Uzbek Prosecutors Question Refugees in Camps; Some Refugees Return to Kyrgyzstan
Local Uzbek human rights activists have been attempting to document the plight of ethnic Uzbeks fleeing pogroms in their villages in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which they report have been perpetrated by Kyrgyz civilians as well as military personnel. Yet having fled the frightening attacks in Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbeks are now facing harassment in Uzbekistan by the authoritarian government of President Islam Karimov.
According to a report by the NGO Expert Working Group (EWG) of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government has opened up a criminal investigation into the atrocities in neighboring Kyrgyzstan under the charge of "murder" (Art. 97 of the Uzbek Criminal Code) and prosecutors have begun to collect evidence by questioning refugees in the camps about the armed people who attacked them. The prosecutors are also ordering forensic examination of wounds and ballistics tests from bullets. The status of the probe and the prospect for where and how the case would be tried are open questions, says the EWG. The Uzbek NGO experts say likely the Uzbek government will turn the evidence collected over to the Kyrgyz interim government, or if the provisional leaders seem unable to prosecute the crimes, will submit them to some kind of international commission.
In addition to asking questions about assaults on ethnic Uzbeks from June 10-14, and attempting to obtain information about who might be behind the attacks, the Uzbek authorities are asking refugees about the April 7 events, and whether the Kyrgyz government and state media made any calls on Uzbeks to leave the country, and what measures they took to protect them and their property.
Elena Urlayeva, leader of the Tashkent-based Alliance of Human Rights Defenders, has found similar evidence that the Uzbek government is questioning refugees, but is concerned that they are being intimidated and threatened in the process and denied access to independent monitors. She has published a report about her visit of refugee camps and private and public hospitals in Andijan and Pakhtabad, Uzbekistan, distributed via e-mail June 21:
Public and private hospitals in Andijan and in Pakhtabad, where the wounded and refugees from the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan were taken, are under strict control of the hospital authorities and security agencies. Every police investigator and prosecutor of the city of Andijan is questioning wounded refugees, threatening them not to disclose information to third parties, or they may incur penalties and other repressive measures. Thus, nearly all the wounded and other refugees have been intimidated and are afraid to communicate with representatives of independent human rights organizations and the media. The same work is carried out with other refugees.
Despite all the measures taken by security agencies, I was able to visit the wounded, interview them and take photos. In particular, I managed to talk with a young woman, Gulchekhra Raimova, 25 years old, a resident of Osh , treated on June 12 in an Osh hospital along with her two-month-old daughter, Aisha. At the onset of the riots, she had to flee with her infant along the road to the border of Uzbekistan, where her child died in her arms. Doctors in Uzbekistan at the Andijan regional hospital buried the child, and Raimova was admitted to the hospital. She knows nothing about the fate of her three-year-old child left behind in Osh.
I also managed to reach refugee camps located in the Pakhtabad district Thu mahallah (community) at School No. 16, which contains more than 2,000 women and children, including Feruza Tashpulatova, a well-known human rights activist from Jalalabad district. She told me that a prominent human rights activist in Kyrgyzstan, Azimjon Askarov, was brutally beaten by police while in detention and had been held for 4 days by that time in a temporary lock-up in Jalal-Abad, accused of organizing riots and murdering a policeman, charges he denies, saying his only crime was videotaping everything that happened during those tragic days. She reported on how police are barring refugees from leaving the camp, although many prefer to stay at the homes of relatives and friends. It is impossible to pass on anything to the refugees except for bread and cakes. Many asked for fruits, but the police take away bags of fruits, even from the hands of children.
A young woman, Mamlakat Rakhimova, a resident of Leninsk in Kyrgyzstan, reported that she and many other refugees are not allowed in the camp and and have had to spend the night nearby with a two-month-old baby in her arms under the open sky on the ground. The administration of School No. 16 said that there isn’t enough food and medical supplies. Similarly, Rakhimova said that the refugee camps are guarded by military with binoculars as well as police officers. There have been cases of rape of young refugee women, even after they arrive in Uzbekistan, by the staff of the law enforcement agencies. On May 19, Rakhimova, two buses arrived at the camp marked "PAZ" and police took the women refugees on the buses to an unknown destination. She also reported that any refugees hoping to continue to Russia or Kazakhstan via Uzbekistan are being removed from airplanes and trains and returned to refugee camps.
Urlayeva said ethnic Uzbek refugees have staged a number of protests demanding assistance and protection. The border is guarded by armed soldiers with dogs. Refugees were waiting June 20 for Bektur Asanov, governor of Jalal-Abad to meet with them. Mukhamad Karabayev, leader of the refugees from Bazar-Kurgan district in Kyrgyzstan, told Urlayeva that when he went to Tashkent, he was detained at a checkpoint and his registration card confiscated. He was held for four hours and ordered to write a self-incriminating statement. Karabayev had collected reports of a half dozen refugees who were wounded and were being treated in regional hospitals.
About 4,500 refugees have returned to Kyrgyzstan, Cholponbek Turusbekov, deputy head of the Kyrygz state border service told AKIpress.org. Most were coming through border crossings at Karasu and Shamaldy-Say, but were scattering along the border to other towns as well.
About 1,000 women and children from Suzak district were also returning,
uznews.net reported. Uzbek authorities supplied the refugees with buses to the border, saying they believed the danger of further ethnic attacks was past. "We're afraid, but we want to get home," one woman told uznews.net. "We are grateful to Uzbekistan for help," she added.
Suzak was relatively untouched by the pogroms raging in Osh and Jalal-Abad, but people still panicked and fled to Uzbekistan. Reports of rape of women and girl children have been widespread. Kyrgyzstan claims that a total of 7,000 refugees have already returned.
Journalists from ferghana.ru who travelled to refugee camps near the border said police refused to allow them to interview the ethnic Uzbeks, then detained them and confiscated their cameras.
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