Human Rights in Central Asia- December 1998

<>><<>><<>>_____TURKISTAN NEWSLETTER...ISSN:--1386-6265____<<>><<>><
<<>><<>><<>>________Volume 98-2:208-07-December-1998________<>><<>><
<<>>This issue is distributed to 2617 subscribers in 65 countries>><
<<<>Uze Tengri basmasar asra yer telinmeser, Turk bodun ilining<<>><
>>torugin kem artati, udaci erti.[From Orkhon runic inscriptions]>><
<<>><<>><<>>_______Editor-in-Chief: Mehmet Tutuncu_________<<>><<>><
<<>><<>>___Co-Editors: H.M. Hubey, Yanki Pursun, Cengiz Turan__<<>><
<<>><<>>____Associate Editors: Ch. Bartholomew, S. Badretdin___<<>><
<<>submission and reactions: ><
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT 1999. The New York based Human Rights Watch group
released its 'World Report 1999'. Here are excerpts concerning Turkestan
Republics.
 
#1. UZBEKISTAN Human Rights Developments
#2. TURKMENISTAN Human Rights Developments
#3. TAJIKISTAN Human Rights Developments
#4. KYRGYZSTAN Human Rights Developments
#5. KAZAKHSTAN Human Rights Developments
#6. THE WORK OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IN CENTRAL ASIA

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#1. UZBEKISTAN Human Rights Developments

The year 1998 was disastrous for human rights in Uzbekistan. In a sweeping
effort to eliminate religion as a potential source of political opposition,
the government of Islam Karimov employed mass arbitrary arrests, torture of
men in custody, religious discrimination, and harassment of independent
human rights activists and journalists.

Beginning in December 1997, the government of Uzbekistan stepped up its
almost seven-year campaign against  independent Muslims. It was triggered
by the brutal murder of several policemen in Namangan, one of whom was
beheaded. In response, police arrested hundreds of people in the Fergana
Valley and Tashkent, many of whom were practicing Muslims who do not follow
"official" Islam. Some men were taken directly from the street simply
because they had beards, a perceived sign of piety. Police routinely
fabricated evidence by allegedly planting small amounts of narcotics or
ammunition on suspects, and beat and threatened arrestees, both at the time
of arrest and during interrogation.

On January 23, a group of about 100 women assembled outside a police
station in Tashkent-to protest the arrest and detention of their male
relatives. Police broke up the demonstration [an extraordinary event in
this repressive country] and detained the women until late evening. Police
fined human rights activist Mukhtabar Akhmedova a portion of her monthly
pension for her alleged role as an organizer of the protest.

Several show trials of those arrested during the crackdown took place in
May, June, and July and were featured prominently in the state-controlled
media, which were already running a propaganda campaign justifying the mass
arrests as a necessary measure to counter a surging "fundamentalist"
Islamic movement allegedly bent on overthrowing the existing state order.
In one of the trials, which involved eight men, several defendants
testified that police beat and tortured them with electric shock and
suffocation while in detention, and coerced them into signing
self-incriminating statements. The sentences in this trial, heard by the
Supreme Court and seriously compromised by due process violations, ranged
from three years in a reform colony to the death sentence.

Following sustained protest by the international community and human rights
groups, the three-and-a-half year prison sentence of Rakhmat Otaqulov was
commuted to forced labor and he was allowed to return home.  Otaqulov, a
Muslim religious teacher whose arrest was widely believed to be politically
motivated, was convicted  on June 10, 1997, for alleged illegal possession
of narcotics and pistol cartridges. His brother, who actively protested his
arrest, was among the eight defendants sentenced in the Supreme Court trial.

The government systematically closed independent mosques and harassed
religious leaders, several of whom disappeared. In September 1997,
Ne'matjon Parpiev, imam of a mosque in Andijan and former assistant to
Sheikh Abduvali Qori Mirzoev, reportedly disappeared. Sheikh Mirzoev and
another assistant, Ramazanbek Matkarimov, are believed to be in police
custody or to have died in custody after the National Security Service
(SNB) detained them in 1995.

Leading independent imam Obidkhon Nazarov suffered persistent government
harassment in 1998 and has not been seen since March 5. The Spiritual
Directorate had removed Nazarov from his position as imam in December 1995
for "disobedience to decrees of the Spiritual Directorate." On April 29 the
Fergana regional court sentenced his brother, Abdumalik Nazarov (arrested
in the December crackdown), to nine years in prison for possession of
illegal narcotics. Also in April, the government attempted to evict the
Nazarov family from their home, but that effort failed thanks to
intervention by international observers and local supporters. The criminal
charges against and harassment of Nazarov were presumably designed to
silence him and to discourage others from active participation in
non-official Islam.

The Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, adopted by
the Supreme Council (or parliament) on May 1, sets out a legal framework
for the broader repression of non-official religions. It serves to
marginalize religious groups that might be perceived as a forum for
opposition to President Islam Karimov's administration, and it criminalizes
the practices of some foreign religious groups that have places of worship
in the country.

The law's article 5 prohibits proselytism; penalties range from a fine of
fifty to 100 times the minimum monthly wage (about U.S.$11) to three years
of imprisonment. The law also prohibits private teaching of religious
principles. Article 14 forbids non-clerics from wearing "ritual" attire in
public. Wearing such clothing can result in a fine of five to ten times the
amount of the minimum monthly wage or administrative arrest for up to
fifteen days.

Under the law, religious groups face excessively burdensome registration
requirements: for example, they must have one-hundred members who are
citizens of Uzbekistan and over the age of 18. As of September, however,
preliminary reports indicated that the government was allowing for
exceptions on the membership requirement,  and it appeared that it was not
implementing the law fully with regard to non-Muslim groups. The law,
together with amendments to the criminal code, sets out penalties of up to
five years of imprisonment for religious leaders who fail to register their
groups and for those who participate actively in a prohibited religious group.

In 1998, dozens of students were expelled from state institutions of higher
education for wearing Islamic attire. Female students who wore hijab
(traditional Muslim covering, usually including a head scarf, sometimes
covering the face, and a long, loose-fitting robe or dress) were expelled,
and male students with beards were subjected to pressure to shave or else
were expelled. University administrators pointed to the law, particularly
the prohibition on "ritual" dress in public, to support their decisions to
deprive pious Muslim students of their right to education. Even primary and
secondary school girls were expelled for wearing hijab . The SNB followed
several expelled university students who had met with Human Rights Watch,
and warned them not to speak with foreigners again.

Pastor Rashid Turibaev of the Baptist Full Gospel Christians Church in the
Karakalpakstan autonomous region was sentenced in late October 1997 to two
years of hard labor and internal exile for carrying out church services, on
charges of organizing unsanctioned gatherings, meetings, and
demonstrations. In May, police in Shakhrisabz reportedly raided the homes
of Jehovah's Witnesses.

There was no free and independent media in Uzbekistan. The State Control
Inspectorate continued to censor all press materials, and a new government
body, the Qanoat (Uzbek for Abstemiousness) Center, was established in 1998
to review all religious literature and video and audio tapes, with the aim
of stopping the flow of certain religious materials from abroad.
Rahmonberdi Abdurakhmanov, an official of the Procuracy General, aptly
stated in July that with the establishment of the Qanoat Center, "no
non-state organization or state organization has any  right to do anything
concerning religion without the knowledge of our state."

On August 1, unidentified men in plain clothes assaulted and beat Russian
journalists Vitalii Ponomarev and Nikolai Mitrokhin on the street in
Tashkent in broad daylight. The attackers had apparently been waiting for
the two journalists to emerge from the home of Murat Zahidov, chair of the
Committee for the Protection of Individuals of Uzbekistan. Ponomarev and
Mitrokhin had just returned from the Fergana Valley, where they were
investigating cases of arbitrary arrest of Islamic religious leaders.

The government apparently attempted to silence criticism by prosecuting
journalists for slander as a criminal offense. On June 11, the Syr Darya
regional court sentenced radio journalist and satirist Shodi Mardiev to
eleven years in prison for slander, illegal acquisition or sale of foreign
currency, and extortion. The charges against  Mardiev were brought by
Talat-Abdukhalikhazada Abasov, deputy procurator of Samarkand. Mardiev had
satirized Abasov in a June 1997 radio broadcast that reportedly exposed
Abasov's abuse of power in favoring a local business man.
Sixty-two-year-old Mardiev was reportedly held in solitary confinement
until the time of his appeal, which he lost. He is in seriously poor health
and is said to have suffered two brain hemorrhages while in detention.

In a positive development, participants in the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe's June seminar on women's issues were given a
forum to discuss openly the pervasiveness of domestic violence in
Uzbekistan. This was a welcome first step toward addressing domestic
violence, but major obstacles remained, among them, police indifference to
women's complaints.

Defending Human Rights

In 1998, the government again refused to register the two leading human
rights groups in the country, the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU)
and the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan (IHROU).

On December 21, 1997, three IHROU members, Mikhail Ardzinov, Jamal
Mirsaidov and Ergash Kasimov, were stopped by police officers in Samarkand
while on their way to a founding meeting of the Tajik National Cultural
Center of Samarkand. Police took the men to a precinct station in
Samarkand, where they were held for the duration of the scheduled meeting.
After several hours, Mr. Ardzinov attempted to leave, but two officers
grabbed him and, along with five or six others, beat him repeatedly and
threw him to the floor. He and Mirsaidov were then asked to sign a prepared
statement against the organizing of unsanctioned meetings and, after
refusing to sign, were threatened by procurator Bohadir Sadulaev with
fifteen days in prison. Once released, Ardzinov and Mirsaidov left the
building to find approximately thirty police officers and men in plain
clothes awaiting them. Police returned Mirsaidov to the police station; ten
of them surrounded Ardzinov, beat him, and forced him into a police
vehicle. He was then forcibly transported to Tashkent by three men in plain
clothes, who forced him to keep his head down and taunted him. When police
released him, they warned him not to return to Samarkand. Mirsaidov was put
under ten days of administrative arrest, but released after three days,
when the American Embassy voiced objection. Police held Kasimov for
fourteen hours and then released him after he signed a  statement verifying
he had been warned not to organize unsanctioned meetings.

Members of the Namangan branch of the HRSU reported continual harassment by
local authorities. Unidentified men in plain clothes followed the group's
members, and unmarked police cars were regularly parked outside their
homes. Family members of arrested men who shared information with the group
were called in by local police, questioned, and threatened that their
relatives' sentences would be extended if they continued to speak with
human rights activists. In January, members of the group sent a letter to
Ombudswoman Sayora Rashidova, chair of the government's Human Rights
Institute, expressing their desire to set up a joint commission to examine
human rights violations in the Namangan region. In February, the Namangan
procurator questioned the group's members for hours about the letter and
about their sources of information on human rights abuses and events in
Namangan. The HRSU members were permitted to leave without divulging their
sources.

The Role of the International Community

Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

The OSCE intensified its advocacy through its Central Asian Liaison Office
in Tashkent in 1998. The October 1997 Memorandum of Understanding provided
a framework for technical assistance projects in democratization, human
rights, and electoral democracy, including a human rights education course
held in May 1998. In his meetings with Uzbekistan government officials in
April, Chairman-in-Office Bronislaw Geremek stressed the absence of civil
liberties, and condemned the use of repression against suspected
"extremists." The OSCE also lodged official protests on several specific
cases of illegal detention, and pressedfor access to the detainees for the
nternational community. Experts from the Liaison Office journeyed to the
Fergana valley to monitor trials and investigate violations. In addition,
during a June visit to Tashkent the OSCE High Commissioner on National
Minorities rebutted Uzbek officials' insistence that they faced the threat
of religious and political extremists by stressing the importance of
upholding international commitments.

European Union

The European Union continued its suspension of the Partnership and
Cooperation Agreement signed with Uzbekistan in June 1996, pending an
investigation of the human rights situation there to be conducted in
mid-1998 by the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which at
this writing is preparing to report its findings. In the absence of this
agreement, the E.U. provided technical assistance in the fields of police
training and promotion of civil society and sponsored a project of the
International Helsinki Federation to increase  awareness about human rights.

United States

As in previous years, the United States continued its strong criticism of
Uzbekistan's human rights violations. The Embassy in Tashkent took an
active role, sending diplomats to monitor trials against accused "Wahabis"
in Namangan, and registering several official protests with the Uzbek
government against probable use of torture and blatantly prejudicial legal
proceedings. The State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
for 1997 used blunt language in describing Uzbekistan as an authoritarian
state where civil and political freedoms are severely limited or
nonexistent, including the right to worship freely. The report issued by
the Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in March
also decried the new pressure against independent religious groups. This
censure stood in contrast the statement made by First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton during her November 1997 visit to Samarkand, praising religious
freedom in Uzbekistan.

Nevertheless, U.S. aid appropriations for Uzbekistan continue to grow,
unhindered by that country's appalling record of rights violations. The
requested assistance to Uzbekistan leapt from an estimated thirty-two
million dollars spent in fiscal year 1998 to thirty-six million for fiscal
year 1999. Yet Uzbekistan exhibited no progress at all towards the
principles cited in the U.S.-Uzbekistan Joint Commission statement issued
during its first meeting in February 1998, "reaffirming the commitment of
both governments to the principles of a free and democratic  society,
including respect for human rights, and free speech and assembly." The
chairman of the Export-Import Bank, James A. Harmon, signed an agreement to
provide a $215 million long-term guarantee for U.S. companies o export
industrial equipment, calling Uzbekistan a "dynamic and stable country."
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#2. TURKMENISTAN Human Rights Developments

Under the dictatorship of President Saparmurat Niyazov, the government of
Turkmenistan in 1998 continued to deny its citizens nearly every civil and
political right. With no political opposition, no freedom of assembly, no
opportunity for public debate, and a Soviet-style secret police, very
little information on human rights abuses was available. One of the poorest
of the former Soviet republics, the Central Asian nation worked to keep
human rights off the agenda as it courted foreign investors eager to
exploit its untapped natural resources, especially oil and gas. On two
occasions, however, international pressure on President Niyazov forced the
release of a handful of high-profile political prisoners.

President Niyazov's visit to the United States in April occasioned ten
releases. On the eve of Niyazov's arrival in the U.S., police detained
former foreign minister and dissident Avdy Kuliev in the capital, Ashgabat,
as he was attempting to return to Turkmenistan from Moscow after five years
in exile. Subsequent pressure from the Clinton administration and others
sources led Turkmen officials to release Kuliev and Durdymurat
Khoja-Mukhamedov. A leader of the banned Party of Democratic Development of
Turkmenistan, Khoja-Mukhamedov had been incarcerated since February 1996 in
a psychiatric hospital on medically unjustifiable grounds.

Six of the eight members of a group known as the "Ashgabat Eight" were also
freed in April. The eight were imprisoned after an ill-fated march in 1995
to protest wage arrears and the lack of democracy. Begenchmurat Khojaev and
Baytr Sakheliev, both imprisoned since 1995 for their alleged participation
in the rally, were released the same day; two days later the government
released Amanmyrat Amandurdyev, Khudayberdi Amandurdyev, Charymurat
Amandurdyev and Kakamurat Nazarov, also members of the "Ashgabat Eight."
Also released were Mukhammetkuli Aimuradov and Khoshali Geraev, convicted
in 1995 of anti-state crimes and "attempted terrorism," for maintaining
contact with Turkmen political activists abroad. Both men had been serving
time in strict-regime labor camps in the western city of Turkmenbashi.

Unfortunately, Charymurat Gurov, also of the "Ashgabat Eight," died in
custody in January under suspicious circumstances. The government asserted
that he died of natural causes (heart aliments and tuberculosis), but
according to eyewitness reports his corpse was bruised and bore other
evidence of mistreatment and torture. The remaining member of the "Ashgabat
Eight," Gulgeldi Annaniyazov, remained in prison. Mr. Kuliev, who saw
Annaniyazov during his own imprisonment in April, reported to Human Rights
Watch that the latter was in such poor health that he could barely walk or
speak, and that he was extremely thin and pale.

While the government reneged on its promise to release additional political
prisoners, the president, did sign an amnesty decree in October freeing
women, disabled prisoners, those suffering from tuberculosis, juveniles,
war veterans, and male prisoners over the age of sixty. Individuals
convicted of murder, rape, terrorism, or drug-related crimes were not
included in the amnesty. The decree did not appear to reflect a real change
in the government's policy toward those it deemed a threat; authorities
continued to threaten, assault, and imprison perceived opponents. As of
this writing, there were no reports of prisoners having been released.

In early September, the Committee for National Security (KNB) arrested
former presidential spokesman Durdymuhammend Gurbanov on charges of
embezzlement. He was released a week later after some thirty people
demonstrated in Ashgabat to demand his release, an extraordinary event. As
of September, the government had taken no measures to punish or imprison
the demonstrators. In April, Gurbanov had given a series of interviews to
Radio Liberty in Prague during which he severely criticized President
Niyazov and the government. Upon his return to Ashgabat in June, the KNB
repeatedly summoned him to their offices and kept him under constant
surveillance.

In early August, three assailants kidnapped and beat Durdymurat
Khoja-Mukhamedov as he was returning home from a meeting at the British
Embassy.They drove him outside Ashgabat, kicked and beat him until he lost
consciousness, and left him. Khoja-Mukhamedov was still bandaged and in
pain one month after the attack.

November of 1997 also saw the arrest of Radio Liberty stringer Yovshan
Annakurbanov as he prepared to board a flight to Prague to attend a
journalists' seminar. Though Turkmen police later alleged that Annakurbanov
possessed a computer disc containing information on Turkmen opposition
parties, no mention of the disc was made at the time of his arrest.
Annakurbanov was released about a week later, on the eve of U.S. Secretary
of Energy Federico Pena's visit to Turkmenistan.

The death penalty cases of Andre Voronin and Kamal Nepesov highlighted
Turkmenistan's arbitrary and capricious criminal justice system. Amnesty
International reported that the two men were sentenced to death in April by
a court in the Mary region for the murder of a Bayramali sanitorium
director. Voronin and Nepesov claimed they were tortured- their toes
crushed with pliers and electric shocks applied to the anus- and that their
 families were threatened. Further, the men were allowed access to their
lawyers only a month after their arrests and only after signing confessions
obtained under psychological and physical pressure. While Human Rights
Watch could not independently confirm the men's charges, according to the
report, the men also alleged that the authorities failed to investigate
their claims of innocence.

Defending Human Rights


The status of independent human rights monitoring in Turkmenistan is best
reflected by a phrase from the oath of loyalty to the nation emblazoned on
the masthead of all the country's newspapers and magazines: "If I criticize
you may my tongue fall out!" Thesole local organization allowed to address
human rights issues, the official Turkmen National Institute of Democracy
and Human Rights under the president of Turkmenistan, acts mainly as a
buffer between the Turkmen government and international bodies.
International observers fare no better than would-be local monitors: the
government denied Human Rights Watch representatives visas on one occasion
and refused to grant them official meetings during a subsequent trip to the
region in May 1998.

The Role of the International Community

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)


The OSCE in 1998 initiated more forceful demonstrations of concern for
human rights abuses in Turkmenistan than in the past. When current OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Bronislaw Geremek visited Turkmenistan in April he
appealed in his meeting with President Niyazov for the release of political
prisoners. An OSCE special representative conducted a mission to the
country in March and a memorandum of understanding was being prepared as of
this writing.

United Nations

In October 1997, the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Ashgabat Omer Eritur
publicly stated the U.N.'s commitment to "all possible support and
assistance...to the government of Turkmenistan by the U.N. system
organizations and  other major donors" citing "recent and internally
induced changes toward democratization."

European Union

In February, the European Union signed an interim agreement with
Turkmenistan aimed at boosting trade, which will remain in force until the
full Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), scheduled to be ratified
in the fall of 1998, comes into force. Although the P.C.A. mandates respect
for civil and political freedom, the lack of any such freedoms in
Turkmenistan did not seem to be hindering progress toward ratification.

United States

The U.S. pursued a contradictory policy toward Turkmenistan in 1998. On the
one hand, the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997 provided a
thorough indictment of the repressive and inhumane practices of that
government, and the Department of State raised the issue of political
prisoners prior to President Niyazov's state visit. On the other hand, the
U.S. refusal to attach any conditions to the state visit or to its aid,
credits, and trade involving Turkmenistan entirely undercut any critical
message. The Department of State's appropriation request for Turkmenistan
for fiscal year 1999 was nearly triple the 1998 estimate. The state visit
resulted in a joint statement giving clear priority to cooperation in the
energy sector; it expressed concern with the need for "rapid concrete steps
toward reform" in human rights, but did not link these steps to continued
good relations. And despite all evidence that Turkmenistan had only
contempt for the rule of law, the White House issued a press release
stating that "Turkmenistan is committed to strengthening the rule of law
and political pluralism." The press release followed the granting of U.S.
credits to Exxon for a pipeline feasibility study in Turkmenistan.

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#3. TAJIKISTAN Human Rights Developments

Human rights in Tajikistan saw a steep downward spiral in 1998, fueled
mostly by the failures of a  government-United Tajik Opposition (UTO) peace
process that consistently threatened to collapse. Both the government and
the UTO were unable or unwilling to exercise control over lawless elements
within their ranks,  leaving the civilian population vulnerable to the
unprosecuted criminal activities of their respective forces. Fighting
continued between the two parties, resulting in some of the worst abuses
since the height of the civil war in 1992-93: civilian deaths,
hostage-taking, the looting and torching of houses, rape, and summary
executions. Security conditions for those involved in humanitarian
assistance efforts worsened dramatically.

Critical delays in the implementation of the June 1997 peace accord
sustained mutual distrust between the government and UTO, and contributed
to widespread disillusionment among the population. As of early November,
fewer than half of those recommended under the amnesty law had been
amnestied, while close to one  thousand cases remained pending. The
majority of UTO fighters retained their weapons instead of delivering them
to the authorities, the thirty percent quota of UTO members to be named to
central government positions ad not been met by early November, and
integration of UTO members into local government had not yet begun. Bans
and limitations on the activities of political parties and movements
belonging to the UTO and on the mass media remained in place as of
mid-October, and parliamentary elections slated for 1998 were postponed to
1999.

Several political crises arising from the slow pace of the peace process
threatened to bring it to a halt altogether. In January, the UTO withdrew
for a week from the Commission on National

Reconciliation (CNR), the body that oversees the process. In May, the
Majlisi Oli (parliament) adopted a draft law prohibiting the establishment
of political parties based on religion. Following widespread national and
international protest, the contentious articles were modified to limit the
activities of political parties to those places not considered religious
institutions. By the end of October, nonetheless, the revised law had not
yet been dopted. A third crisis erupted in July following the murder of
four United Nations Mission of Observers to Tajikistan (UNMOT) employees in
the Karategin Valley. International organizations withdrew from the
Karategin Valley altogether, and UNMOT suspended its assistance to the
demobilization process, a critical component of the peace process.
Following the assassination of UTO member Otakhon Latifi in September, the
UTO once again briefly withdrew from the CNR.

Armed conflict between the government and the UTO, ongoing internal power
struggles, and infighting and clashes within both camps were symptomatic of
the fragile control the government and the UTO had over their respective
military forces and the various armed factions' dissatisfaction with the
peace process. When government-UTO fighting broke out just east of Dushanbe
in mid-January, tensions mounted steadily until mid-March, when events
erupted into full-scale combat and a prolonged military stand-off in the
Kofarnikhon area. At least several civilians were killed and scores were
forcibly displaced. The two sides clashed again from April 30 to May 2.
Human Rights Watch gathered testimony in the Karategin area pointing to
disproportionate and indiscriminate force by government forces during the
hostilities, and to rape, torture, and the looting and torching of civilian
homes. Civilian deaths numbered at least twenty-five. In mid-July and at
the end of August, fighting once again broke out among UTO groups in and
close to Tajikabad. Elements of the Tajik Border Forces were allegedly
responsible for gross violations including rape, theft, and looting in
Pianj and Shaartuz.

Political instability and a weak central command characterized most parts
of the country, but tensions were at their greatest in Dushanbe, where both
government and opposition figures were assassinated and attacked,
politically-motivated bombings continued, and high levels of murder and
other crimes fostered an atmosphere of insecurity. Among opposition murders
were those of prominent CNR member Otakhon Latifi; Usmon Khojayev, the
deputy commander of a special U.N. protection unit and former UTO field
commander; and relatives of prominent UTO members Yusuf Hakim and
Kiyemeddin Goziyev. On the government side, the deputy head of the Customs
Committee was killed by a car bomb, while the head of the same committee
escaped a separate fata attack on his own car.

In August, the head of the local government in Shakhrinau, along with the
mayor and several other government officials in Tursunzade, were
assassinated. The Karategin Valley, mostly

UTO-controlled, was subjected to the unchecked criminal activities of the
UTO and other armed groups, and the Kulab region, the president's regional
base, witnessed abuses including hostage-taking, rape, murder, and
extortion, committed by an organized criminal group allegedly headed by a
Kulabi member of parliament.

In mid-June two UNMOT officials were detained, beaten, and threatened with
execution by armed men near Hoit, in opposition-controlled territory close
to Garm. One month later, four UNMOT employees were ambushed and murdered
nearby by alleged UTO members. The sole road leading from Dushanbe to
northeastern Garm remained off-limits for international organizations
during most of 1998.

Marginalization of the northern region of Leninabad, almost completely
excluded from the peace process, also continued. The CNR had denied The
National Revival Movement (NRM), a northern-based party with significant
national support, permission to participate directly in the peace
negotiations, while the Party of Economic and Political Revival of
Tajikistan, also northern-based, encountered significant registration
difficulties, and by the end of November was not registered. Six defendants
accused of attempting to assassinate President Emomali Rakhmonov in the
Leninabad capital of Khujand in 1997, including Abdulkhafiz Abdullayev, the
brother of the NRM leader, were sentenced to death in a closed trial. Human
Rights Watch obtained testimony showing that witnesses were forced under
duress-including through beatings-to incriminate Abdullayev. Detained since
May 1997, and stricken with terminal cancer, Abdullayev as of early
November continued to be denied access to adequate medicaltreatment.

The government maintained nearly complete control over the electronic
media, and authorities continued to harass independent television stations.
In May the Majlisi Oli adopted a law "on the defense of the honor and
dignity of the president," which allowed only President Rakhmonov to use
the title "president;" the law also set out excessive fines and prison
sentences for those convicted of insulting or slandering the president.
Following international protest, however, President Rakhmonov vetoed the law.

Journalists were denied access to conflict zones, received death threats,
and were taken hostage by independent and UTO armed groups. In July, NTV (a
Russian television station) correspondent Yelena Masyuk was declared
persona non grata for having broadcast reports "discrediting the country's
leadership and its policies." The president's political party held regular
meetings and was afforded extensive media coverage, while others were
denied permission on technical grounds to hold meetings, experienced
registration problems, and received  next to no coverage by national and
local media.

Prison conditions also deteriorated in 1998 when the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), citing reasons including misuse of food
rations distributed since June 1996, halted its emergency nutritional
program launched in 1996. Soon afterwards, the death rate among the
country's roughly 7,000 prisoners increased.

Defending Human Rights

The government denied UNMOT, the ICRC, and the OSCE (among others) access
to conflict-affected areas or prevented them from delivering
urgently-needed humanitarian supplies. UNMOT personnel were murdered,
beaten, shot at, robbed, detained, and threatened by armed groups,
particularly in UTO-controlled territory; on occasion they were detained by
government security forces. Although U.N. representatives in 1997 and 1998
recommended the immediate deployment of human rights specialists to
Tajikistan, by the end of November none had arrived. The ICRC continued to
be denied universal access to prisoners in accordance with its standard
procedures, and local monitoring remained almost non-existent. In a
positive development, the first national  conference of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) was held in March, when international and local NGOs
during several seminars focused on the dire situation of women and children.

Defending Human Rights

The government denied UNMOT, the ICRC, and the OSCE (among others) access
to conflict-affected areas or prevented them from delivering
urgently-needed humanitarian supplies. UNMOT personnel were murdered,
beaten, shot at, robbed, detained, and threatened by armed groups,
particularly in UTO-controlled territory; on occasion they were detained by
government security forces. Although U.N. representatives in 1997 and 1998
recommended the immediate deployment of human rights specialists to
Tajikistan, by the end of November none had arrived. The ICRC continued to
be denied universal access to prisoners in accordance with its standard
procedures, and local monitoring remained almost non-existent. In a
positive development, the first national conference of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) was held in March, when international and local NGOs
during several seminars focused on the dire situation of women and children.

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#4. KYRGYZSTAN Human Rights Developments


In 1998, under the leadership of President Askar Akaev, Kyrgyzstan moved
ever further from its popular image as a model new democracy and leader in
rights reform. Police abuse, religious persecution, trafficking of women,
and violations of the right to free expression made a mockery of
Kyrgyzstan's international reputation.

Several disturbing allegations of police abuse and deaths in custody raised
concern about conditions in detention more generally. Torture occurred most
commonly in pre-trial detention facilities during interrogation sessions,
when police beat and threatened detainees in order to coerce
self-incriminating statements. Prison conditions in general remained
abysmal as lack of sanitation and significant overcrowding threatened the
health of inmates.

There were at least two reported deaths in custody in 1998. On January 23,
police in Tamga took Muratbek Sulaimanov into custody on suspicion of
cattle theft, and hours later delivered his dead body to his relatives. The
arresting officers denied wrongdoing, and even claimed that Sulaimanov was
released in good health but then fell down the stairs; the autopsy revealed
that Sulaimanov died from numerous injuries caused by a severe beating. The
case went to the Jeti-Oguz court on July 24; however, as of September the
verdict was not known.

One month after Sulaimanov's death, on February 27, police in the Lenin
region brutally beat seventeen-year-old Sergei Skromnov and then buried
him, unconscious but alive, in ashes at the city heating plant, where he
died of suffocation. An investigation into Skromnov's death continued as of
September, and officials were allegedly obstructing the investigation. In a
possible instance of retaliation, one officer was dismissed from the
department after giving testimony against the officers accused of the murder.

The trafficking of women and young girls from Kyrgyzstan to Turkey, the
United Arab Emirates and other countries for work in the sex industry
continued in 1998. Kyrgyz women and girls were commonly promised legitimate
work abroad and then found themselves indebted to their traffickers for
travel expenses and pressured to work in the sex industry to repay the
debt. They reported that the traffickers confiscated their passports,
locked them in rooms, beat them and forced them to have sex with as many as
fifteen men a day. Officials from the visa and registration department in
Kyrgyzstan were said to be complicit in the trafficking of women out of the
country, by receiving bribes from the traffickers in return for forged
travel documents. Russian border guards in Kyrgyzstan were allegedly
willing to turn a blind eye to the transport of women for work in
prostitution abroad.

More women reported incidents of domestic violence in 1998. It is not
known, however, whether this reflected a real increase in the number of
cases of domestic violence or a greater willingness on the part of victims
to report it. Local women's groups took positive steps to address the needs
of abused women, maintaining shelters where they could receive legal
advice, medical attention, and protection from abusive husbands or others.

In late 1997 and 1998, the government campaign intensified against orthodox
or "fundamentalist" Muslims, to whom officials refer as "Wahhabis." In
December 1997 the Ministry of National Security (MNS) set up special units
to control the activities of "Wahhabis" and other so-called religious
sects. In February 1998, Colonel Talan Razakov, head of the MNS department
on religious organizations, reportedly stated, "Regrettably, our
Constitution says that every one is at liberty to choose the religion he
wishes." Apparently not viewing such constitutional precepts as limitations
on the MNS, he then proclaimed, "We are taking definite measures to find,
stop, and prevent the Wahhabis' activities."

These threats were matched by strict punitive measures against perceived
fundamentalist Muslim believers. The Muslim Spiritual Board of Kyrgyzstan,
a quasi-governmental body, forced the closure of the Islamic Center after
accusing Center leader Sadykjan Kamalov, a former mufti of Kyrgyzstan, of
being a "Wahhabi." The MNS targeted pious Muslims from other countries,
whom they considered the source of "Wahhabism." Twenty "Wahhabi
supporters," most from Pakistan, were expelled from Kyrgyzstan in 1997.
This trend continued in 1998 with the expulsion of Imam Karimov, a refugee
from Tajikistan, for allegedlyspreading "Wahhabi" ideas.  At least one
Uzbek national was also expelled for disseminating "fundamentalist" Islamic
ideas. In April and May 1998, about twenty ethnic Uighurs were arrested on
charges of illegal weapons possession and possession of "Wahhabi" video
tapes. MNS employees also proudly declared they had confiscated 400 copies
of a religious book published in Saudi Arabia.

In a positive move, President Askar Akaev attempted to follow through on
his vows to decriminalize defamation and protect freedom of the press. In
November 1997, he reportedly sent parliament a draft amendment to the
criminal code that removed slander, making it a civil offense. When the
upper house of Parliament rejected the bill on March 10, President Akaev
put the issue to a referendum to change the constitution to guarantee
greater freedom of speech. On October 17, 1998, voters reportedly elected
to amend the constitution to state that the "Adoption of laws limiting
freedom of expression and of press is inadmissable." In December 1997, he
vetoed a media law that sought to limit the topics legally covered by
journalists and to force them to compromise the  confidentiality of their
sources in certain cases.

In practice, however, authorities continued to harass journalists who
criticized the actions of government officials. Irina Stepkicheva of Nasha
Gazeta (Our Newspaper), who faced a civil suit for articles critical of the
procurator general, reported that procuracy officials repeatedly threatened
her and her thirteen-year-old daughter. On May 9,  1998, unknown assailants
set fire to the front door of the home of Tatiana Kchmada, a reporter from
Res Publica  newspaper. Kchmada regarded this attack as retaliation for an
exposé she had written about government  corruption.

The Akaev government continued to display intolerance for political
opposition members. In January, police  arrested political activist
Kubanichbek Apas when he returned to Kyrgyzstan from Russia, where he had
relocated due to repeated government harassment. Apas returned to visit his
wife and children and was promptly arrested on outstanding charges of
criminal libel and insulting the honor and dignity of the president.
Shortly after his arrest in January, he was released under a 1997 amnesty law.

What appeared to be an easing of the treatment of jailed opposition
activist Tobchubek Turgunaliev took a turn for the worse in August 1998.
Coinciding with U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit to
Kyrgyzstan in November 1997, Turgunaliev was allowed to return from a
remote settlement colony to his home in Bishkek to  serve the remainder of
his four-year sentence for embezzlement. In May, the Supreme Court reduced
his sentence o three years. In August, however, local authorities informed
Turgunaliev that he would have to spend his nights at penal colony #35 in
Bishkek. This followed his participation in a peaceful rally to protest the
eviction of independent newspaper Asaba from its long-held office space in
a building of the Ministry of the Interior.

On September 22, authorities from the Ministry of National Security in
Bishkek arrested Nazarbek Nyshanov,  chairman of the newly-formed Patriotic
Block, a coalition of opposition political parties, for alleged
embezzlement. Nyshanov was held in a pre-trial detention facility and
reportedly denied access to an attorney.

Defending Human Rights

The Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights (KCHR), the largest human rights
organization in the republic, reported that the municipal procuracy of
Bishkek launched an investigation into the group's use of grant funds after
the President's administration allegedly ordered the chief procurator to
find any grounds for jailing the  committee's chairman, Ramazan Dyryldaev.
As of September 1998, the investigation continued. Dyryldaev believed this
punitive action was taken in order to halt the activities of the
organization, which has been outspoken in its defense of the rights of
journalists and opposition politicians.

Jalal-Abad police arrested three members of the Jalal-Abad branch of the
KCHR-Tynybek Batyraliev, Albert Korgoldoev, and Abdunazar Mamatislamov-on
September 23 and interrogated the men during the night. In the morning, at
an emergency session of the Jalal-Abad Municipal Court, Judge Asanbayev
tried Batyraliev and Korgoldoev, found them guilty of violating article 163
of the civil code, public order, and sentenced the two human rights
activists to fifteen days in prison. The men had reportedly been
distributing flyers and putting up posters encouraging people to attend a
public meeting in opposition to the upcoming constitutional referendum. On
October 7, following international protest over the arrests, authorities
released Batyraliev and Korgoldoev. As of mid-October, Mamatislamov
continued to be held in police custody, facing criminal charges for alleged
 embezzlement. Police also arrested a fourth human rights activist in
Jalal-Abad, Edgar Parpiev, on September 24, after finding him in possession
of one leaflet calling for the public meeting. The Nooken regional court
sentenced him to fifteen days of administrative arrest.

In September, on the heels of the arrests of the KCHR activists and just
weeks before the constitutional referendum scheduled by President Akaev,
the Chamber of the Ministry of Justice revoked the registration of the
KCHR. The KCHR was then denied the right to monitor the voting on the
referendum. The group's registration, granted in June 1996, was annulled at
the request of the procurator general's office, which claimed that several
members were absent from the founding meeting. Under Kyrgyz law, only a
court, not an administrative body, has the authority to revoke the
registration of a public association.

Harassment of KCHR activists continued into October. In Bishkek, an officer
from the Ministry of Interior approached Azimhan Niyazbekova on the street
at night and threatened that she would be physically harmed unless she
halted her human rights activities.

The Role of the International Community

The international community continued, for the most part, to accept at face
value statements in support of human rights from President Akaev, who
benefited from the country's liberal democratic image cultivated in the
first years after independence; it largely ignored the true state of
worsening human rights.

European Union

As in 1997, in 1998 the European Union continued to shower Kyrgyzstan with
direct aid and technical  assistance, amounting this year to 21 million ecu
($14.5 million). The E.U. ignored ongoing violations of human rights in
Kyrgyzstan; instead it stressed the need for cooperation in preventing
narcotics trafficking, which nspired the visit of German President Roman
Herzog to Kyrgyzstan in February.

Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

The OSCE focused greater attention than in the past on human rights in
Kyrgyzstan. A November 1997 OSCE-sponsored seminar on human rights provided
an open forum for frank discussion of Kyrgyzstan's human rights record. The
Chairman-in-Office included Kyrgyzstan in his April 1998 visit to the
region, as did the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(ODIHR) special representative for Central Asia, in March. The OSCE High
Commissioner on National Minorities twice visited Kyrgyzstan, in December
1997 and June 1998, to oversee a survey of inter-ethnic relations in the
south. In June he participated in a seminar for regional governors on
"Managing Inter-Ethnic Relations." ODIHR technical assistance projects for
Kyrgyzstan include training programs on elections and on the rule of law.
In July, the Permanent Council decided to establish a new OSCE center in
Bishkek.

United States

The United States continued to criticize the Kyrgyzstan government's
pressure on political activists and its use of criminal libel charges to
suppress freedom of the press. The Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1997 impartially chronicled the mounting toll of abuse, and
an investigation by the Congressional Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe found signs of creeping authoritarianism. However, no
meaningful consequences resulted, and U.S. aid appropriations continued to
grow (from an estimated $24 million for fiscal year 1998 to $31 million
requested for fiscal year 1999).

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#5. KAZAKHSTAN Human Rights Developments

In 1998, the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev sought to control
both the mass media and opposition political groups, in anticipation of
presidential elections. These elections, hastily brought forward by
parliamentary amendments to the constitution in October, were rescheduled
from December 2000 to January 1999. Authorities subsequently moved swiftly
to exploit amendments to the Kazak Law on Elections, which bar electoral
candidates convicted of an administrative or criminal offense from standing
for public office, by arresting and sentencing numerous opposition figures
and activists on charges of participation in an unsanctioned demonstration.
Parliament further amended the constitution extending the terms of office
of deputies from both the upper and lower houses by one year and extended
the presidential term from five to seven years. Political activists faced
increasing harassment, and independent newspapers were closed. The
government secured U.S.$4 billion in new foreign investment for energy
development, yet abject poverty became more widespread, male life
expectancy decreased, and the incidence of tuberculosis in prison
populations and among the general public grew. June 10 saw the delayed
official changeover of the capital, from Almaty to the northern city of
Astana. Although precise figures for 1998 are not available and Kazak
courts continue to pass death sentences, it is reported that the number of
executions in 1998 has continued a downward trend, as witnessed in 1996 and
1997, from the high of 101 executions carried out in 1995.

On October 15, authorities arrested and convicted several political
activists on charges of participating in unsanctioned demonstrations.
Sentences ranged from three days of detention to fines. Those sentenced
included Peter Svoik of Azamat, Irina Savostina of the Generation Movement,
Mels Eleusizov of the Green Party, and political activist Dos Koshim. Under
amendments to the Kazak Law on Elections, noone convicted of an
administrative or criminal offense may stand for public office.

The Kazak government used both legal means and force to halt criticism in
the independent media. In May, the procuracy opened an investigation
alleging that the Kazak mass media had committed 273 violations of the Law
on the Press in 1997. These violations were said to include "abuses of
freedom of speech, incitement of national enmity...aimed at instigating
disputes and controversy over the country's history and sovereignty." A
procuracy official deemed the investigation necessary because the "media
frequently permit non-objective, insulting  statements directed at
government organs, officials and ordinary citizens... it is the media that
should shape the ideals of our state and patriotic feelings." As of this
writing there were no prosecutions; the announcements, however, probably
reinforced the already prevalent practice of self-censorship.

The Kazak government closed two independent newspapers founded earlier in
1998 - XXI Vek [21st Century] and Dat [The Vow]-both known for their
critical coverage of the government.

The campaign to close XXI Vek began on September 10, when Almaty's
"Franklin" printing press refused to print the weekly. Five days later, the
Daoiys distribution company annulled its contract with XXI Vek . At 4:30
a.m. on September 26, unknown assailants threw a molotov cocktail into the
office of editor Bigeldy Gabdullin. Finally, on September 28, the Almaty
city justice department informed the independent weekly newspaper, XXI Vek
of impending liquidation proceedings for alleged violations of the civil
code and the law on the press and  mass media.

On June 26, Dat reprinted an article from a major Russian newspaper,
Izvestiya, that criticized the chief of the tax police, Rakhat Aliyev for
alleged excesses during a hunting trip. On July 22 and 23, tax police
raided Dat 's offices and confiscated financial records, safes, computers,
and cash. Dat has appealed the resulting fine of 1.5 million tenge
(U.S.$20,000). In September, Dat was preparing to publish an article
containing allegations of corruption against Aliyev, when authorities
brought criminal charges against the newspaper under Article 22 of the Law
on National Security (see below), which prohibits foreign ownership of a
Kazak media outlet. These charges reportedly relate to three stamps and
foreign companies' letterhead that were discovered ( Dat editors maintain
they were planted) during the earlier tax police raid.

The Nazarbayev government sought to neutralize political opponents.
Following an unsanctioned demonstration it organized on November 30, 1997,
three co-chairs of the Azamat opposition group came under fire. On December
1, four masked men beat Petr Svoik who had organized the demonstration in
neighboring Kyrgyzstan; on December 2, Murat Auezov received a 2,480 tenge
(U.S.$32) fine for participation in that demonstration. Also in December,
police arrested Galim Abilseitov, in connection with the same
demonstration. At his trial, Abilseitov alleged that he was not allowed to
testify in his own defense, and that he was denied a public hearing and the
services of a lawyer. Although sentenced to fifteen days of imprisonment,
Abilseitov was released after seven days following a district procurator's
ruling that his trial had indeed been illegal.

In February 1998, local human rights groups reported that police detained
and beat Madel Ismailov, chairman of the opposition "Workers' Movement,"
holding him incommunicado for several days before informing relatives of
his whereabouts. On April 7, Ismailov was convicted under article 318 of
the Kazak criminal code, of "insulting the honor and dignity of the
president," and received a one-year sentence to be served in a general
prison colony. Ismailov was reportedly filmed sharply criticizing the
authorities while speaking at a November 7, 1997, rally. A June 3 appeal
hearing confirmed the sentence.

On September 18, police detained Mikhail Vasilenko, advisor to former prime
minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, as he attempted to deliver Kazhegeldin's
proposals on election law and constitutional amendments to President
Nazarbayev. Vasilenko was held incommunicado, tried, and sentenced on
charges of hooliganism, and released five days later. Earlier in September
authorities confiscated the Russian edition of a book by Kazhegeldin on
solutions to current political problems and prevented the printing of the
Kazak version.

Most disturbingly, the Nazarbayev administration paved the way for a
possible wholesale crackdown on political opponents and the independent
media with a new Law on the National Security of the Republic of Kazakstan,
 passed on June 26, 1998. The law features a vague and expansive definition
of national security that has already been used used to deter and punish
political opponents of the government for peacefully exercising their
rights of speech, assembly, and association. "Threats to national security"
may include "political extremism in any form," "incitement of
social...discord," "unsanctioned gatherings," "prevention of the growth of
investment activity," "a deterioration in the demographic situation,
including a sharp reduction in the birthrate, increased mortality,
and...unchecked migration," and "a deterioration in the quality of
education." Specifically outlawed is the dissemination of all overseas
media "whose content undermines national security." The law authorizes the
procurator general to suspend the activity of the news media without
providing for any right of appeal.

Defending Human Rights

The European Union, in conjunction with the United States, bestowed its
Civil Society and Democracy award to Evgeniy Zhovtis, Director of the
Kazakstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
(KIBHR), and to Elena Sadovskaya of the Center for Conflict Management. In
1998, human rights NGOs reported no incidents of state-sponsored
harassment. In September, the KIBHR hosted a seminar on refugees.

The Role of the International Community

European Union

The E.U was silent on human rights abuses in 1998 and continued to disperse
57 million ecu in aid ($69 million USD) under a three-year 1996-1999 TACIS
program aimed at various infrastructure, agricultural and  institutional
reform projects. This aid was distributed under an interim agreement, in
place pending ratification by the European Parliament, of the Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). Under the PCA's terms, assistance is
contingent on respect for human rights and democratic principles.

United States

The United States continued to fund a wide variety of civil society and
democracy projects that included support for nongovernmental organizations
and the development of the independent media. A total of $36.8 million was
allocated for this purpose in 1998. The U.S. embassy in Almaty raised human
rights concerns with the Kazak  government and sent observers to trials
including that of Madel Ismailov. The State Department's Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 1997 provided a thorough analysis of human
rights problems in  Kazakstan.

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#6. THE WORK OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IN CENTRAL ASIA

Our Moscow office engaged in a new initiative to expose Russia-wide human
rights concerns-the persecution of human rights activists, violations of
press freedom, attacks on journalists, electoral violations, and the
harassment of NGOs-and develop a broader network of contacts in Russia's
increasingly independent regions. In 1998, we documented the widespread use
of torture in police detention and abuses in the criminal justice system in
Irkutsk, Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk. Human Rights Watch
continued to monitor implementation of the highly discriminatory religion
law and the dramatic increase in racially motivated violence by skinheads
in Moscow. In May, Human Rights Watch, together with the Glasnost
Foundation, organized a  seminar on efforts to establish an International
Criminal Court and the role of NGOs. 

Human Rights Watch sought to intensify its work in Central Asia during 1998
to counter growing international support for Central Asian governments
despite the deteriorating human rights situation in the region. In the wake
of several killings of police officers in the Fergana Valley in December
1997, the government of Uzbekistan stepped up its campaign against
independent Muslims. In response, Human Rights Watch immediately sent three
researchers to document the arbitrary arrest of hundreds of men, police
abuse, and widespread religious  discrimination against practicing Muslims.
To drive home our intense concern over Uzbekistan's retrograde human rights
record, senior staff and board members visited Uzbekistan in May to present
our research findings to Uzbekistan government officials, western
diplomats, and local and international organizations. In June and  July, a
Human Rights Watch representative continued to document the government's
harsh policies against practicing Muslims and monitored several of the
trials of those caught in the sweeps. We alerted the government of
Uzbekistan and the international community to the violations of due process
and torture of defendants, revealed in the trials.

Human Rights Watch worked to place human rights at the forefront of
international attention during the visit of President Saparmurad Niyazov to
the U.S. in April. Our documentation of severe human rights violations in
Turkmenistan-circulated to President Clinton and to senior State
Department, congressional, and business officials involved in the meetings-
helped to create international pressure on Niyazov, who freed ten political
prisoners. Human Rights Watch continued throughout the year to advocate
strenuously for the release of  Gulgeldy Ananniazov, another political
prisoner. Human Rights Watch senior staff and board members had planned to
raise this case, among others, with Niyazov and other senior Turkmen
officials during a May visit to the region; however, the Turkmen government
refused to meet with and denied visas to our delegation. Nevertheless,
Human Rights Watch entered Turkmenistan on transit visas and met with
various representatives of Turkmenistan's beleaguered political opposition,
as well as with international organizations and members of the diplomatic
community. 

Human Rights Watch prepared briefing materials on human rights issues in
Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and urged
her to raise human rights concerns during her November 1997 visit to those
countries. In a letter to President Askar Akaev of Kyrgyzstan, Human Rights
Watch raised the issue of the politically-motivated arrests of three human
rights activists in Jalal-Abad in late September 1998. In Kazakstan, we
protested the December 1, 1997, politically-motivated beating of Petr
Svoik, co-chairman of the Kazak opposition movement Azamat, in a letter to
President Nursultan Nazarbaev. 

During 1998, Human Rights Watch, in coalition with other organizations,
sought to make Tajikistan a priority for the international community.
Through our Dushanbe office, we raised human rights concerns during
frequent and regular meetings with the OSCE, UNMOT, and local embassies.
Our research focused on the crackdown on political activists in the north
of the country and the continued humanitarian law violations that took
place in several rounds of government-United Tajik Opposition (UTO)
fighting. Our research on the crackdown in the northern Tajik province of
Leninabad produced a major and unique report; we alsoactively protested
against due  process violations in the case of a well-known northerner.
Research on fighting in Kofarnikhon and in the Karategin Valley culminated
in detailed protest letters. Our Dushanbe-based researcher actively
supported local human rights and nongovernmental organizations and
researched restrictions on the media during the year.

In the Caucasus, Human Rights Watch focused its efforts on the
ill-treatment and torture of detainees by police and other security forces,
conducting fact-finding missions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia during
the year. In an effort to promote long-term reforms of such systemic abuse,
we presented our documentation and analysis of human rights practices in
the region to prominent international bodies, most significantly, the
Council of Europe, which has been reviewing applications for full
membership from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia; the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development; and the World Bank. We made clear to
international financial institutions, whose assistance to countries in the
region is needed to underwrite oil extraction and transportation projects,
that respect for human rights is a key component of good governance and the
long-term viability of their investments. On several occasions, we also
raised these concerns with representatives of multinational corporations
investing in the region. 

Human Rights Watch research and advocacy in Turkey emphasized on-going
restrictions on freedom of expression and association. In a January press
release, Human Rights Watch protested the closure of the Islamist-based
Welfare Party. In advance of his visit to Turkey in February, we sent U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck a letter briefing him on our
concerns with respect to restrictions on freedom of expression. A member of
our board traveled to Turkey in July to visit jailed journalist Ragip Duran
and the head of the Human Rights Association, Akin Birdal, who was
recovering from a brutal attack on his life. Throughout the year, we also
monitored U.S. arms transfers to Turkey and raised concerns related to
these transfers in three meetings with State Department officials.

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