A very brief look. Some background since Uzbekistan and its torture program has resurfaced in the
news lately. If you think the torture described in the articles seems hyperbolic, think again.
U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Abuses.
Country of Uzbekistan
1999 Report
There were unconfirmed but credible reports of at least 13 other deaths by torture or beating. In one case, a man from Nukus, Azim Khodjaev, allegedly was beaten to death at a then-secret prison in Karakalpakstan in mid-July because he would not reveal the whereabouts of his sons whom the police were seeking. According to witnesses in Nukus, his body was bruised and missing its fingernails. Authorities gave the cause of death as heart failure.
Although the law prohibits these practices, police routinely beat and otherwise mistreat detainees to obtain confessions.
Police methods included use of electric shocks, near suffocation, and beatings with rubber sticks and plastic bottles filled with water. One of the defendants, noted writer Mamadali Makhmudov, released a separate statement, saying that police threatened to rape his wife and daughters in his presence before killing him.
U.S. calls election of Karimov "neither free not fair"2000 Report
First chosen president in a 1991 election that most observers considered neither free nor fair, Karimov had his stay in office extended to 2000 by a 1995 plebiscite. Parliament subsequently voted to make the extension part of Karimov's first term, thus making him eligible to run again in 2000. He was elected to a second term in January against token opposition with 92.5 percent of the vote under conditions that were neither free nor fair
Kodirov's brother alleged that the body bore 50 small holes and that the genital area was "destroyed." Hazratkul had given an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in November deploring conditions in the resettlement camp.
The most common torture techniques are beating, often with blunt weapons, and asphyxiation with a gas mask. There were numerous unverifiable reports of interrogators raping detainees with objects such as bottles, and of threatening to rape both detainees and their family members.According to those attending the trial (international monitors were barred from the courtroom),
the defendants alleged that guards and interrogators had used beatings and electricity, and had forced them to sign blank statements. Several alleged that guards had raped them. The defendants were sentenced to between 12 and 16 years each.
2001 Report
On February 21, police arrested Emin Usman, a prominent writer and an ethnic Uighur, on charges of possessing illegal religious literature and belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic political party. Police returned Usman's body to relatives on March 1. Authorities, who claimed that Usman had committed suicide, ordered the body buried immediately and would not allow family members to view it; however, one family member who did view the body reported that it bore clear signs of having been beaten.
Police also used suffocation, electric shock, rape, and other sexual abuse. Neither the severity nor frequency of torture appeared to have decreased during the year.In December 2000,
Human Rights Watch released a report on torture in the country that detailed dozens of allegations of torture based on interviews with victims and their families. The report claimed that the number of allegations and the brutality of torture were increasing. The most common torture techniques were beating, often with blunt weapons, and asphyxiation with a gas mask. There were numerous unverifiable reports of interrogators raping detainees with objects such as bottles, and of threatening to rape both detainees and their family members.
On June 30, Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) member Elena Urlaeva walked out of a clinic where she had been subject to involuntary psychiatric detention and treatment (see Section 1.d.). On November 6, a final appeals court overturned the order that Urlaeva undergo forced psychiatric treatment.
Although it is routine for police to beat confessions out of detainees, anecdotal evidence suggests that
those suspected of Islamist political sympathies (sometimes only because of their piety) are treated more harshly than criminals (see Section 2.c.). There also were reports that on at least two occasions police beat members of Jehovah's Witnesses (see Section 2.c.).
Defendants in trials often claim that their confessions on which the prosecution based its cases were extracted by torture (see Section 1.e.).
For example Imam Abdulvakhid Yuldashev, convicted in April of organizing an underground Islamic movement stated in court that investigators had beaten him and burned his genitals in order to extract confessions during detention Uzbekistan becomes "strategic" partner in the "war on terror" after September 11, 2001.U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to Visit UzbekistanThe United States and the Global Coalition Against Terrorism, September 2001-December 2003The U.S. still referring to its "partner" in the war on terror as: "Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with limited civil rights" - a
country that was a part of the U.S. government's "extraordinary renditions" program.
Additional articles mentioning Uzbekistan as a destination for torture.Destination Cairo: human rights fears over CIA flightsExtraordinary Rendition: A Human Rights Analysis"Reports suggest that Russia,<43> Sweden,<44> and the United States have orchestrated extraordinary renditions.<45> Other states reportedly have facilitated extraordinary renditions either by providing intelligence or by conducting the initial seizure. These states include Bosnia,<46> Canada,<47> Croatia,<48> Georgia,<49> Indonesia,<50> Iraq,<51> Macedonia,<52> Malawi,<53> Pakistan,<54> and the United
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Kingdom.<55> Still other states, including Afghanistan,<56> Egypt,<57> Jordan,<58> Morocco,<59> Saudi Arabia,<60> Syria,<61> and Uzbekistan,<62> have assisted by taking custody of suspects after they are transferred out of the state where they are abducted. In many cases, the receiving states reportedly engage in torture and other forms of ill-treatment of detainees on a systematic basis."
Backgrounder on Extraordinary Renditions and Other Extra-judicial TransfersBook: "Ghost Plane":
Timeline 2002 Report
Officials insisted that the deaths were the result of an altercation between prisoners; however, there were reports that Avazov and Olimov were tortured by other prisoners at the orders of prison authorities.The country's regulations require that every death in custody be investigated by a medical examiner. Examiners' reports routinely misstated the cause of death or covered up abuses. In no case in which a death in custody appeared to be due in whole or in part to torture or other mistreatment was the death attributed to such causes. Medical reports attributed the deaths to purely natural causes, injuries incurred while police were engaged in self-defense, and altercations between prisoners.
Although the law prohibits these practices, both police and the
NSS (the former KGB) routinely tortured, beat, and otherwise mistreated detainees to obtain confessions or incriminating information. Police and the NSS allegedly used suffocation, electric shock, rape, and other sexual abuse; however, beating was the most commonly reported method of torture. Human rights observers reported that the use of torture abated in some prisons following the January conviction of four policemen. Torture nonetheless continued in prisons, pretrial facilities, and local police and security service precincts; and the severity of torture did not decrease during the year. At the end of his visit in December, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture concluded that the use of torture in the country was systemic.
Police insisted that the men died in an altercation with two other inmates and that in the course of the fight hot water from a tea cauldron was spilled on them. On November 10,
three intoxicated NSS officers in Surkhandarya province tortured Musurmon Kulmurodov to death with pliers, a screwdriver, and a metal baton in front of his mother, wife, and their two children (see Section 1.a.). He and his family had been stopped at a traffic checkpoint and transferred to NSS custody on suspicion of narcotics trafficking. At year's end, authorities had failed to hold any of the officers criminally liable
More State Department reports saying pretty much the exact same thing....if you can stomach it, that is.
That Uzbekistan tortures people isn't news. The U.S. government
knew it. The torture methods used by Uzbekistan isn't news either. The U.S. government knew that too. The U.S. government knew what would happen when it sent detainees to Uzbekistan for ah, "interrogations."
The U.S. government committed war crimes - and it knows that too.
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