July 2005
4
In response to an Uzbek extradition request, Kazakh authorities arrest Lutfullo Shamsuddinov, a human rights activist who witnessed the violence in Andijan. They later release him and he is flown to a safe third country for resettlement.
12
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights issues a report on the Andijan massacre, concluding that “consistent, credible eyewitness testimony strongly suggests that military and security forces committed grave human rights violations, mostly of the right to life.” She calls again for an “independent, international probe.”
18
The Andijan province prosecutor states that a total of 187 people were killed as a result of the Andijan events but blames “terrorists” for the killings.
27
About 450 Uzbek asylum seekers sought by Uzbekistan are evacuated from the Kyrgyz government-operated refugee camp and flown to safety in Romania.
29
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development adopts a new country strategy for Uzbekistan, tightening its 2004 suspension of public sector investment over human rights concerns by requiring that its private sector investment have no links to the government or individual officials.
30
Uzbekistan orders the U.S. government to close its military airbase in Khanabad within six months.

 

August 2005
11
Uzbek authorities arrest Russian religious freedom journalist Igor Rotar at the airport in Tashkent and deport him two days later.
26
An Uzbek court sentences Radio Liberty journalist Nosir Zokirov to six months of imprisonment for insulting a security officer.
27
Elena Urlaeva, a human rights activist from Tashkent, is arrested for posting a caricature of the Uzbek national symbol. A court subsequently forces her to undergo psychiatric treatment against her will.

Portraits of human rights defenders from Uzbekistan.