Alisher Vakhidov, the head of the official delegation of Uzbekistan, stated that “tortures in Uzbekistan are used, but the government is fighting against this evil” while presenting the first official report of the government at the 23rd session of the UN Committee against Torture while on November 17-19, 1999.

Members of the Committee, supporting the good will of Uzbekistan in eradication of any form of violence against the human being, approved the report of the Uzbek delegation saying it was “sincere without attempts to hide anything”.

Mr.Theo van Boven, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, visited Uzbekistan in the fall of 2002 to inspect prisons. During the two-week stay in the country, he visited prisons and colonies in Uzbekistan, including colony UYA 64/71 located in Zhaslyq village, Karakalpakstan, and managed to communicate with prisoners and their relatives.

As a result of his observations and meetings, testimonies made torture victims and their family members from all parts of the country as well as according to reliable documented information provided by representatives of the civil society and independent journalists, Theo van Boven concluded that the practice of using torture in Uzbekistan is “common and systematic”. Submitting recommendations to the Uzbek authorities, the Special Rapporteur emphasized that the higher authorities publicly condemned all forms of torture and stated that those responsible for abuses would be punished.

The report of Theo van Boven, the Special Rapporteur on torture, submitted in accordance with resolution 2002/38 of the Commission, was officially published in February 2003, and subsequently distributed to the general public, including through the Internet (see more at www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/uzbek/ru/images/stories/file/VanBovenMissionReportUzbekistan.pdf).

International organizations and human rights organizations regularly criticized the Uzbek government for human rights abuses and torture of detainees in all stages of investigative proceedings and in the colonies. The authorities of Uzbekistan, promising to improve the human rights situation in the country by eliminating torture practices, are not taking practical measures

The management of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) heavily criticized Uzbekistan authorities at the 12th Annual Meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors held in Tashkent in May 2003, which was aired live in Uzbekistan. “Some of us probably expected mentioning human rights and economic progress,” said EBRD President Jean Lemierre speaking about his disappointment because under the terms of the bank, in his speech Islam Karimov was supposed to condemn torture in Uzbekistan.

Speaking at an EBRD opening session, Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said that Uzbekistan could not perform tasks in the field of political and economic reforms set by the EBRD. According to him, the situation in respect of human rights and civil liberties protection in Uzbekistan has deteriorated over the last year, and torture practices in the country are still exercised.

“A particular concern with regard to Uzbekistan is linked to lack of respect for freedom of religion, widespread use of torture and failure of the judiciary to protect human rights,” added Board of Governors Chair Clare Short addressing personally to Islam Karimov. She reminded the Uzbekistan President of the findings of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven, according to whom torture in Uzbekistan is “systematic” and that the country’s leaders should seriously consider the report and its recommendations. Having heard these reasonable recommendations, President Karimov abruptly threw the headphones away covering his ears with his hands, thus showing clearly all participants his disdain for mentioned concerns.

A peaceful demonstration was shot in May 2005 on the central square in Andizhan, participants of which demanded that the authorities should implement their constitutional rights, suspend unfair trials, harassment and torture and carry out economic and social reforms in the region.

Following Islam Karimov’s orders, the heavily armed special forces shot demonstrators with automatic weapons, including old men, women and children. Until now, the exact number of people shot that day is unknown. Uzbek authorities carefully hide the true number of the killed people. Those journalists and human rights activists, who tried to establish the number and names of the victims, have faced ruthless repression of the authorities.

According to Theo van Boven’s report on torture in Uzbekistan, torture practices in the country are “widespread and systematic”.

“This definition is already the basis for sending Karimov to the prisoners’ box. Uzbek President Islam Karimov should go to trial for “widespread and systematic” torture in his country; the case against him has already been prepared. Uzbek authorities did not realize the significance of the given report. Understanding came to them after the Andizhan massacre in 2005, when the Karimov regime supplemented its offenses by mass shooting of the demonstration in the city,” said Theo Van Boven in an interview with Uznews.net while participating at “High hearings on Uzbekistan” held on 1 March 2012 in Berlin (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA7S4c8nQZg SaveFrom.net).

Akmal Saidov, the Director of the Uzbekistan National Centre for Human Rights and the head delegation of Uzbekistan at the 51st UN Committee against Torture session conducted in Geneva on 29-30 October, 2013, emotionally and sharply rejected recommendations in regard to use of torture in the country. The recommendations were made by participants of the session. One can make certain conclusions after reviewing the hours-long video posted in the Internet (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLq60YHAq1c). Despite numerous presented facts, the official delegation of Uzbekistan refused to recognize evidences of systematic torture practices in the country willfully misleading the Committee members.

In September 2008, Gulnara Karimova, Uzbek President’s eldest daughter, was appointed the permanent representative of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva. She worked in the diplomatic service until June 2013. Having a solid diplomatic rank, Karimova neglected sessions, workshops, meetings and conferences dedicated to issues of human rights violations and torture in Uzbekistan. She also rejected an invitation to attend the International Film Festival on Human Rights in Geneva held on 1 March 2013, thus showing her indifference to the urgent problem of torture and human rights violations. Using diplomatic immunity, Gulnara Karimova was involved in enrichment of her family and self-promotion, participating and organizing dubious parties at the expense of the Uzbek people.

Having started actively using Twitter social networking and microblogging service, Gulnara became very popular within a short period of time. In December 2012, Andrew Stroehlein, the Media Programs Director for the International Crisis Group, sent Gulnara a statement about use of torture in Uzbekistan mentioning certain cases as the given issue was within the competence of the permanent representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations. Stroehlein told Karimova about the appeal of international human rights organizations to the government of Uzbekistan, demanding to release all political prisoners from prisons having provided a list of specific names. However, later on Gulnara refused to make a joint statement on torture, and terminated the dialogue with him.

Andrew Stroehlein offered Gulnara to resume the dialogue on 30 April, 2013, on the eve of the anniversary of the massacre in Andizhan. He asked her to talk about that with Galima Bukharbayeva, one of the witnesses of the Andizhan event, a journalist and the editor of Uznews.net. In response to the request of the human rights activist, Gulnara blocked Bukharbayeva’s Twitter account. When Stroehlein said “is this the way you treat one of the witnesses of the Andizhan massacre?” Gulnara Karimova broke into curses and insults.

However, Gulnara Karimova started publishing information materials on her Twitter page, which prove Theo van Boven’s allegations that torture practices in Uzbekistan are “widespread and systematic” by nature.

In early November, Gulnara Karimova has published on her Twitter page information materials to prove allegations of Theo van Boven that the practice of using torture in Uzbekistan is “widespread and systematic” in nature. The video posted by Gulnara (www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqejHixEcU SaveFrom.net) clearly shows violent actions of the fiscal authorities backed by armed men from the Special Forces against sellers of sales outlets.

Law enforcement agencies wanted to fabricate a criminal case against owners of the sales outlets using Mashkhura Tashkentbaeva, a false witness, who was paid over 10,000 sooms ($ 5). The Similar setup practices are systematically used in Uzbekistan against representatives of the civil society, independent journalists as well as against people for their religious beliefs. In this case, only due to Gulnara Karimova’s timely arrival and intervention, a large-scale pogrom was prevented and employees of the sales outlets were not physically affected.

Another document published on Gulnara’s Twitter page is case record # 153 of patient E. Solmonov born in 1983. The given case record was issued by the Radiology and Computed Tomogram Department of the Tashkent city central clinic # 1 on 8 February, 2013. (www.twitter.com/GulnaraKarimova/status/397380288528908288/photo/1).

This document confirms severe injuries as the patient was badly battered. In her comments, Gulnara indicates that the battered person is an officer, and he was tortured by the internal security of the National Security of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Just the other day, people who introduced themselves as relatives of Nurmukhammad Sadykov, a man from Gulnara Karimova’s circle, sent information to independent Internet outlets about alleged kidnapping of the man in January 20013. He was reportedly kidnapped by armed men from the president’s daughter team. He was kept against his will and systematically beaten and tortured.

Relatives of the kidnapped person wrote: “We, his relatives, constantly receive threats from her (meaning Gulnara Karimova – Jarayon’s note) people, who repeatedly warned us to keep silent about Nurmukhammad’s disappearance. Her people promised that after a while, she would let him go, but it has been 11 months, and we have lost the hope that she would keep her word. Our attempts to apply to the police were immediately suppressed. Gulnara Karimova learnt about our application and immediately her people arrived. They kicked us out, and each time we received more serious threats and blackmail. We were told that if we do not keep low profile, they will kill Nurmukhammad, and we will never see him again. This is very scary, and we do not know what to do…”.

Why has compromising information against Karimova started appearing now as well as information against the Uzbek security services? Including information about use of violence and torture against detained people? Though the posted information is quite outdated, Gulnara posted it 9 months later, when she lost her diplomatic immunity and she appeared to be the main person involved in investigations carried out by several European countries.

In regard to this incident, the law enforcement bodies instituted a criminal case on 7 November, 2013 to investigate signs of crimes according to Articles 137 and 301 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In one of her most recent posts, Gulnara Karimova wrote on her Twitter page that her brainchild “Foundation Forum”, through which she implemented her projects, was thoroughly audited by the General Prosecutor’s Office, the State Tax Committee and the Interior Ministry. Gulnara said that employees from the prosecutor’s office gathered Uzbek pop stars and demanded that they submit a letter saying that employees from «Terra Group» extorted money from them for showing their commercials on TV and playing their songs on the radio.

These and other similar facts prove that there are unjust legal and judicial proceedings in the country as well as systematic use of violent actions against persons under investigations.

The latest developments taking place in Tashkent and sensational statements of the presidential family show that confrontation of the sides has started and is turning into an active phase of struggle for presidency. Gulnara, deprived of access to multi-million dollar offshore accounts and losing stable support underfoot in the country, has begun blackmailing the Uzbek secret services and its head, denouncing their systematic use of torture. Rash and short-sighted actions of Gulnara Karimova have become clear evidence of all shortcomings of the authoritarian regime of her father.

Most importantly, Gulnara Karimova as a former Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations, and the country’s security forces, which oppose her, have provided documented evidences of systemic use of torture in Uzbekistan.

In the light of developments in Uzbekistan, “Fiery Hearts Club”, an international human rights organisation, calls upon the international community to demand that the Uzbek authorities officially recognize use of “systematic” torture in the country against their citizens, as well as to come out in a united front in the information war to eradicate torture.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

The head of “Fiery Hearts Club”

International Human Rights Organization

November 8, 2013

Paris, France