Uzbek Regional Authorities Formed Militia to Fight Political Enemies

Ferghana.Ru news agency, Andrei Kudryashov (Tashkent), 01.04.2005

Confrontation between the authorities of Uzbekistan and the opposition is taking dramatic forms. Human rights activists and the opposition claim that Dzhizak Khokim [governor] Ubaidulla Yamankulov set up something like a Black Hundred or Death Squad to handle his political antagonists. The units comprise young athletes, lumpens, unemployed, and hookers.

Unidentified hooligans assaulted journalist Dzhamshid Karimov in December 2004. Human rights activist Talib Yakubov says that a rally of farmers protesting against confiscation of land plots was dispersed in central Dzhizak in February 2005 by a mob of youngsters using karate technique. Egamnazar Shaimanov, Ozod Dekhkonlar activist and chairman of the Dustlik Human Rights Society was dragged out of his house and lynched on March 29. Shortly before that Shaimanov had organized collection of signatures of 32 farmers on the petition for resignation of Yamankulov from the posts of the khokim and senator of the upper house of the parliament.

"It was on Tuesday March 29. About 50 men broke into my house, dragged me out and took me to the outskirts, to the tractor repair facility there," Shaimanov said afterwards. "A Damas car approached. Five young men, all fit and athletic looking, got out of the car and began working on me right in front of the crowd screaming at me to get the hell out of Dzhizak."

The human rights activist was denied medical assistance in Dzhizak. Some unidentified men approached him again that same evening. They said they were taking him to a hospital but in fact drove in some other direction. Shaimanov managed to escape and hitchhike to Tashkent where he found shelter at Ozod Dekhkonlar headquarters. Two ambulances refused to hospitalize Shaimanov. He was finally admitted to the surgery department of the Tashkent Medical Institute on March 30.

Human rights activists and the opposition held a rally in central Tashkent the following day demanding investigation of the assault on Shaimanov and criminal charges against upper echelons of the Dzhizak regional administration.

* * *

Assault on the opposition activist caused mass disturbances in Dzhizak, Uzbekistan. Unidentified persons abducted Egmanazar Shaimanov from a Tashkent hospital

Reports from headquarters of Ozod Dekhkonlar, party of the opposition denied official registration, that came on March 31 evening indicate that some unidentified persons abducted Egmanazar Shaimanov, human rights activists assaulted and battered by the Black Hundred in Dzhizak, from the Tashkent Medical Institute several minutes after his meeting with Ferghana.Ru correspondents.

"On March 31, we tried to visit Shaimanov in the ward of the Tashkent Medical Institute on two occasions. Shaimanov was admitted there the night before on our insistence because he had been severely battered in Dzhizak," Yelena Urlayeva told a Ferghana.Ru correspondent. "At 09:30 a.m. doctors did not let us see him saying that he was beaten up pretty bad and could not even get up from the bed. They asked us to bring syringes because he had lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. At about 1 p.m., barely minutes after Nidoyara Khidoyatova, Executive Secretary of the Political Council, and your correspondent, talked to Shaimanov through the window, we were told that Shaimanov was urgently discharged and taken away. We called the reception. Doctor Mumin Abdurkhmanov said that computer tomography was used, that doctors studied its results and decided that Shaimanov did not have a concussion after all, and the conference of specialists decided that he should be discharged."

Talib Yakubov, Chairman of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, called Ferghana.Ru from Uzbekistan to say that the assault on Shaimanov sparked an impromptu riot in his native Dustlik district. Despaired of impoverishment, lawlessness, and administration's tyranny, several hundreds of local farmers and dekhkans [peasants] rebelled. Their rage was uncontrollable. Several cars of local officials were turned over and set fire to.

Not knowing what had happened to the human rights activist and opposition leader, his fellow villagers decided that he had been murdered by the Black Hundred - teams of criminals Dzhizak regional administration formed to keep the discontent in check. Enraged mobs began amassing in the district center, demanding accountability from the authorities.

Urlayeva suspects that Shaimanov may have been taken by secret services to Dzhizak to display him to the mobs and calm them down. She says as well that Ozod Dekhkonlar is drafting an appeal to health care minister with a protest against inhumane actions of Tashkent doctors - colliding with the Hipocrates' Oath - who discharged a person and permitted his abduction by unidentified criminals.

Officials of the Institute of War and Peace in Uzbekistan say that Dzhizak Khokim [governor] Ubaidulla Yamankulov visited the Dustlik district on March 31. Yamankulov apologized to the dekhkans for the incident and promised to have "all culprits found and prosecuted". In the meantime, the opposition calls the khokim himself the first culprit and demands his resignation as regional leader and senator of the upper house of the parliament.

There is no information on Shaimanov's whereabouts at this point.

Ozod Dekhkonlar leaders and heads of Uzbek human rights organizations scheduled a press conference on the events in Dzhizak for April 1.


Source: Ferghana.Ru, 1 April 2005