Officials welcome foreign experts' no-torture finding

Uzbek officials have greeted with satisfaction the findings by western forensic experts that there was no evidence of torture in the death of a man earlier reported to have been tortured to death in Uzbek police custody. Ilkhom Zakirov, an Uzbek Foreign Ministry spokesman, told IRIN in the capital Tashkent on Tuesday that the findings by the international experts were important for Uzbekistan in terms of demonstrating transparency, given reports by human rights groups of "so-called torture" in police detention facilities. "The aim of inviting an independent investigative team was to show openness by the Uzbek government towards international cooperation in these type of cases", said Zakirov. Another police official, the head of the main investigation department of the Internal Affairs Ministry), Alisher Sharafuddinov, told IRIN that they were satisfied with the conclusion of western experts, saying that it proved that transparency would not damage their reputation but help them to be seen as trustworthy. "We are worried by the recent tendency to greet any statement by the Uzbek police with suspicion. Even before this particular case we had discussed with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conducting independent investigations into these kinds of sad events, and it was one of our strategic objectives," Sharafuddinov said, adding that 75 policemen were brought to justice in 2003 alone for using torture against detainees or treating them harshly. Western forensic experts invited by the US lobby group Freedom House, after observing the autopsy on the body of Andrei Shelkavenko, announced on Monday that they had found no signs of torture-related injures. "An earlier report that Shelkavenko sustained torture-related physical injuries to his head, external genitals and torso was not confirmed by the second autopsy," said Michael Pollanen, a Canadian forensic pathologist. Pollanen said that the earlier report was apparently based on the misinterpretation of changes that occur in bodies after death, such as decomposition and drying. The team of Western experts said that their external examination of Shelkavenko's body found that he had died by hanging. "The official determination of the events leading up to this hanging will be provided by the Uzbek authorities," said US expert James Gannon. The body of Shelkavenko, 36, was released by the police in the town of Gazalkent near Tashkent on 19 May, bearing injuries to the head, neck, shoulders, legs and genitals, the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch said. Shelkavenko had been arrested on suspicion of murder on 23 April. Some human rights activists have cast doubt on the findings of the western experts. "I personally doubt the findings of the international investigative team", Surat Ikramov, head of the initiative group for independent human rights in Uzbekistan, told IRIN. "We live in an authoritarian state which is trying to get US aid as its ally in the war on terror. These experts were accompanied by Uzbek officials everywhere and all the information they based their judgment on was provided by the government," said Ikramov. Uzbekistan has been receiving millions of dollars annually in US aid since 2001, when it allowed Washington to use a major airbase near the Afghan border. A failure to improve its human rights records might mean losing US aid.