Government cited for blocking political opposition

In yet another example of ongoing efforts to stifle political opposition, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov of effectively blocking the opposition Erk Democratic Party from holding its congress in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "The message that democratic processes are still unacceptable is the wrong message to be sent to the population in Uzbekistan," Matilda Bogner, HRW head of office for Tashkent told IRIN. "The government puts out a lot of rhetoric on democracy, both for the international as well as the local media," she said, noting, however: "In reality there is no democracy and the opposition is persecuted." According to a statement issued by the group on Tuesday, government authorities failed to respond to a request by the party to hold its national meeting on Saturday earlier this month. Atanazar Arifov, the party's general secretary, told the rights group that without government permission, no venue manager had been willing to rent premises to the party for the meeting, where some 400 participants had been expected to participate. In its March 2003 country strategy for Uzbekistan, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) called on Tashkent to allow for "greater political openness" as one of three political benchmarks on which the London-based bank conditioned its long-term engagement with Central Asia's most populous nation. Much to the chagrin of local and international rights groups, the EBRD held its controversial 2003 annual meeting in the Uzbek capital. "Preventing a political gathering flies in the face of the EBRD benchmarks," Rachel Denber, deputy director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia Division, said from New York. The EBRD and shareholder countries should protest the Uzbek government's actions and urge it to register opposition political parties." Meanwhile, Bogner claimed that ever since the bank's meeting had been held, there had been a series of negative indicators of the country's human rights situation, from deaths in custody, beating and imprisonment of human rights activists, to allegations of torture. "On every front since that meeting, things have deteriorated," she said, noting, however, in the larger picture things were fairly stable. "It’s a repressive government that continues to use repressive policies. It seems the government feels it can be more explicit over its explicit policies after the meeting than before it," she concluded. Human Rights Watch claims that in the lead-up to the Erk congress, officials harassed and threatened party members in clear effort to dissuade them from attending the congress. In one incident, it was alleged that Tashpulat Yuldashev, an Erk member, responsible for writing the party's platform, was brutally beaten up by two masked men who broke into his home in Tashkent on 18 August. He, along with people associated with him, have been subsequently placed under surveillance and taken in for routine questioning.

Matilda Bogner, HRW head of office in Tashkent

Asked what needed to be done, Bogner called on the international community to be more 'explicit' publicly in their criticism of the government. "That would encourage the local population from taking a more critical stance as well." According to the activist, when the local population sees positive statements in the media attributed to visiting delegations and diplomats on the amount of progress being undertaken in the country, they feel undercut. "They are trying to make criticisms of the government, to organise themselves, and they feel they are not being supported," she claimed. The Erk [Freedom] Democratic Party is a political opposition group now effectively banned in Uzbekistan. In the 1991 presidential elections its leader, Mohammed Solih, who is now in exile in Norway, was the only independent candidate ever to challenge Karimov. Nine years later, the Uzbek Supreme Court sentenced Solih in absentia to a 15-year prison term on charges of terrorism and anti-state activities. HRW monitored the trial, and described it as reminiscent in all respects of Soviet-era show trials, with no material evidence of Solih's guilt presented. During this time, nine of Solih's co-defendants received lengthy prison terms, while two men, tried in absentia, were sentenced to death. The rights group is currently calling for the immediate release of others associated with Erk, including Muhammad Bekjanov, Rashid Bekjanov, [brothers of Mohammed Solih], Kobil Dierov, Mamadali Mahmudov, Nemat Sharipov, and Iusuf Ruzimuradov.