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Andijan Massacre

EU postpones Uzbek sanctions review

Posted on 2007/02/18

Friday, 09 February 2007

Uznews.net – The European Union’s press service in Brussels has said that the EU will not reconsider sanctions it imposed on the Uzbek government in connection with the Andijan massacre in February 2007 as it intended to earlier.

This issue was postponed until May 2007, when the sanctions expire. It seems that Uzbekistan will not soon get rid of the sanctions the EU imposed on the country’s government after the massacre of the civilian population in Andijan in May 2005.

A representative of the EU press service said that the EU had decided not to consider the issue of the sanctions against Uzbekistan at a monthly meeting of foreign ministers of EU countries on 12 February.

In March 2007, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers intends to issue a statement on Uzbekistan “without discussion”, which will be available to the press as soon as it is published.

In late April-early May, foreign ministers from EU countries will decide whether the sanctions should be extended, tightened, eased or abolished. The EU imposed its sanctions on Uzbekistan in October 2005 for a year. Read More

Andijan uprising leader's testimony, Front Line

Posted on 2007/01/08

Thursday, 04 January 2007

Uznews.net – Kobul Parpiyev, a leader of the Andijan uprising in May 2005, has been held by the Uzbek law-enforcement agencies for over a year. Top secret. Uznews.net has received from reliable sources confidential material based on testimony given by Parpiyev entitled “Report on Testimony Given by Kobul Parpiyev on Organising and Carrying Out Terrorist Attacks in Andijan (on 12-13 May 2005)”.

This “report” is neither signed or dated by anyone, nor it is not known who it has been prepared for. But it is the result of a long, hard work by Uzbekistan’s power-wielding structures involving a large group of people detained in connection with the Andijan events, including Kobul Parpiyev. The report’s aim is to create a convincing version of what happened in Andijan on 12-13 May 2005 for the Uzbek authorities.

It looks like that Kobul Parpiyev and many other detainees have been kept in secret prisons –without right to legal protection or without informing their families about their whereabouts for 14 months now – in order to make them sign this version of the Andijan events. Read More

Uzbek court sentences human rights defender to eight years

Posted on 2006/08/02

8 March 2006

A district criminal court in the small town of Dustobad, near the Uzbek capital Tashkent, sentenced a well-known human rights defender and critic of the Andijan massacre, to eight years in prison on 6 March, in a trial that Front Line believes violated international fair trial standards.

Mutabar Tadjibaeva, from Margilan, eastern Uzbekistan was found guilty of a long list of charges, including extortion, land use violations and slander. Ms Tadjibaeva, who is a member of the human rights organisation Fiery Hearts, was also found guilty of membership of an illegal organisation, as her NGO, like the majority of NGOs in Uzbekistan, is not legally “registered”.

“This conviction is politically motivated. Mutabar is being persecuted for her human rights work,” said Front Line Director, Mary Lawlor “Since the Andijan massacre, human rights defenders, journalists and any voices of dissent or criticism are deliberately targeted by the Uzbek authorities. The trial was a sham. Mukhtabar must be released immediately.” Read More

Concern for human rights defenders in Uzbekistan, June 2005

Posted on 2005/10/02

9 June 2005

Front Line is extremely concerned for the security of human rights defenders who are reporting on the current situation in Uzbekistan following the recent events in Andizhan, where it is reported that between 169 (government source) and 500 men, women and children were killed by the Uzbek army. Front Line has received reports of a number of what appears to be arbitrary detentions and beatings of human rights defenders.

One such case is the arbitrary detention of human rights defender and Chairperson of the Andizhan based independent human rights group Apelliatsia (Appeal), Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov on 21 May 2005. According to reports received Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov was detained and held incommunicado for two days before being permitted a telephone call to a relative on 23 May 2005. According to a lawyer who visited his family on 23 May, Zainabitdinov is being held in police custody in the Andizhan Regional Department of Internal Affairs in eastern Uzbekistan. He now faces prosecution under criminal libel laws. Read More

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