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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UZBEKISTAN: Year in Brief 2005 - Chronology of key events
TASHKENT, 11 Jan 2006 (IRIN) -
| January | February | March | April |
| May | June | July | August |
| September | October | November | December |
6 April - Uzbek authorities have started criminal proceedings against the Tashkent office of Internews - an international media support NGO – the prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday. The announcement came as government stepped up scrutiny of foreign and local NGOs promoting democracy in the country in the wake of the fall of the government in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Tashkent is charging the US-based NGO, under Article 20 of the Uzbek criminal code, with operating without a licence, an official for the prosecution said. “Investigations are under way, but at this stage nobody has been arrested,” Svetlana Artikova, spokeswoman of the general prosecutor’s office, told IRIN, adding that people and witnesses related to the case were being questioned.
16 May - The United Nations in Kyrgyzstan has launched an assessment mission to the south of the country and the goverment has opened a refugee camp, after more than 1,000 Uzbeks crossed into the country following three days of violence in eastern Uzbekistan. Human rights groups in Uzbekistan estimate the clashes left 600 people dead. The head of the Kyrgyz office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Carlos Zaccagnini, is in the south of the country with members of a UN inter-agency mission. "The UN group is involved now in practical steps to find solutions to the current crisis with refugees and the sharpening of the political situation in the south," Olga Grebennikova, public information officer for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN on Monday.
24 May - The status of hundreds of Uzbek asylum seekers in Kyrgyzstan who fled recent violence in the eastern Uzbek province of Andijan remains unclear. "Currently, they are [considered] displaced persons," Zafar Khakimov, head of the Kyrgyz migration service, told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek, on Tuesday. "They get the status of refugee only after official inquiries conducted under the UN Convention on Refugees, have been completed." His comments came 11 days after hundreds of Uzbeks fled Andijan where the Uzbek security forces reportedly opened fire on thousands of protesters in the city square, killing up to 1,000, according to local rights groups. The Uzbek government said that only 169 were killed.
24 May - More than a week after government security forces fired on protesters in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, residents continue to count their dead, while local human activists report more than 3,000 residents remain unaccounted for."Our representatives in Andijan talk about 3,000 people missing," Vasilya Inoyatova, head of the Ezgulik human rights group, told IRIN from Tashkent. She noted many people were afraid to go to the police to report their sons or relatives missing fearing possible persecution.
26 May - International rights groups have warned of a further increase in human rights violations in Uzbekistan, where upwards of 1,000 people are feared dead and scores missing in the eastern city of Andijan after being gunned down by government forces nearly two weeks ago. "We are concerned over a possible further crackdown and have already seen the beginnings of it," Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Europe and Central Asia division, told IRIN from New York, citing incidents of local rights activists being called in for questioning.
31 May - The Uzbek government has intensified a clampdown on public dissent in Central Asia's most populous state, following protests in the eastern province of Andijan, where upwards of 1,000 were feared dead. "The authorities have increased pressure on rights groups and opposition party members in Uzbekistan over the past few days," Surat Ikramov, head of the local rights organisation, Initiative Group of Independent Rights Activists of Uzbekistan (IGIRAU), told IRIN from the capital, Tashkent, on Tuesday.
21 June - In a limited but significant step forward, a report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has further underscored the need for a full independent inquiry into what transpired in Andijan, Uzbekistan, last month, when upwards of 1,000 people are thought to have been gunned down by Uzbek military forces.
18 July - Two local staff from the US-based media NGO, Internews, went on trial on Monday in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent following a year-long campaign to halt the work of Western-funded pro-democracy organisations in the country. As the trial opened in Yakkasaroy district court, the judge ordered representatives of foreign organisations and journalists, who wanted to monitor the trial, to leave the courtroom. "This is a violation of judicial procedures," Fyodor Kravchenko, a lawyer with Internews, said.
15 August - The Uzbek government on Saturday deported Russian human rights journalist, Igor Rotar, after he had spent two days in detention at Tashkent airport. John Kinahan, assistant editor for Forum 18 News Service, an agency covering religious freedom in the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, commented on the significance of the deportation in a statement. "The case has shown how religious freedom is an excellent 'litmus test' of the state of human rights and that attention should remain on the extremely grave human rights situation still faced by Uzbekistan's people."
8 September - Amnesty International (AI) has joined other human rights groups in a call for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send observers to the upcoming trial of those arrested for their alleged involvement in May's bloody events in the southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. "We want this trial to be open and genuinely open," Maisy Weicherdi, Central Asia researcher for the watchdog group, said from London.
12 September - As part of a broader trend by the Uzbek government to close down both international and local NGOs, on 12 September the Civil Court of Tashkent ordered the US-based International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) to suspend activities in Uzbekistan for a period of six months. IREX, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has worked with the Uzbek government and grassroots organisations since 1994 improving education, facilitating student exchanges, expanding internet access and supporting community development initiatives.
20 September - Two new reports reveal clear instances of human rights abuses in the southern Uzbek city of Andijan as the trial of 15 men accused of plotting the May rebellion began in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Tuesday. "The government has been laying siege to the truth of what happened in Andijan," Maisy Weicherdi, Central Asia researcher for Amnesty International (AI), said from London, calling for such efforts to cease and the truth to be heard.
26 September - Media watchdog groups warn of a further crackdown on press freedom as the trial of 15 men charged with trying to overthrow the Uzbek government in the southern city of Andijan last May enters its second week. "We are deeply concerned about the escalating crackdown on journalists by the Uzbek authorities," Pascale Bonamour, head of Europe desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said from Paris on Monday.
4 October - Rights groups have welcomed a decision by the European Union (EU) to impose sanctions on Uzbekistan, following the country's refusal for an international probe into the Andijan killings of May. "It's the right thing to impose these sanctions with regard to Uzbekistan and I support it," Surat Ikramov, head of the Independent Initiative Group of Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan (IIGHRAU), a local rights group, said from the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday. His colleague Tolib Yakubov, head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), another local rights body, agreed.
13 October - Five months after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed anti-government protests in the eastern city of Andijan, many local residents are still too afraid to even mention the demonstration and subsequent government crackdown, which according to rights groups claimed up to 1,000 lives. While many residents are busy with daily life and both traders and customers flock the bazaars, very few are willing to talk about what transpired in their city on 13 May, when thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city's Bobur square.
13 October - The Internews Network, a leading international media development organisation, has lost its bid to continue working in Uzbekistan, the Central Asian nation where it has operated for ten years to support independent media. "This was clearly a political move, the government has been determined to get rid of any organisation promoting freedom of speech and things got worse after Andijan [the killing five months ago of demonstrators in the eastern Uzbek city]," Catherine Eldridge, Internews head in Uzbekistan, said on Thursday.
23 October - The arrest of a moderate opposition leader in Uzbekistan charged with embezzlement and economic crimes following his repeated demands for reforms, is politically motivated, opposition and rights groups said on Tuesday. Sanjar Umarov, 49, is the leader of "Serkuyosh Uzbekistonim" (Sunshine Uzbekistan) – a new opposition coalition. He is also a successful businessman with links to the energy and cotton sectors and gained popularity following his vocal denunciation of bloodshed in eastern Uzbekistan in May.
26 October - A national campaign to halt the rise in HIV and help those already infected, began in Uzbekistan. The campaign links local and national government, the UN system, the international community, civil society and popular personalities, in scaling-up access to prevention services, particularly to the most vulnerable groups, such as injecting drug users and sex workers. The national campaign was launched to coincide with a five-year global campaign entitled: "Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS", launched in October 2005 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) head Ann Veneman and UNAIDS chief Peter Piot.
10 November - More than 400 Uzbek refugees from Andijan who fled violence in the eastern Uzbek city are currently living in Romania after an evacuation by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from Kyrgyzstan in July, and awaiting third-country resettlement.
15 November - Human rights groups have strongly criticised the ruling of an Uzbek court finding 15 Andijan trial suspects guilty of terrorism and sentencing them up to 20 years in jail. "It was expected and some could even have been given the death penalty, but as the case had received such wide international publicity the authorities did not dare to give capital sentences," Tolib Yakubov, head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), a local rights group, said from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Tuesday. "The trial was orchestrated," he maintained.
9 December - As this year’s cotton-picking season wraps up in Uzbekistan, the authorities in the Ferghana Valley region have come under criticism for continuing the practice of using government employees and child labour to harvest the country’s main cash crop. "Currently, the entire population, from junior school students to professors are cotton pickers," a secondary school teacher in the eastern city of Andijan, capital of the province with the same name, said.
20 December - The German government has yet to determine its next course of action following a recent call by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to prosecute a senior Uzbek official for his alleged involvement in last May's Andijan massacre. "We are checking this case for possible investigation, but the individual is no longer in Germany," Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, a spokeswoman for the German Prosecutor-General's office said from the southern city of Karlsruhe on Tuesday. Her comments follow a request on Friday by Manfred Nowak for Germany to prosecute Uzbek Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov, who until recently had been receiving cancer treatment in the northern city of Hanover.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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