The head of “Ezgulik” Vasilа Inoyatovа appealed to international organizations, in particular, to the representatives of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, as well as other international institutions with a request to fund the trip to the prisons and colonies of Uzbekistan. However, these organizations refused to help, some of them even didn’t reply to the request of Human Rights Society “Ezgulik”.

APPEAL

to all compatriots living in Uzbekistan and abroad

We are writing to you because we have an important and urgent message.

On 23-24 June in Tashkent was organised the meeting between the heads of states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Before this meeting the Uzbek Society for Human Rights «Ezgulik» refered to some foreign embassies, international organizations and the heads of states of the SCO with the request to encourage the Government of Uzbekistan to release from detention the civil society representatives, to allow to meet them and to have the access to the information about their health.

Recently, Human Rights Society “Ezgulik” has received the official response to its request from the Central Department for Execution of Punishment at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It says that the head of the Central Department for Execution of Punishment permit to the representatives of the human rights communities to visit 10 political prisoners in the colonies, the names of which are at the list that “Ezgulik” prepared.

The list of political prisoners that the head of Central Department for Execution of Punishment allowed to meet:

1. Muhammad Bekzhan, journalist – in prison since 15 March 1999;

2. Gayrat Mihliboev, journalist – in prison since 25 July 2002;

3. Azam Farmonov, human rights defender – in prison since 29 April 2006;

4. Isroiljon Kholdorov, human rights defender – in prison since 10 June 2006;

5. Yuldash Rasulov, human rights activist – in prison since April 2007;

6. Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov, journalist – has been in prison since 7 June , 2008;

7. Agzam Turgunov, a human rights activist – in prison since 11 July 2008;

8. Dilmurod Sayyid, journalist – in prison since 22 February 2009;

9. Ganikhon Mamatkhonov, human rights activist – in prison since 9 October 2009;

10. Chuyan Mamatkulov, human rights defender – in prison since December 2012.

These prisoners stay in colonies in different regions of Uzbekistan for many years. To some of them were added the sentences for fabricated cases and we still don’t know what happened others. The representatives of the human rights society “Ezgulik” were very happy when they received the official permission to visit the 10 prisoners. However, this joy did not last for long time because the human rights defenders could not even imagine the difficulty to find the money for visiting the political prisoners.

The head of “Ezgulik” Vasil Inoyatov appealed to international organizations, in particular, to the representatives of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, as well as other international institutions with a request to fund the trip to the prisons and colonies of Uzbekistan. However, these organizations refused to help, some of them even didn’t reply to the request of Human Rights Society “Ezgulik”.

Time passes!

The meeting with the political prisoners is allowed only until 25 July of this year. We have only 15 days left to visit them. The human rights defenders must start visiting the prisoners next week, the 16-17 of July. Otherwise, they will not have time to visit all the 10 political prisoners.

We don’t know if in future the goverment of Uzbekistan will give us another chance like this. During long years the Human Rights Society “Ezgulik” tried to obtain the permission to visit the political prisoners.

Dear compatriots!

As you can see, the most faithful innocent representatives of the Uzbek people stay behind the bars for years. Everybody knows that in prison they are subjected to torture, starvation.

The political prisoners have serious problems with their health. Despite the fact that most of them are old, the amnesty act is not applied to them. Their families are in difficult situation, they survive. Almost all Uzbeks know that the financial situation of families of political prisoners is very bad. Many of them are not able to visit regularly their relatives in the colonies, because they make ends meet. It seems that today the authoritative international human rights organizations are absolutely indifferent to the fate of these people, they don’t want to provide any financial support and to give the possibility to the representatives of the Human Rights Society “Ezgulik” to visit the political prisoners.

In this situation, we can not stay indifferent because we know the conditions in which our compatriots live in prisons of Uzbekistan. We want to join to such a good cause!