Stuff You Should Know About Uzbekistan
The de facto British alliance with Islam Karimov's Uzbekistan returned to the pages of the papers in the week preceding the ESF with British ambassador to the country Craig Murray having his security clearance withdrawn and then being dismissed from the role entirely. Murray had attracted the anger of his superiors by pointing out the brutal reality of the Karimov regime's human rights record. I have followed the situation in the country on and off for much of this year and so when I noticed an event in the ESF programme entitled, "Campaigning against the Death Penalty (China and Uzbekistan)," I made a point of attending.
The seminar was organised by Amnesty International and a France-based organisation called the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH, The International Federation of Human Rights). Despite the title attention was focused primarily on Uzbekistan and Belarus was also drawn into the discussion. This reflects a new Amnesty campaign (please take the time to sign the petition) to encourage both countries, the last executors in the region, "abolish the death penalty in law and practice, and by doing so make Europe and Central Asia a death penalty - free zone."
The seminar began with an informative background on the use of the death penalty in the region. After the collapse of the USSR all 15 new states has the penalty on their statute books, but 9 have subsequently abolished it and 4 have moratoria, however 2 of these apply only to the carrying out of the sentence, the other 2 extend to the sentence itself. Kyrgyzstan, for instance, has a moratorium, but 140 people remain on death row. The speaker argued that NGO pressure had played a crucial role in achieving those improvements which have emerged.
Uzbekistan is a particularly serious example. In September 2001, President (dictator might be a more accurate term) Islam Karimov claimed that around a 100 people were executed in the country every year. NGOs suggest that the real figure could be twice that. The treatment of suspects and those on death row is also a serious issue. In December 2002 the UN Special Rapponteur visited the country and reported that torture was "systemic". More encouragingly, 20 sentences have apparently been commuted thanks to international pressure.
The key speakers in the seminar were two women from Mothers Against the Death Penalty in Uzbekistan, an NGO based in the country. The first had lost her son to the country's "justice" system. He had been arrested and then tortured in order to obtain a confession. This had failed and he had only agreed to sign a confession when his tormentors had threatened his mother. After a kangaroo court trial he had been sentenced to death. He was executed on the day his mother was supposed to visit, without her being given any advance warning. To this day, she does not know where her son is buried as officials refuse to tell her.
The second speakers from the organisation had a brother who was currently on death row, where he had been for almost two years. He was accused of terrorism, which under laws passed by Karimov made her, as a family member, a criminal as well leaving her unable to find employment. He had been beaten on several occasions, once in front of his father. On one occasion he was beaten so badly that when his sister went to visit him, she didn't recognise him. She was unable to see him more than a maximum of once a month and described the knowledge that death could come at anytime as the worst torture.
Both speakers recounted stories of being approached for bribes to save their relatives' lives. Sentences in murder cases, for instance, can range from 15 years to life, with the former a possibility if you can afford to bribe the police. The second speaker was told that she could save her brother's life with $20,000, a figure she could not hope to raise given the means of the average citizen in the country.
The meeting then turned briefly to China. The People's Republic apparently has 65 crimes punishable by death, including corruption. In 2003 a minister claimed that 10,000 people had been executed. This had encouraged FIDH to begin plans for a campaign around the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing.
This was followed by a question and answer session, primarily focusing on the two representatives from Mothers Against the Death Penalty. They were asked at one point for their opinions on the dismissal of Craig Murray and responded by describing him as a man of honour who felt the pain of ordinary people in the country, who the British should be proud of. Considered alongside the comments of 9 opposition parties in a letter to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Parliament reported in the Independent on Wednesday, it is clear that Murray has turned the rhetoric about "hearts and minds" into a reality. That he has been removed from his post is a great shame, both for the victims of Karimov's regime and for the UK which will presumably now step up its report for that same regime.
The seminar was organised by Amnesty International and a France-based organisation called the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH, The International Federation of Human Rights). Despite the title attention was focused primarily on Uzbekistan and Belarus was also drawn into the discussion. This reflects a new Amnesty campaign (please take the time to sign the petition) to encourage both countries, the last executors in the region, "abolish the death penalty in law and practice, and by doing so make Europe and Central Asia a death penalty - free zone."
The seminar began with an informative background on the use of the death penalty in the region. After the collapse of the USSR all 15 new states has the penalty on their statute books, but 9 have subsequently abolished it and 4 have moratoria, however 2 of these apply only to the carrying out of the sentence, the other 2 extend to the sentence itself. Kyrgyzstan, for instance, has a moratorium, but 140 people remain on death row. The speaker argued that NGO pressure had played a crucial role in achieving those improvements which have emerged.
Uzbekistan is a particularly serious example. In September 2001, President (dictator might be a more accurate term) Islam Karimov claimed that around a 100 people were executed in the country every year. NGOs suggest that the real figure could be twice that. The treatment of suspects and those on death row is also a serious issue. In December 2002 the UN Special Rapponteur visited the country and reported that torture was "systemic". More encouragingly, 20 sentences have apparently been commuted thanks to international pressure.
The key speakers in the seminar were two women from Mothers Against the Death Penalty in Uzbekistan, an NGO based in the country. The first had lost her son to the country's "justice" system. He had been arrested and then tortured in order to obtain a confession. This had failed and he had only agreed to sign a confession when his tormentors had threatened his mother. After a kangaroo court trial he had been sentenced to death. He was executed on the day his mother was supposed to visit, without her being given any advance warning. To this day, she does not know where her son is buried as officials refuse to tell her.
The second speakers from the organisation had a brother who was currently on death row, where he had been for almost two years. He was accused of terrorism, which under laws passed by Karimov made her, as a family member, a criminal as well leaving her unable to find employment. He had been beaten on several occasions, once in front of his father. On one occasion he was beaten so badly that when his sister went to visit him, she didn't recognise him. She was unable to see him more than a maximum of once a month and described the knowledge that death could come at anytime as the worst torture.
Both speakers recounted stories of being approached for bribes to save their relatives' lives. Sentences in murder cases, for instance, can range from 15 years to life, with the former a possibility if you can afford to bribe the police. The second speaker was told that she could save her brother's life with $20,000, a figure she could not hope to raise given the means of the average citizen in the country.
The meeting then turned briefly to China. The People's Republic apparently has 65 crimes punishable by death, including corruption. In 2003 a minister claimed that 10,000 people had been executed. This had encouraged FIDH to begin plans for a campaign around the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing.
This was followed by a question and answer session, primarily focusing on the two representatives from Mothers Against the Death Penalty. They were asked at one point for their opinions on the dismissal of Craig Murray and responded by describing him as a man of honour who felt the pain of ordinary people in the country, who the British should be proud of. Considered alongside the comments of 9 opposition parties in a letter to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Parliament reported in the Independent on Wednesday, it is clear that Murray has turned the rhetoric about "hearts and minds" into a reality. That he has been removed from his post is a great shame, both for the victims of Karimov's regime and for the UK which will presumably now step up its report for that same regime.
posted by Disillusioned kid at 1:46 pm
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