Dr. Andrea Berg of Human Rights Watch recently spoke at a SOAS conference in London. Unsurprisingly, her topic was “In the Name of Combating Terrorism: Human Rights and Security in Uzbekistan”. It’s always interesting to recall that HRW does actually still have an office in Tashkent. Most of her insights have been published elsewhere or are widely known (at least since Andijan), so I’ve only written up some interesting tidbits from the presentation below.

The Department to Combat Terrorism and Extremism was established after the February 1999 bombings in Tashkent. It is an exceptional organisation, as it exists within every level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – it has ‘offices’ and agents at the national, oblast and local level.

The agents of the DCTE are involved in the arrests of Muslims, human rights defenders and independent journalists, usually in the form of plainclothes men showing up in the houses of suspicious individuals and “inviting” them to informal and prophylactic meetings – i.e. telling them to stop human rights activities. It is interesting that human rights defenders and journalists are being put into the same box than terrorists.

The legal basis for the clampdown on human rights defenders, independent journalists and Muslims in Uzbekistan are three articles of the legal code: 155 (terrorism), 244/1,2 (1: possession or distribution of extremist, fundamentalist or separatist literature, 2: setting up, leading or participating in extremist, fundamentalist or seperatist movements).

Collective punishment (or the German term Sippenhaft) is a popular tool of the Uzbek authorities to get hold of those it deems dangerous. This often means that the mother or the wife of the suspect is arrested. Trials are also not held where the dependants of the suspect live – which makes it more difficult for relatives to come to the court rooms. In July, the trial of 15 alleged Wahhabists saw its first stage in Tashkent (with 50 people waiting outside). On its second day, the court building changed to a town 35 minutes away from Tashkent.

The collective punishment mentioned above can also explain partly why some of those people that left Uzbekistan right after the Andijan events have either come back or expressed their desire to come back. Dr. Berg said that it was very difficult to establish contact to those that have returned.