Dear friends, colleagues at the International Federation for Human Rights!

Today, we are writing to you on the sad occasion – Bakhtiyar Khamraev, our close friend in Uzbekistan, a courageous and tireless human rights activist, known to many of you in our common seminars and trips, died on May 4.

FIDH, like many other human rights activists, both Uzbek and international, owe so much to this wonderful and very humble man. Until his last day, even when chained to the bed by brutal and painful illness, he continued helping others – human rights activists in custody and their families, calling them, and when he could – visiting them regularly and sharing with international organizations the information, hardly available from abroad, about the conditions of imprisoned colleagues, about the legal aspects of their protection and the needs of their families – without him our help to dozens of human rights defenders and their relatives would be impossible. His integrity and honesty were the best guarantee that the aid reaches those, who really were in need.

Bakhtiyar was repeatedly subject to government’s surveillance (overt and blatant, sometimes de facto house arrest – because he could not get out of the house, literally surrounded by cars of intelligence) and attacks. In 2001, Bakhtiyar Khamraev was terribly beaten. In May 2005, the human rights activist was attacked and beaten by a dozen of people in his own house for “spreading lies” about the tragic events in Andijan. Khamraev was attacked in 2006 and in 2009. Once the attackers severely injured his head in his own home in the presence of foreign diplomats.

Our joint program with OMCT, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, unfortunately, often investigated these cases and responded to them. But in practice, it was always not easy, as Bakhtiyar, who often passed us information about the troubles of others, reluctantly and unwillingly mentioned about his own. He raised six children, and always cared about their fate and life. Unfortunately, they have come under the scrutiny of the regime – in 2006, Ikhtiyor Khamraev , Bakhtiyar Khamraev’s son, was sentenced to three years for “hooliganism.” According to observers, his conviction was punishment for human rights work of his father. In prison Ikhtiyor was severely beaten several times, and badly stabbed.

Despite all this relentless pressure, which took many forms, Bakhtiyar continued his invaluable, sometimes almost invisible to the world, but very necessary and courageous battle, remaining until the end faithful to his ideals, friends, family and colleagues. He was only morally crippled by a slander campaign, supported by some of his close friends, but even this did not stop his work and his amazing faith in the best aspects of each individual.

In the fight against the disease, Bakhtiar showed the same quiet courage, comforted his friends and colleagues, and never spoke of his suffering, and only asked for help to others.

Our Federation has lost a loved one, and we all grieve for him. Personally, I was lucky enough to get to know him personally in Georgia, where we all worked on the situation of political prisoners in 2008, and I sincerely share the pain of his family, friends, and my colleagues from the department of Eastern Europe and Central Asia of our federation, who worked closely with him.

We will never forget all that he has done for our imprisoned colleagues, what he has done for us, and what he has done for the human rights movement in general. In particular, it was Bakhtiyar who once initiated the creation of the Web application, implemented by FIDH and constantly updated since then with the help of our colleagues in two languages, ​on the situation of imprisoned human rights defenders in Uzbekistan, which also allows to follow the fate of those, who were eventually released.

http://www.fidh.org/2011_UZ

We could rarely publicly express our eternal gratitude for his work, as we feared that it would further aggravate his difficult situation in a country, which he never wanted to leave. But he knew how much he and his work were important to us.

And we will always remember his remarkable human qualities – never leaves his humor, his warm smile, the ability to support all with words and deed, quiet modesty, and sincere courage.

Souhayr Belhassen,

President of FIDH

on behalf of the Secretariat of FIDH

and 164 member organizations