Amnesty urges OSCE to monitor Andijan trials

Amnesty International (AI) has joined other human rights groups in a call for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send observers to the upcoming trial of those arrested for their alleged involvement in May's bloody events in the southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. "We want this trial to be open and genuinely open," Maisy Weicherdi, Central Asia researcher for the watchdog group, said from London. "Of course we would like the OSCE to send monitors," she explained on Thursday, adding that they hoped that the trial would be open to all independent outside observers, including themselves, as well as members of the media and relatives of those concerned. Up to 1,000 civilians may have been killed in Andijan on 13 May some rights groups maintain, when government forces opened fired on protesters demonstrating against the authoritarian regime of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Central Asia's most populous state since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. But Tashkent places the casualty figure at just 187, adamantly denying all requests for an independent international inquiry - much to the chagrin of local and international rights groups alike. "There is so much contradictory information," Weicherdi asserted, calling for open access to the upcoming court proceedings. Her comments follow a similar call by Human Rights Watch (HRW) one day earlier on the world's largest regional security organisation to send monitors to the trial, tentatively set to begin later this month in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. In a letter addressed to Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Secretary-General of the 55-member state organisation, Holly Cartner, executive director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division, noted with interest the commitment that Karimov made to Brichambaut during his recent visit to the Uzbek capital, that the Andijan trials would be open to interested parties and that the OSCE Centre in Tashkent would have the opportunity of observing. "I am writing today to urge the OSCE to send international monitors to Uzbekistan to observe the trials of those arrested for their alleged involvement in the events in Andijan in mid-May," Cartner wrote, adding: "We welcome this commitment and urge the OSCE to send international monitors, as well as staff from the OSCE Centre in Tashkent, to all trials that involve defendants accused of having been involved in the Andijan events." But being the eyes and ears of the world for a trial which is expected to be far from transparent won't be easy. "We want this to be a fair trial and they said it would be," Weicherdi said, noting, however, similar assurances had been made by the government prior to the trials of those accused in a spate of bombings in the capital in 2004, in which 47 people were killed. "They really did not conform to international standards," the AI official claimed, noting access to some of the court proceedings had been strictly limited. "They were pronounced guilty before the actual trials took place." According to HRW, in general defendants in Uzbekistan rarely receive a fair trial, with the most fundamental due process guarantees or access to defence counsel routinely denied. "Convictions are often based on fabricated evidence. The prospects for a fair trial dim even further for those brought up on political charges, such as anti-state activities, terrorism, or religion-related charges," Cartner wrote. It is precisely for those reasons that Weicherdi is calling for a strong observation presence. "Especially in capital cases, the trials should be scrupulously observed to international standards, with a presumption of innocence unless proven guilty." To date no names of the accused have been published. "This is of course a source of concern. We don't know who these people are, where they are being detained, or the charges made against them," the activist explained. According to the Uzbek public prosecutor's office this week, following a criminal investigation, the first group of 15 individuals charged with alleged involvement in the Andijan protests would begin on 20 September, with 106 criminal investigations still pending, but nearing completion. "We expect another 106 people to be put on trial," the AI official said, noting another 25 law enforcement officers were expected to be tried as well. "Not for excessive use of force as I had hoped," she said, but rather for failing to protect public buildings and property against the protesters.