Further crackdown on human rights feared

International rights groups have warned of a further increase in human rights violations in Uzbekistan, where upwards of 1,000 people are feared dead and scores missing in the eastern city of Andijan after being gunned down by government forces nearly two weeks ago. "We are concerned over a possible further crackdown and have already seen the beginnings of it," Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Europe and Central Asia division, told IRIN from New York, citing incidents of local rights activists being called in for questioning. "Generally, the situation has already deteriorated," Maisy Weicherding, a researcher for Amnesty International's (AI) Central Asia desk said. Speaking from London, she cautioned that the situation could worsen further unless immediate action is taken, referring to repeated calls for an independent international investigation. "The recent tragic events in Andijan may spark a renewed crackdown on civil rights and liberties in Uzbekistan," Peter Zalmayev, programme manager for the New York-based International League of Human Rights (ILHR), told IRIN. Dr Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), warned of possible further violence. "We cannot say what will happen in the future," Rhodes said from Vienna. "The social and political situation is unstable. Citizens want to resist but they fear for their lives, especially after the regime has demonstrated that it has no qualms about killing peaceful demonstrators," the prominent activist maintained. Their concerns add weight to international calls for an immediate independent investigation into what Rhodes described as a "massacre". But Uzbek President Islam Karamov, who has ruled the former Soviet republic since 1991, has shown little sign of caving into international pressure. Central Asia's most populous state already suffers from an abysmal human rights record. Tashkent claims that 169 'terrorists' and security force personnel were killed in Andijan on 13 May after a group of men stormed the local prison and freed 23 businessmen accused of being Islamic extremists. But eye witnesses and journalists said government troops fired indiscriminately at civilians in the crowd. Such contradictory reports make knowing exactly what transpired that day difficult to ascertain, with the Uzbek authorities still going to great lengths to keep journalists out of the city, almost a fortnight later. "The Uzbek authorities need to allow independent observers in," Weicherding reaffirmed. "Once the Uzbeks begin to control the flow of information out, the situation becomes similar to events in Chechnya where rights abuses often go unreported. With little information coming out, this only increases the chance that government forces can act with impunity," she added. HRW's Rachel Denber shared similar concerns. "We have reason to believe, there were serious human rights violations that were committed by government troops in dispersing the protestors and yet the government is doing everything to prevent an independent investigation from happening. I think this is very much reflective of the government's general pattern of responses to claims of human rights violations," the HRW official maintained. She continued to say the fact that such a protest occurred at all, given the documented cruelty of security forces, only demonstrated the widespread discontent felt amongst the Uzbek population. "People desperately wanted to air their long pent-up grievances about poverty, about repression, about religious oppression," she explained, noting that the government's use of lethal force only showed that they were not going to hold back when it came to putting down protests. But while the events in Andijan may be a clear signal that the country is in crisis, it is unclear how far the international community is ready to respond. "It has to be a unified position," Denber demanded. "It [the international community] has to make its position very clear and has to be ready to enforce conditionality [conditions] if the Uzbek government does not comply with an independent investigation," she said. Meanwhile, Dr Rhodes called on other countries and intergovernmental organisations to re-evaluate their relationship with Tashkent, while at the same time strengthening their support and solidarity with civil society there. "US policy in particular ought to change," he said. "I do not understand how the brutal and dictatorial practices of the Uzbek regime can be tolerated by the United States in view of the emphasis on promoting freedom and ending tyranny."