In her interview with “Jarayon”, the prominent human rights activist shared her impressions of the trip to Warsaw.

Jarayon: Mrs.Tadjibayeva, in late September you came back from Warsaw, where you attended an OSCE event. Also, you managed to conduct a protest rally titled “Who is to blame?! Who is next?!” How did the action go and who attended it?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: First of all, I want to say that this timedozens of representatives of Uzbek civil society were able to attend an OSCE conference for the first time. Their visit to Poland was financed by the Helsinki Committee in Warsaw. Earlier, previous OSCE conferences were attended by many representatives of civil society of neighboring countries, but only 2-3 Uzbek activists took part in them. This time Uzbek activists arrived in Warsaw only from the Uzbekistan, but also from France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Ukraine, who actively took part not only in the conference of this authoritative organization, but also in our protest action.

Our campaign called “Who is to blame?! Who is next?!” was held on 23-24 September, when the OSCE events were conducted. Our action was attended not only by Uzbek activists, but also representatives of civil society arrived from different countries and representatives of international human rights organizations, including Steve Swerdlow from “Human Rights Watch”, Christine Larocque from ACAT, Brigitte Dufour from the International Partnership for Human Rights, Director of the Kazakhstan Bureau for Human Rights Eugene Zhovtis and his staff, Lenur Karimov and Julia Chernomuhina from Helsinki Committee in Warsaw, civic activist Balli Marzec from Czech Republic originated from Kazakhstan, human rights activists from Belarus and Ukraine, Aigul Bekzhan, a daughter of Uzbek political prisoner Mukhammad Bekzhan, who actively struggles for her father’s release from an Uzbek prison.

Jarayon: In July 2014, you had a similar protest at the OSCE conference conducted in the capital of Austria. What is the difference between the two protest actions held in Warsaw andVienna?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: I can say that our protest held in Warsaw was the continuation of the July one in Vienna. During our protest action in the capital of Austria, we handed out to participants of the OSCE conference portraits of victims of political repressions, political prisoners, torture victims, and people who were brutally murdered in prisons and detention centers in Uzbekistan as well as statements regarding human rights violations in that country. During the Warsaw event, we did the same, but also we distributed participants of the OSCE conference CDs with the film titled “The Long Arm of the dictator”, which was made by Michael Andersen for Al-Jazeera.

Another notable side of our Warsaw protest was participation of Ismail Odilov, a “human rights defender”from Uzbekistan, who attended the OSCE conference. During his speech prepared for him by the authorities, he stated that torture was widespread phenomenonin Uzbekistan, but now the police ruthlesslystruggle against torture and punishofficials, who have allowed torture and said that laws against torture function in the country. Also, that person called human rights activists not to complain to the whole world, but rather provide assistance to the Government in its efforts to combat torture. While Ismail Odilov was speaking, members of our protests were holding portraits of dozens of victims of torture and people who were ruthlessly killed following tortures in Uzbekistan.

Human rights activist Vasilya Inoyatova, who spoke right after Ismail Odilov, began her speech with the following words: “I will begin my speech with a complaint”, and she told the participants of the conference about ongoing tortures and the plight of political prisoners kept in Uzbek prisons. “I ask you to look at the photographs in the hands of the protesters, and you can see faces of civil society activists and victims of torture, who have been imprisoned only because of their active role in the struggle for democracy and the idea of ​​human rights. We ask you to support us in the fight to protect these people”, said Vasilya Inoyatova addressing the OSCE conference.

During our protest action in Warsaw, we displayed over 30 portraits of victims of torture, political prisoners, journalists as well as caricatures of high-ranking representatives of the Uzbek authorities, prepared by well-known Kazakh artist and civic activist Kanat Ibragimov.

In addition to our protest in Warsaw, the 121-page report by “Human Rights Watch” titled “Until the very end: Imprisonment for political reasons in Uzbekistan” (http://ca-news.org/news:1125412) was discussed.

Steve Swerdlow from “Human Rights Watch” told the conference attendees that he had at a meeting with Ozoda Yakubova, the spouse of human rights activist Azam Farmonov, who said that her husband told her when she was visiting him: “I will stand until the very end.” That was why the staff of the international organization decided to entitle their report using the words of Uzbek human rights activist Azam Farmonov.

After the discussion of the report about 34 political prisoners, participants of the conference were informed once again about the political situation in Uzbekistan, the plight of political prisoners. Then a special film by “Human Rights Watch” entitled “Uzbekistan: prison and torture – for critics of the regime” was demonstrated (Uzbekistan’s Critics Get Torture, Jail Time). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a35m9EfE_Us

In my turn, I told the conference participants about tortures widely used against female prisoners convicted in Uzbekistan on religious and political grounds. In particular, I delivered my story to the activists and human rights defenders, who also attended the conference. I told them about tortures, abuses and humiliation I suffered there. When I was in a women’s prison, they tried to force me to sign a confessionprepared in advance allegedly written on my behalf to the President Islam Karimov in which I had to apologize not only to Karimov, but to the entire Uzbek nation for “all crimes I had committed” and “recognize “Fiery Hearts Club”an extremist organization”.

I categorically refused to do so, as a result of which the colony administration applied more tortures against me. Thus, I eventually became a disabled person for the rest of my life. Even after my release from the prison, I could not remain indifferent to fates of other victims of tortures, who remained in jail after I was released.

At the end of this meeting, the participants of the conference discussed my book “Prisoner of the Island of Torture”, which is to be published in the near future. Amnesty International spokeswoman Julia Hall said that after hearing my story about the women’s prison, she tried to hold back his tears, and to regain control, she looked at other participants in the hall, but she saw many people were crying when they listened to my story about female prisoners in Uzbekistan.

Jarayon: Mrs. Tadjibayeva, what results do you expect from the last protest “Who is to blame?! Who is next?!”.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: We intend to continue conducting our events because the number of victims of repression in the countrywill change when the political climate in Uzbekistanchanges. Following the Independence,many families have appeared under pressure of the authorities, and we do not have the right to forget about them. Usually people learn and write about victims of repression after a dictatorial regimefalls in acountry. We have already started preparing a list of the victims of repression in Uzbekistan, and we intend to publish it in the very near future.

We have high hopes that after we tell the international community about the victims of the current regime in Uzbekistan, some Western politicians, who shamelessly cooperate with the authorities of the country, will think about their actions. Great interest in our protests in Warsaw, where we presented portraits of the victims of repression in Uzbekistan, has shown that we are on the right path.

Activists from Kazakhstan, who took part in our campaign “Who is to blame?! Who is next?!”, said that on October 2, during the discussion in the OSCE about situation in Kazakhstan, they will also display portraits of Kazakh political prisoners and begin preparing a list of political prisoners. They also decided that during follow-up events dedicated to human rights violations, they will put on national dresses and honor the memory of victims of political repression in Kazakhstan.

Jarayon: Mrs.Tadjibayeva, thank you for the interview.

Interview prepared by Guzal AKHMEDOVA