Harassment of Erk (Freedom) Democratic Party

Secratary General Arifov's home surveillance
Human Rights Watch
(Otanazar Arifov, par.5)

Otanazar Arifov

Arifov, a member of the IHROU steering committee and the Tashkent representative of the unregistered Erk political opposition party, was repeatedly called in for questioning by police in connection with his human rights activity and political affiliation.

Arifov is active in the IHROU steering committee, which makes decisions about the organization's research priorities and advocacy strategies. He occasionally serves as the organization's spokesperson, as at a July 1999 press conference where he decried the arrest and harassment of fellow human rights defenders and criticized sharply the government's policy against "different thinkers," or those whose ideas do not match the sentiments of the political elite.

Arifov was recently called upon by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent and the Central Asia Liaison Office of the OSCE, based in Tashkent, to meet with high-level officials visiting Uzbekistan to discuss the context in which rights abuses are taking place in the country.

In March 1999, Arifov, aged sixty-one, was questioned by officers from the Shaikhantaur district police station. He was called in for questioning twice more in April, once by the procuracy and once by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In these interrogation sessions, authorities repeatedly questioned Arifov about Erk's activities, about his relationship with exiled Erk party leader Muhammad Solih, and about his connection with one of Solih's brothers, Rashid Bekjonov.

Harassment of Arifov took on various forms. Arifov reported heavy police surveillance, which apparently included video surveillance of the road in front of his house and entryway to his home. He recounted that several times the authorities' technical equipment appeared to have malfunctioned, because the Arifov family found themselves watching their own street and doorway broadcast on the family television set. There, the family could watch the recording of all who came in or out of the house. Arifov recounted with some bitter amusement his grandchildren's unwillingness to change the channel or turn off the television, because they wanted to see "when grandpa was coming home."

Arifov also reported that police prevented him from attending the U.S. ambassador's U.S. independence day reception on July 2, to which he had been invited, making him wait in the street for forty minutes before turning him away.

The following day, July 3, police detained Arifov's son, Abdulaziz, directly outside the U.S. Embassy while he was attempting to deliver documents from human rights activist Mukhtabar Akhmedova. The arresting officer confiscated the documents and threatened their use as a basis for charges under criminal code article 159, attempted encroachment on the constitutional order of the state. Police reportedly held and questioned Abdulaziz for a total of eighteen hours, and threatened him with arrest on charges of attempted overthrow of the government. Following his son's detention, Arifov was compelled to report to officers at the Chilanzar and Sobir Rakhimov district police stations. They interrogated him again about his political activities and relations with Muhammad Solih. During the following months, officers continued to phone the Arifov home and ask Abdulaziz to come in for questioning, to visit his home, and even to threaten to arrest him. Police called in Abdulaziz Arifov for further questioning following his initial detention in July. In October, Otanazar Arifov reported that police threatened also to impose an administrative fine on the young man, but did not specify the offense for which such a fine could be levied. As of this writing no fine had been imposed and no court date appointed.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(page 1, par.4)

Atanazar Arifov, the General-Secretary of the opposition Erk Party of Uzbekistan and aformer political prisoner, said that "the will of the [Uzbek] government is anti-democratic" and that the "negative developments overshadow the few positive steps" the Karimov regime has taken in recent months "because of the U.S. presence." Since there are "no legalized means of political protest in Uzbekistan" Arifov said, "we have to rely on influence from outside to push Karimov" to stop the repressions and extreme government policies. According to Arifov, "the Clinton Administration did have a program", but the effort appears "to have been put aside" by the United States.

Human Rights Watch
(Page 4, par. 24)

In May, the banned opposition party Erk (Freedom) had to cancel a regional gathering, the first attempted in years, when police detained its leader Atanazar Oripov. Police released Oripov only after those gathered for the meeting had dispersed.

Amnesty International
(“Inadequate investigations of reports of torture and ill-treatment, par. 3, page 15)

In August 1999, for example, the court of first instance failed to stop proceedings and order a prompt and impartial investigation into allegations of torture in the trial of six men affiliated to the banned opposition Erk party, two of them brothers of the exiled leader of the party, Muhammad Salih. All six men testified in court and later issued a written statement, that they were systematically tortured and ill-treated in pre-trial detention in order to force them to incriminate Muhammad Salih and to ''confess'' to fabricated charges. Methods of torture described included, among others, being beaten with rubber truncheons and plastic bottles filled with water, suffocated, tortured with electric shocks, being suspended by the hands tied behind the back, having hands and feet burned, being threatened with rape and death and with the rape of their wives and daughters. One of the accused, writer Mamadali Makhmudov, also testified that he was given injections and made to take unknown substances. Mamadali Makhmudov and one of the co-accused Rashid Bekzhon, a brother of Muhammad Salih, were held incommunicado for almost three months. The other four accused, Muhammad Bekzhon, also a brother of Muhammad Salih, Yusif Ruzimuradov, Kobil Diyarov and Negmat Sharipov, were forcibly returned to Uzbekistan from Ukraine on 18 March 1999(10). They were held incommunicado until the end of April 1999. After the accused gave testimony the trial judge gave the defence just 40 minutes in which to present their case. The trial was then adjourned for six days after which the verdict was announced. To the best of Amnesty International's knowledge no investigation into any of these allegations of torture has been launched by the court of first instance or any other competent state body. The Supreme Court upheld the court of first instance's verdict.