The bureaucratic term for it is “Country of Particular Concern.” That´s how the United States government describes nations that abuse religious freedom, under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). And this month, the State Department decided that Uzbekistan was not one of them. This decision is absurd.
I spent more than two years as Human Rights Watch's representative in Uzbekistan investigating violations of religious freedom there. Those violations affect thousands of people, primarily Muslims whose religious beliefs, practices or affiliations fall beyond those sanctioned by the government. I collected documents on hundreds of cases, interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and observed trial after trial in which judges ignored allegations of torture and coercion and passed down prison sentences of up to 20 years to people whose only crime had been to exercise rights to freedom of expression and religion.These are rights guaranteed under international covenants that Uzbekistan has promised to uphold. The State Department has chosen to ignore this broken promise.
The first year that the United States issued IRFA designations was in 1999, and it did not designate Uzbekistan a country of particular concern. But in June of that year, I remember receiving a phone call late one night at my office in Tashkent. An unidentified man asked me to meet him at a mosque on the outskirts of town, saying he had something to show me. After switching cars several times, passing numerous roadblocks, and sneaking through people's backyards to avoid the secret police who crowded the dark streets of the suburban neighborhood, I was taken to the home of 42-year-old Farhod Usmonov.
He was the father of six children, a clothing vendor in a nearby bazaar and the son of a well-known imam. He'd been arrested just days earlier for possession of a single leaflet, published by an Islamic group called Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), which criticizes Uzbek president Islam Karimov's policies on religion and foreign affairs and which advocates the peaceful establishment of a Caliphate, an Islamic state, in the region. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
That summer, Uzbekistani police were cracking down hard on members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, arresting any Muslim who displayed independence from the narrow state-sanctioned form of Islam. Acceptable practice required praising the president during prayer, endorsing his political agenda, and delivering sermons pre-approved by a Soviet-era relic known as the Muslim Spiritual Board. By 1999, thousands of nonviolent Muslims who demonstrated their independence from the bureaucracy´s strictures – by praying at home or in unregistered mosques or by manifesting what local authorities deemed “too much” religiosity – had been thrown in prison. On that night in June, I confronted the latest victim of the state's persecution of religious dissidents and witnessed the campaign´s incredible cruelty.
I entered the modest home to the sight of a dozen wailing women. Each had a story of a son, brother, or father arrested just like Farhod. I listened but there were simply too many stories and I had come for something else. I had come to see a body.
I was taken to a room where the windows were closed and curtains drawn so the police outside would not know the family had transgressed orders by showing the body. The heat was oppressive, as was the sickening smell of the corpse mixed with the sweet ceremonial basil leaves placed around Farhod's head. Blood had seeped from his wounds onto the mattress, and black bruises covered his face and torso. It was clear he had not died of just heart failure, as the official death certificate said. Farhod Usmonov had been held incommunicado in police custody for 11 days.
The family had only a few hours with his body and no chance for an independent medical exam. He was buried the following day at dawn. Police barricaded the area and detained dozens of men and women who gathered to mourn and pay their respects. The officers responsible for Farhod's death were never brought to justice.
Uzbekistan has never been designated a Country of Particular Concern. And in August 2002, Farhod Usmonov's story was repeated. Two more Muslim prisoners – Muzafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov, men who had been convicted for their nonviolent beliefs and association with Hizb-ut-Tahrir – died from apparent abuse in custody. I met the Avazov family a little more than a year ago, when Muzafar's younger brother had been arrested and tortured in front of him to force the elder to incriminate himself. I can only imagine the family's reaction upon learning that Muzafar, thirty-five years old and the father of four, was returned home with burns, covering sixty to seventy percent of his body, which a doctor said could only have come after someone immersed him in boiling water. I cannot imagine how his family survived the sight of a bloody wound on the back of his head, bruises on his neck and forehead and the horrible story to which his hands, now missing fingernails, gave witness.
In this and many other ways Farhod's story continues today. Uzbekistan's campaign against peaceful, independent Muslims shows no sign of abating. Human Rights Watch has documented five suspicious deaths of Muslim prisoners and detainees since January 2002. Thousands more are punished for their beliefs with unending harsh imprisonment and constant mistreatment. These are religious men and women jailed for their faith and unable even to pray in their confinement, on pain of additional beatings and consignment to the dreaded solitary punishment cells.
The United States can condemn religious persecution and torture by a government that has become one of our closest allies over the past 18 months. Uzbekistan, like most newly independent states, places a lot of weight on its reputation in the world. Under IRFA, the US president has a menu of options to choose from to pressure a designated country to change its policies and respect religious freedom. These options range from diplomatic demarche to sanctions. Current designated countries include Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan. Since Uzbekistan seems intent on strengthening ties to the United States and upgrading its international reputation, it might adopt quick reforms to avoid penalties and to avoid such associations.
