekistan makes the case filed against Minister Almatov in Germany all the more significant. It also raises the stakes high for Germany, which stands out as a principled leader on behalf of universal jurisdiction.”
Universal jurisdiction allows states, under International Law, to try cases such as war crimes, even though the crimes may have been permitted elsewhere. Germany’s legislation allows this to happen. States that have applied this form of justice include the United Kingdom, which arrested Chile’s Augusto Pinochet on charges of torture and conspiracy to torture and Senegal’s arrest of Hissène Habré, the former Chadian leader, on charges of torture and crimes against humanity. The UN International Criminal Tribunal sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, recently indicted Rwandan war criminals for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide.
In many of the cases documented by the UN Special Rapporteur, van Boven highlighted serious injustices occurred, where people were rounded up by the National Security Service (SNB) and spurious charges were put to them. Many were beaten into confessing for crimes they did not commit, some had gas masks put over their faces and were beaten as they were deprived of oxygen, others were sexually abused with metal instruments, and some were given the death penalty and executed in unfair procedures. Journalists investigating the human right’s abuses have been threatened, arrested and jailed.
He concluded his report by stating that the evidence of torture was “systematic” and that he stood ready to take the stand should charges be brought to bear.