Uzbek and groan

The US and the EU believe that human rights in Uzbekistan have improved. But no one noticed this inside Uzbekistan

Photographer Umida Akhmedova insulted and slandered the Uzbek people. So on February 10, the Tashkent court ruled, which found the journalist guilty and immediately released her under an amnesty. According to the Uzbek authorities, the slander was a photo album and a documentary made with the support of the Swiss embassy. Experts invited by the court found the photographs offensive because instead of beautiful new buildings, they showed women doing everyday work. For example, sweeping the streets.

The film turned out to be slanderous, because it was about the “chimildyk” custom. This is when, after the wedding night, the bloodied sheets of the newlyweds are hung up for show. “It turned out that this contributes to distortions in the perception of the younger generation and damages the spiritual values ​​of Uzbekistan,” Akhmedov quotes an expert opinion.

But the journalist found many friends around the world: pickets at the Uzbek embassies swept from Moscow to Paris. Perhaps that is why the punishment for the author of the film "The Burden of Virginity" turned out to be unusually mild. Other Uzbek women, faced with the law enforcement system of their native country, cannot even dream of such an outcome.

The sisters Raikhon and Khosiyat Soatov were helped to get rid of the burden of virginity by police officers who detained the girls on May 9 last year together with their married older sister Nargiza. She convicted her husband of infidelity and went to deal with her rival. She beat her, shaved her head, dyed her with green paint and took a picture on her mobile phone. As a result, three sisters were taken to the police.

According to the girls, they were raped during the first interrogation. Already in prison, Raykhon realized that she was pregnant and decided to open her veins. Then investigator Aziz Umarkhanov told her not to try to blackmail the policemen and raped her again. At the trial, 33-year-old Nargiza and 27-year-old Raykhon were given seven years each for a domestic fight. 21-year-old Khosiyat got off with a suspended sentence. Later, in Rayhon prison, she gave birth to a premature baby girl. Only after that, the prosecutor of the Mirzo-Ulugbek district, Egamberdi Shodmonov, opened a case of rape. True, investigators are checking for paternity not policemen, but men whose phones were found in Raykhon's mobile phone, including relatives.

The brother of the three unfortunate women, Abdusamat, turns away, trying to hide his tears: “I was told that even if the rapists are found, the girls will still remain in prison.” The story of the Soatovs, which became public thanks to the only officially registered human rights organization in Uzbekistan, Ezgulik (Mercy), made a lot of noise. UN Special Representative on Torture Manfred Nowak mentioned it in January, promising to prepare another report on the subject.

But there is less and less noise about human rights in Uzbekistan - international pressure on this country is decreasing. Last October, the European Union lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. The ban was introduced after the Andijan riots in 2005, which, according to unofficial data, killed between 300 and 1,500 people (the official figure is 187). Strictly speaking, the sanctions were not so harsh - almost all the weapons in the Uzbek army are Russian, and Moscow unequivocally supported the suppression of the Andijan rebellion.

Then, in October, the US State Department published a report on religious freedom in Uzbekistan, which stated that the country's authorities had taken steps to prevent torture in prisons and pre-trial detention centers, as well as to improve the conditions of detention of prisoners. Abdurakhmon Tashanov of Ezgulik disagrees with these conclusions: “Political and religious repressions are gaining momentum, torture during investigations has become commonplace, and sexual abuse is increasingly being used to pressure detainees.” All the experts interviewed by Newsweek are sure that Tashkent plays an important role in the fight against the Afghan Taliban, so it is more beneficial for the international community to turn a blind eye to how things are in Uzbekistan itself.

POSE #5

In early 2009, Kayum Ortikov, a British embassy guard suspected of espionage, was convicted. But he was sentenced only for recruiting guest workers. After the interrogation, during which he admitted his guilt, the doctors recorded a rectal injury and a second-degree burn of the scrotum, according to the Ezgulik report. According to the victim, human rights activists claim that the operatives first fixed electrical contacts in the area of ​​the prostate and mouth and passed a current through the prisoner, and then Ortikov was raped with a stick and burned the groin area with a newspaper torch.

“Political people have been interrogated in this way since 1999, but recently this has also been applied to criminals and household workers,” Tashanov explains. He tells how recently, during the investigation of a theft from a Tashkent school (an old refrigerator, an aluminum saucepan, several kilograms of sweets and four bottles of ketchup were missing), six young men were detained. In order to obtain a confession, police officers of the Yunusabad District Department of Internal Affairs raped one of them. Before the court session, the young man told the district judge Akbarali Turobov about what happened to him, and - according to the young man - he heard in response: "If you declare this publicly, I will give you a life sentence."

Opposition politician Nigora Khidoyatova says widespread repression in Uzbekistan began in 1999 after bombings in Tashkent that were qualified as an attempt on President Islam Karimov. “If before that there were dozens of political and religious prisoners, after that there were already thousands,” says Vitaly Ponomarev, an employee of the Russian Memorial. The head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Takhir Yuldashev, and the leader of the opposition Erk (Will) party, Muhammad Salih, were announced as the masterminds of the assassination. Both of them were abroad.

However, six suspected of organizing the assassination were caught and sentenced to death. Several dozen received lengthy prison terms. The special services did not limit themselves to revealing the conspiracy alone - mass plantings began. First of all, the Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir, which aims to create a single caliphate for all Muslims of the world, came under attack. It was then that the famous “political” Uzbek zone “Zhaslyk” was created in Karakalpakstan.

The Newsweek correspondent managed to meet with one of those who fell into that wave of repression. A resident of Samarkand, Gafur (not his real name), was arrested shortly after the Tashkent bombings, along with five other Hizbutchiks. They were brutally tortured. Gafur "broke down" when his wife was brought to the investigator's office and they promised to rape him in front of him. He knew that the investigators had already abused the wife of his comrade, so he gave the testimony they needed.

After the sentence (ten years of strict regime) Gafur was transferred to Jaslyk. “For two days we were carried in the Stolypin carriage and all the time they were forced to sing the anthem of Uzbekistan at the top of our voices,” he recalls. In the colony itself, the prisoners were forced several times a day to repeat the slogan: “We ask for forgiveness from the Uzbek people and the President of Uzbekistan. We repent." Prisoners had to be in strictly regulated positions at all times. There were eleven such positions in total. The main ones are two. No. 4: Squatting, hands on the back of the head, head down. And No. 2: stand in the aisle between the beds, facing the wall, hands on the back of the head.

When they were called for interrogation to the head of the operational unit, they had to be in position No. 5: sit on the floor with outstretched legs, spread apart at right angles to the sides. Hands on the back of the head, head down. According to Gafur, raising one's eyes to the chief was the biggest violation - “they say that you want to remember the face and take revenge. For this they were beaten to death.”

The head of Jaslyk, Alikhaydar Kulumbetov, strictly enforced these rules, but then he suddenly softened the regime sharply. “We were taken for walks, we were allowed to play volleyball, we were given books. It turned out that a commission of the Red Cross was expected,” recalls Gafur. After the arrival of the commission, they did not return to the previous order, it became easier. And shortly after that, Gafur fell under an amnesty.

LIQUIDATOR

According to human rights activist Surat Ikramov, the softening of morals at that time was the result of international pressure. By 2003, UN Special Rapporteur Theo van Boven published his report on the situation in Uzbekistan in general and in Jaslyk in particular. Among other things, this document told about the prisoner of this colony, Muzafar Avazov.

His corpse was handed over to relatives in August 2002. 60% of the body surface was covered with burns. According to relatives, Avazov was immersed alive in boiling water. The administration of the colony claimed that the inmates spilled hot tea on him. By the way, the head of Jaslyk, Alikhaydar Kulumbetov, who became famous throughout Uzbekistan for his cruelty, was subsequently killed in Kazakhstan. According to Ikramov, he was sentenced to death by criminal authorities at a thieves' meeting.

According to human rights activists, the fight against opponents of the regime was also carried out extrajudicially. Newsweek obtained a video footage taken in Alma-Ata in late 2005. On it, four-time convicted Alexander Rakhmanov, also known as Uncle Shulyan, tells how he was recruited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and formed a special brigade of executioners and liquidators, who worked mainly in the "special basement of the Tashkent prison." He decided to share his memories after he had a conflict with the leadership and he began to fear that he himself would be removed.

Rakhmanov tells in detail about the methods of interrogation. The most harmless is when a plastic bag was put on the head and filled with smoke from burning rubber. Often, Rakhmanov's people, according to him, were ordered to kill this or that person. “It was easy with criminals: they were raped, filmed, and they climbed into the noose themselves. An even more competent way is to arrange a drug overdose,” he says.

It was more difficult with the Islamists. They, according to Rakhmanov, were released from prison on bail, after which they were immediately intercepted by his people, killed and buried in the forest belt, filling the corpse with quicklime. “After six months, there weren’t even any bones left,” says Rakhmanov. His former housemates in the Yunusabad district of Tashkent identified Rakhmanov from a photograph and confirmed that he was a local crime boss who disappeared five years ago. Newsweek has no confirmation of his claims of cooperation with security agencies, but human rights activists tend to believe them.

THE HAND OF AMERICA

A new wave of repression began after the Andijan uprising in 2005. Akromists, followers of the teachings of Akrom Yuldashev, a religious preacher from the Fergana Valley, were accused of organizing it. At the first - open - trial against them, the akromists admitted that it was not the special forces at all, but they themselves killed the participants in spontaneous rallies. Allegedly, they did not know how to use weapons - "they did not know where the bullet was coming from."

It all looked so implausible that subsequent trials were declared closed. Later, from closed political processes turned into secret ones. Human rights activists report at least four trials taking place in Tashkent, Syrdarya and Jizzakh regions. According to their information, in each case there are dozens of defendants in the dock.

Not only Islamists were repressed, but also human rights activists, as well as non-governmental organizations working on Western grants. The latter were actually equated with the Islamists. Specialist on religious terrorism Aydin Gudarzi, who works in the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, considers this absolutely justified. In a conversation with Newsweek, he assured that the leaders of the democratic, Islamist and human rights movement in the summer of 2009 at the congress held in Brussels formed a coalition to fight the regime.

The ears of the opposition movement are growing from across the ocean, hints Gudarzi. However, according to him, at the moment, "no more than 40% of the truth" can be revealed about the influence of the United States on opponents of the Karimov regime. “In order for me to tell you more, I need to get permission,” Goodarzi says, tapping his shoulder pointedly with his finger and rolling his eyes up to the ceiling. “We have decided not to offend the great American people and not reveal the whole picture.”

There is a real hunt for "Western agents" in Uzbekistan. Photographer Umida Akhmedova, who slandered the Uzbek people, is convinced that the matter is not in her photographs or the film, but in the fact that both were made with Swiss grants. “Otherwise, they simply wouldn't pay attention to me, and I'm not the only one,” Akhmedova says.

Last year, Maxim Popov, who worked under the Population Service International program, which was engaged in the prevention of AIDS, was sentenced to seven years. His crime was to distribute the book Healthy Lifestyle. Manual for the teacher of the XXI century. The advice to use condoms was qualified as "involving a minor in anti-social behavior."

“After 2005, Uzbekistan turned into an information black hole, and signals stopped coming from there,” says Vitaly Ponomarev of Memorial. “We no longer understand what is happening there.” Indeed, the country's leadership has done a lot to prevent information from leaking across borders. In 2006, Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued a decree banning local journalists from working with foreign media not accredited in the country.

Natalya Bushueva, who worked for the Deutsche Welle, immediately fell under this campaign. She was accused of tax evasion, despite an agreement with Germany to avoid double taxation. Bushuyeva received asylum in Sweden. Now those who secretly still cooperate with the foreign press are summoned from time to time to the prosecutor's office and reminded that sooner or later they will have to answer to the fullest extent of the law.

The human rights channel of information leaks was dealt with much more harshly. After the Andijan events, more than 50 human rights activists ended up behind bars. Even the officially authorized "Ezgulik" suffered losses. About a dozen of its activists are still in prison. Chekist Gudarzi shrugs his shoulders. In his opinion, human rights work is a business, and "picking up the women's issue" - as in the case of the Soatov sisters - is just a way to earn grants. But at the same time he tells a story. During the Andijan uprising, the Akramists demanded the release of their leader and all women from prison. The authorities were ready to take the first step, but the second "meant to unleash an army of agitators who would tell what had happened to them." In this case, according to Gudarzi, the riots would have started not only in Andijan.”

“We are an authoritarian state. Everything is so with us - as convenient for the president and his closest associates. This will not change in the near future,” said Uzbek political analyst Sergei Yezhkov. In Russia, he said, there are systems of checks and balances - for example, a "liberal" president and an "authoritarian" prime minister. “We have a monolith, everyone is convinced that only a tough hand can preserve the integrity of Uzbekistan,” Yezhkov explains. On this issue, there is not only an internal but also an external consensus, he is sure: the United States and Russia need Uzbekistan and therefore "are ready to accept us as we are."