Two Uzbek refugeeswent missing in the territory of Kirov district of Makhachkalaon July 13, 2013.

Missing refugees – 23-year-old Alisher Fazilov and his brother, 30-year-old Zhasurbek Fazilov – are natives of Kashkadarya region, Uzbekistan. They have been living in the territory of Dagestan.

According to their relatives, who spoke tohuman rights center “Memorial”, the brothers left their home at around 10 am and went to Leninkent village on the outskirts of Makhachkala, where they were supposed to fix the roof of a newly built house.

After half an hour, the communication with them was lost. In the evening, a relative found the missing brothers’ car on the roadside. The keys were inside the car, personal documents had disappeared. According to local residents, the car stood on the roadside all day long.

Now relatives are suspecting that the brothers may have been kidnapped by the secret services, because their names were mentioned in the documents sent to Russian authorities from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Uzbekistan.

According to the Moscow-basedhuman rights defenders, Uzbek authorities are wrongly accusing brothers Fozilovs of involvement in religious extremism.

To look into this issue, “Jarayon” interviewed Vitaly Ponomarev, director of the Central Asian Program at the Human rights center “Memorial”. Among other subjects, Mr. Ponomarev spoke about the situation of Fozilov brothers and about the position of Russian authorities in relation to Uzbek refugees in Russia.

Jarayon: Mr.Ponomarev, what do you think, why the Uzbek authorities are interested in Fozilov brothers, who, according to friends and relatives, were not involved in religious extremism?

Vitaly Ponomarev: This question is best addressed to the authorities of Uzbekistan. The case of Fozilov brothers is not the only case of unfounded accusations of this kind. Most law enforcement agencies of Uzbekistan put pressure on detainees and witnesses in order to obtain false testimonies about the involvement of some migrant workers in extremis activity, which serves as the basis for the declaration of an international arrest warrant. From my point of view, Fozilovs’ actions on the territory of Russia generally do not constitute a crime.

Jarayon: Recently, official Tashkent has increased the pressure and harassment on the Uzbek refugees and migrants in neighboring countries. Most of these people are natives of Kashkadarya region. For example, in the spring of this year, the Uzbek authorities achieved an extradition a refugee Khairullo Tursunov,a native of the Karshi city, from Kazakhstan to Tashkent. At home, Tursunov was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Why, in your opinion, the Uzbek authorities are interested in people from this part of Uzbekistan?

Vitaly Ponomarev: Since 2004 events, there have been several high-profile criminal cases in Kashkadaria in which many people from this region, who wereaccused (often dubious) of being involved in religious extremism, have been convicted or were declared wanted. However, it is not true to say that authorities are persecuting mostly residents of Kashkadarya. Many people from Tashkent region, Namangan, Ferghana, Samarkand, Surkhandarya and other regions of Uzbekistan have been addressing our organization recently.

Jarayon: Mr.Ponomarev, what do you think, what is the cause of deterioration of Russian authorities’ relation in regards to the Uzbek refugees in Russia, who have recently begun to disappear from detention centers and places of residence?

Vitaly Ponomarev: The hunt of special services for the Uzbek Muslim refugees is part of a broad anti-Muslim campaign, launched and steadily increasing in Russia after the terrorist attacks in Tatarstan in the summer of 2012. Migrants from Central Asia have become an easy target, because in legal terms they are more vulnerable than the citizens of Russia. I must also note that a large circle of professional “fighters against Islam” was formed in the special services of Russia and Uzbekistan, who does not work in a real prevention of terrorist activity, but is involved in exposing the mythical threats that often results in an unjustified expansion of “extremists.”

Jarayon: We know that recently the authorities have been increasing the pressure on human rights organizations like “Memorial” operating in the territory of Russia. Can you give examples of such pressures and harassment against human rights organizations?

Vitaly Ponomarev: Almost every week the media reports about new facts of persecution. Since July 23, the Federal Security Service, the prosecutor’s office and the tax office suddenly started checking the Sochi office of “Memorial”, the day after our representative gave a statement to the prosecutor’s office about the serious violations of the rights of migrant workers employed in the construction of Olympic facilities. On July 4, our employee Bahram Hamroev was illegally detained for nearly nine hours in the Bryansk region.

Hamroev came to this region in connection with the case of an asylum-seeker from Uzbekistan … After the campaign launched by the Kremlin to identify “foreign agents”, many organizations are forced to spend considerable time on the court proceedings, providing documents on request of inspection, etc. It is possible that some of them will lose their registration by fall of this year. In general, it is not a question of law, it is a matter of politics.

Jarayon: One last question. What should happen to the Kremlin change its policy regarding the Uzbek refugees, who reside on the territory of Russia, and in regarding to human rights organizations that provide legal and other assistance to these people?

Vitaly Ponomarev: International pressure and the active position of social and religious organizations in Russia is very important. Kidnappings and illegal extradition of refugees must be investigated and the perpetrators punished. Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on individual cases have a positive, albeit limited effect.

If the Minsk Convention, the revision of which is inhibited by Uzbekistan, is contrary to the key international obligations of Russia in the field of human rights, we must get out of this convention. But to be honest, there is little hope that the Putin administration is ready to strategically rethink the situation. Talking about the pressure on human rights organizations, it has less to do with their work with refugees and asylum-seekers, as the real concern is the future of democracy in our country.

Jarayon: Mr.Ponomarev, thank you very much for the interview.

The interview with Moscow-based human rights defender Vitaly Ponomarev was held by Sofia DAVRONOVA.