Rights group voices concern over pressure on Karakalpak
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Uznews.net – The Front Line international foundation for defending human rights activists today expressed concern with Uzbek President Islam Karimov over the summons of Karakalpak human rights defender Salijon Abdurahmanov to police in Nukus and described this move as intimidation of a human rights activist.
“Front Line expresses concern over reports that Salijon Abdurahmanov, the chairman of the Karakalpak branch of the Committee for Defending Individual’s Rights, was summoned to the deputy head of the Nukus town police department and that police officers examined his flat the same day,” Mary Lawlor, director of Front Line, said in a letter to President Karimov.
The international foundation for defending human rights activists urged the Uzbek authorities to take measures to “enable Salijon Abdurahmanov and other human rights activists in Uzbekistan to carry out their lawful activities to defend human rights freely and without restrictions or intimidation”.
“Front Line reminds you about the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998,” Mary Lawlor wrote to Karimov. “The declaration recognises the lawful right of human rights defenders to work without fear and persecution.”
Salijon Abdurahmanov was summoned to the Nukus town police department on 6 January for a meeting with the deputy head of the department, Farhad Matmuradov, who explained this summons by his desire to meet the human rights activist. During the meeting, Abdurahmanov said, Matmuradov asked many questions about his organisation and how he passed on information about human rights violations.
Two police officers visited Abdurahmanov’s flat in Nukus the same day and said that they were conducting an operation to check passports; however, they examined the whole flat of the human rights defender.
Salijon Abdurahmanov, a journalist, worked for Radio Liberty and the Voice of America for long time; he also cooperated with the IWPR’s office in Uzbekistan.
Following the events in Andijan in May 2005 and the closure of many correspondent bureaux in Uzbekistan, Abdurahmanov started to defend human rights.
He said that the peoples of Uzbekistan and Karakalpakstan were living very poorly at the moment, but he believes that freedom and democracy will triumph.
“I will never give up my principles and will always be on the side of human rights and truth,” Abdurahmanov told Uznews.net.