Torture - the continuing reality of Uzbek prison life for sincere Muslims
uploaded 13 May 2003UZBEK PENAL COLONY INMATES DESCRIBE EXPERIENCES OF TORTURE - KAZAKH NEWSPAPER
The Kazakh newspaper Karavan has given an account of human rights abuse in a notorious Uzbek colony. The author of the article, Galima Bukharbayeva, says that it is only after Western condemnation of human rights violations in Uzbek prisons that the Uzbek authorities allowed this journalist access to the prison - by this they were trying to demonstrate that there is nothing to conceal, she said. Inmates told the newspaper that they were being beaten up in the prison, though they admitted that incidents of torture have declined slightly after reports of two deaths at the prison. Prisoners say that the two men were killed as a result of torture. According to the official version, they died in a fight between inmates. Bukharbayeva says that the Uzbek authorities are trying to present the colony to visitors as "a model prison", whereas prisoners say that they are subjected to torture when the prison is free from inspections. The following is the text of the report entitled "Uzbekistan: People are being killed in prisons" published by the newspaper on 8 May; subheads inserted editorially.
The UYa 64/71 strict-regime colony in Uzbekistan is situated near the dull steppe settlement of Zhaslyk, a remote and uninhabited corner of northwestern Uzbekistan. For hundreds of kilometres one can only see miserable brown steppe around. Only a solitary railway line links the settlement with the rest of the world, there are no roads there at all. Authorities allow access in wake of criticism
In order to get access there, I had to go from one official to another. Oddly enough, Western criticism of the Uzbek prison system over violations of human rights was helpful. Well, Tashkent probably decided to demonstrate that it had nothing to conceal. Maybe the authorities were trying to show to what extent conditions for keeping prisoners in this notorious prison, which local people have branded as "a place of no return", had improved.
The first impression is not bad. There is a fountain in front of the administrative building of the prison. The walls are decorated with patriotic slogans, placards and photos of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The chief of the prison, Khaydarali Kulumbetov, shows us the rooms for long visits between an inmate and their relatives , reminding one of modest but cosy hotel rooms, also the canteen, library, kitchen, bakery and medical unit. Then he leads me to the cells: each with plank beds in two rows for 12 inmates.
Claims of torture
A total of 538 convicts are kept there now; 304 of them are serving sentences for committing crimes, and 234 are prisoners of conscience, whose convictions were motivated by their religious activities. Basically, this colony was originally built for them. When the government started to imprison Islamic radicals, 75,000 convicts were already languishing in Uzbek prisons. The system could not take in more of them. The Interior Ministry recalled the former Soviet military base in Zhaslyk, where chemical defence systems used to be tested. Soon the Zhaslyk prison gained notoriety for the brutal treatment of its prisoners. The convicts themselves tell the paper about this, without being afraid of the officers accompanying us.
"Once, back in 1999, wardens came up to us with batons, forced all of us into an aisle, stood in two rows and started to beat us up. We crawled back barely alive covered in blood," one prisoner serving a sentence on suspicion of being a member of Hezb-e Tahrir Islamic movement banned in Central Asia claimed. He refused to give his name.
The health of Dilshod Bakhromov, who was convicted on charges of plotting explosions in Tashkent in February 1999, was said to have been ruined after constant torture and beatings even before his trial began: "Constant blows to the head resulted in my losing the ability to speak. I could not speak for a year and a half, I can't hear well out of my left ear and I often suffer from epileptic fits."
Torture decreases after reports of deaths
The prisoners claim that the atrocities continued to occur until August 2002 when two convicts - Muzaffar Avezov and Khusniddin Amenov - were killed as a result of being beaten up and having boiling water poured over them, and such details filtered through the prison walls to the outside. The prisoners say that since the press reported this the regime in the colony has become more lenient.
According to the official version, they the convicts were killed as a result of a fight between inmates. "We were not present and, therefore, could not prevent the incident. Some personnel were sacked on the basis of an investigation into the incident, a number of inmates faced charges and I was strictly reprimanded," the head of the prison says.
"We are still being beaten, albeit not that often or so brutally after that incident," Bakhrom Pulatov from Namangan town in eastern Uzbekistan , whom we met in a punishment cell, claims. He was being punished for praying during the exercise period.
According to the prison's chief, it is permissible to pray in the colony but not to the detriment of the daily routine. "One can pray but only during scheduled times," he said. Previously, the ban on praying was one of the means to crush the spirit of Muslim inmates.
Survivor's story
An inmate from Tashkent, Zhaloliddin Karimov, attempted to approach the journalists but he was pushed aside by guards. We managed to talk to him afterwards. Karimov was among four inmates who were subjected to torture aimed at forcing them to renounce the ideas of Hezb-e Tahrir - this is how Avezov and Alimov were killed.
"In mid-June 2002 we four were put in a cellar to try and force us to renounce our convictions. We were forced to write letters of repentance to the president and sing the Uzbek national anthem," he claimed. "The conditions were unbearable. There was so little air that we kept fainting. In August I was transferred to a cell where there were criminals from other prisons. They began to beat me up. They grasped my hands and feet and threw me on the floor. My collar bone was broken. Then they stripped me and raped me."
Zhaloliddin survived because he started singing the national anthem. Thus he carried out one of the demands of his tormentors. After he had written a letter of repentance he was sent to Tashkent for an operation. Now a second operation is awaiting him. His fellow inmate, Nomoz Safarov, also gave in and he also survived - he is in a prison in Navoi central Uzbekistan now.
But Avezov and Alimov were not crushed and were killed.
"Model" prison
Now the authorities are turning the Zhaslyk colony into "a model prison". That's how it appeared to inspectors. But the prisoners say that they are subjected to humiliation and torture when the prison is not being inspected.
Many of these people will remain there for 15-16 years and they do not think they will leave the place alive.
In bold We express our gratitude to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) for its assistance.
Source: BBC Monitoring (Kazakh Newspaper)
