Uzbek asylum seekers live in secrecy and fear

Makhmud fled the eastern Uzbek city Andijan during the May violence there and is now living illegally in the southern Kyrgyz town of Kara-Suu. Unlike the main group of asylum seekers who left the city when up to 1,000 civilians were gunned down by Uzbek security forces during an anti-government demonstration, Makhmud did not go to the makeshift camp established for the more than 400 Uzbeks who went on to be granted asylum in the country. He was hesitant to talk to IRIN, fearing persecution by Uzbek intelligence services who have pursued the exiles into Kyrgyzstan with a view to returning them to stand trial at home, activists allege. The main group of asylum seekers in Kyrgyzstan were housed in a camp near the city of Jalal-Abad before eventually being relocated to Romania by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in late July. "I wanted to join my fellow countrymen who were in the camp for refugees near the [southern city of] Jalal-Abad, but I was separated from the main group of asylum seekers. After that I became scared and I have been more or less in hiding since then," he said. Makhmud, in common with many other Uzbeks from Andijan living clandestinely across the border since the blood-letting, said he feels he is on the run and still shudders at every knock on the door of the house of his relatives - where he stays. "I heard that agents of the National Security Service [NSS] of Uzbekistan are active in this city. People say there is a real hunt for people like me," he said. NGOs in the Ferghana valley say that more than 1,000 Uzbeks crossed quietly into Kyrgyzstan immediately after the May killings and are in need of official recognition and assistance after fleeing from Andijan. "They [Uzbek exiles] are staying with relatives, friends or simply compassionate people in [the southern city of] Osh, Kara-Suu, Uzgen districts and other border towns and districts," Izzatilla Rakhmatillaev, head of the local 'Law and Order' NGO, said in Osh. Local Kyrgyz people said they had been offered bribes by Uzbek police looking for the exiles. "My friends were offered big money for any information about the Shakirov brothers, who are considered by Tashkent as organisers of the revolt in Andijan," a businessman in Osh said. Ganijan Holmatov, a prominent member of the ethnic Uzbek community in Osh, said local people were scared and that the situation had led to a climate of fear. "Uzbek secret service agents are among us, the transparent borders mean they come and go at will, everyone is concerned." Kyrgyz law-enforcement bodies said they couldn't confirm the presence of Uzbek officials pursuing asylum seekers in Kyrgyzstan. "We do not have any information about Uzbek special services operating in the south of the country," Farhad Saidaliev, deputy provincial prosecutor in Osh, said. In accordance with the Minsk agreement of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), any cross-border activities by law-enforcement bodies needs to be agreed upon in advance following an official request from government, he explained. Others believe Uzbeks officials are in the south of Kyrgyzstan, but that they are keeping a low profile, given how controversial the situation is. "Perhaps, they just pose as Uzbek civilians - that's easy, because they have the right to stay without a visa in border areas," Salijan Maitov, an Osh lawyer dealing with the Uzbek asylum seekers, said. According to a bilateral agreement between Bishkek and Tashkent, residents of border areas can cross the frontier without a visa and stay without registration on the other side for up to five days. Amnesty International (AI) said in a report on 2 September that law enforcement authorities from Uzbekistan had continued to hunt refugees - who fled Uzbekistan following the events in Andijan - in some cases with the co-operation of Kyrgyz authorities. "They [Uzbek security service personnel] have carried out house-to-house questioning and even made on-the-spot arrests, without warrants and with no Kyrgyz law enforcement officers in attendance. Their chief targets have been refugees from Andijan who fled to Kyrgyzstan by other routes since 13 May, and Kyrgyz citizens who were visiting Andijan on that day," the report said. AI gave the example of Bakhodir Sadikov, one of two asylum-seekers who fled across the border and hid in Osh. At the end of June a local human rights activist helped the men register as refugees at the Osh office of UNHCR. Shortly after they had left the building they were seized and were now believed to be in detention in Uzbekistan - grounds for serious concern, the watchdog said. AI has called on Bishkek to regularise the position of all Uzbek asylum-seekers and create an environment where those Uzbek exiles in hiding feel confident enough to seek official help and to ensure their rights are protected, as laid down under international law.