Astana lauded for release of Uzbek rights defender

Activists have welcomed a decision this week by the Kazakh government to release Uzbek rights defender and witness to the Andijan massacre, Lutfullo Shamsudinov. He faced extradition back to Uzbekistan, which accused the leading activist of terrorism and spreading false information. Shamsudinov was an eyewitness to the 13 May killing by security forces of up to 1,000 civilians in the western Uzbek city of Andijan. The security forces had been dispatched to the area to quell anti-government protests. Fearing persecution and torture at the hands of the authorities, on 26 June he fled to Kazakhstan where he was later detained following a demand for his extradition from Tashkent. But Astana refrained from honouring that request and on Tuesday placed him in the protection of the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) instead - a move which has been highly praised by rights activists the world over. "Kazakhstan adhered to its commitments under the Geneva Convention of 1951 [on refugees] and did not extradite Lutfullo Shamsuddinov, knowing that there is a practice of torture in Uzbekistan, which was the main argument. We support and welcome this decision," Zheymis Turmagambetova, deputy director of Kazakhstan's International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, told IRIN from the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty on Thursday. Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Rights Activists of Uzbekistan, a local NGO, agreed with this assessment and praised the move, speaking from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "The Kazakh government made the right decision by releasing Andijan rights activist, Lutfullo Shamsuddinov, who is now in a third country. We welcome the move by the Kazakh government." Meanwhile, in a statement on Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on other Central Asian governments to follow Kazakhstan's example, reminding the world that dozens of other human rights defenders remain in Uzbekistan, including another Andijan activist, Saidjahon Zainabitdinov along with dozens of others. "The government of Kazakhstan has done the right thing and other governments in the region should follow suit," Holly Cartner, HRW's executive director for Europe and Central Asia, maintained. "The pressure from Uzbekistan is very intense right now and standing up to it requires real political will," she said. UNHCR's intervention and the engagement by the European Union and United States were important in bolstering Astana's resistance to Tashkent's extradition demand and preventing the activist's forcible return to Uzbekistan, the statement added. According to UNHCR's officer-in-charge in Almaty, Branislov Kojic, Shamsudinov's case was a sensitive one. "The case is in the process of resettlement to a third country. He is outside Kazakhstan," he said on Thursday, declining to elaborate further. However, two days earlier, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, Ron Redmond remarked: "We very much welcome this decision by the Kazakh authorities to free Mr Shamsuddinov. The decision and subsequent release confirms Kazakhstan's commitment to upholding the 1951 Refugee Convention, of which it is a signatory," said Redmond. But while many people saw the move as a positive development, some were less optimistic. "It is unlikely that the surrender of Mr Lutfullo Shamsuddinov sets a positive precedent in terms of human rights in Kazakhstan and broader Central Asia; especially considering the recent crackdown on the opposition in Kazakhstan," Sergei Andreyev, a research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, told IRIN. Human rights remain poor throughout much of the region, particularly in countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which gained their independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to HRW, while Uzbek rights defenders face the risk of illegal detention, physical mistreatment and other forms of retaliation for revelations about Tashkent's role in the Andijian killings, many of the details surrounding exactly what transpired remain unknown. "Only an independent, international investigation into the Andijan massacre can offer the world a full picture of what took place there, assign accountability and establish the fate of the disappeared and a correct count of the dead," HRW's Holly Cartner said. The watchdog group is calling on the international community to do its utmost to make such an investigation happens. HRW wants to ensure that continued refusal on the part of the Uzbek government to allow any investigations is met with real consequences, leaving Uzbek President Islam Karimov in no doubt about the international community's resolve in this regard. On Tuesday, a report from UNHCHR said credible eyewitness testimony strongly suggests that military and security forces committed grave human rights violations, mostly of the right to life, in Andijan, reiterating their call for an independent international probe.