USCIRF Annual Report 2004 - Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has a highly restrictive law on religion that severely limits the ability of religious groups to function. The Uzbek government in recent years has also been harshly cracking down on Muslim individuals, groups, and mosques that do not conform to government policies on the practice and expression of the Islamic faith. As a result, thousands of people have been arrested, many of whom have been tortured in detention. The Commission has placed Uzbekistan on its Watch List and will continue to consider closely whether the government's record rises to a level warranting designation as a "country of particular concern," or CPC.

Since Uzbekistan gained independence in 1992, fundamental human rights, including religious freedom, have not been respected. The use of torture is widespread and, despite promises from the government to prevent it, is not declining. One human rights organization has documented 10 deaths from torture over a five-year period, including two prisoners in May 2003, one of whom was charged with belonging to a banned religious group, Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The Uzbek government continues to exercise tight control over all religious practice in the country. Despite the constitutional guarantee of the separation of religion and state, the government under President Islam Karimov strictly regulates Islamic institutions and practice through the officially-sanctioned Muslim Spiritual Board. Over the past 10 years and particularly since 1999, the Uzbek government has arrested and imprisoned, with sentences up to 20 years, thousands of Muslims who reject the state's control over religious practice. In some cases, piety alone is reported to result in state suspicion and arrest. Human rights organizations report that many of those in detention were arrested on specious drug charges or for possession of literature of a banned religious organization. Once arrested, they frequently do not have access to a lawyer or are held incommunicado for weeks and sometimes even months. Many individuals detained for offenses related to religious practice are treated especially severely in prison; those who pray or who observe Muslim religious festivals are reportedly subjected to further harassment, beatings, and even torture.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, in his report on Uzbekistan released in February 2003, concluded, "torture or similar ill-treatment is systematic" in Uzbekistan and that the "pervasive and persistent nature of torture throughout the investigative process cannot be denied." The report also pointed out that "the practice of maintaining families in a state of uncertainty with a view to punishing or intimidating them and others must be considered malicious and amounting to cruel and inhuman treatment."

The government of Uzbekistan does face threats to its security from certain groups that claim religious links, including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has used violence in the past but whose membership reportedly declined significantly as a result of U.S. military action in Afghanistan in late 2001. Uzbekistan continues to be subject to violent attacks, though the perpetrators are not often apparent. In late March 2004, 47 people were reported dead after bombings and shootouts during several days of violence in the capital Tashkent and the ancient city of Bukhara, according to the Uzbek government. A female suicide bomber was allegedly involved in one incident. During a nation-wide broadcast on March 29, the BBC reported that President Karimov suggested that unnamed foreign forces were behind the violence. Uzbek Prosecutor-General Rashid Qodirov told the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, "there are serious reasons to believe that the religious-extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) and the Wahhabis are implicated in these crimes." On March 29, Hizb ut-Tahrir issued a press release denying any involvement in the March bombings and attacks, stating that it "does not engage in terrorism, violence or armed struggle." In addition to expressing condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks, on March 30, Secretary of State Powell offered U.S. assistance to Uzbek investigations into the bombings.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in most Muslim countries, purports not to engage in violence. However, it is intolerant of other religions and has sanctioned violence in some circumstances. The group calls for the establishment of a worldwide caliphate in place of existing governments, and though it does not specify the methods it would use to attain that goal, it does, according to the State Department's 2003 Annual Report International Religious Freedom, reserve the "possibility that its own members might resort to violence" in the effort to achieve this aim. In addition, the State Department reports that the literature of the Hizb ut-Tahrir includes "strong anti-Semitic and anti-Western rhetoric." Alleged members of Hizb ut-Tahrir make up most of the thousands in prison; however, in the majority of cases, the Uzbek authorities have presented no evidence that these persons have participated in any violent acts. According to the 2003 State Department human rights report, there are an estimated 6,500 people imprisoned for political or religious reasons. Many of those arrested and imprisoned are not in fact affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir but are only accused of membership or association, sometimes due to possession of the group's literature when they are arrested. Some reportedly had the group's literature planted on them at the time of arrest. Though security threats do exist in Uzbekistan, neither these threats nor the transitional state of development of democratic institutions can excuse or explain the scope and severity of the government's ill treatment of religious believers.

The Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations passed in May 1998 severely restricts the exercise of religious freedom. Through a series of regulations that are often subjectively applied, the law imposes what the State Department calls "strict and burdensome criteria" for the registration of religious groups; criminalizes unregistered religious activity; bans the production and distribution of unofficial religious publications; prohibits minors from participating in religious organizations; prohibits private teaching of religious principles; and forbids the wearing of religious clothing in public by anyone other than clerics. As with Muslims, pastors or other members of Protestant churches have been arrested on spurious drug or other charges. Several Christian leaders have in the past reportedly been detained in psychiatric hospitals, severely beaten, and/or sentenced to labor camps. In the past year, Christian groups continued to have their churches raided, services interrupted, Bibles confiscated, and the names of adherents recorded by Uzbek officials. Several Christian leaders were imprisoned for leading religious services in private homes. Some Christian groups in Uzbekistan have been forced to operate underground.

In November 2003, the State Department did not certify that Uzbekistan was in compliance with the human rights provisions of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Agreement on military and human rights issues, and asked that the White House make that same determination. However, on December 30, 2003, the White House found that the military components of CTR outweighed Uzbekistan's lack of human rights compliance and waived the human rights requirement and released $1.2 million of military assistance to that country.

The Commission has led or participated in bilateral meetings with official Uzbek delegations at human rights meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in July and September 2003.

The Commission has recommended that U.S. aid to Uzbekistan be contingent on improvements in freedom of religion. Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004, the Congress conditioned funds to Uzbekistan on its "making substantial and continuing progress in meeting its commitments under the 'Declaration of Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Framework Between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the United States of America,' including respect for human rights and freedom of expression." By April 2004, the State Department was to certify whether or not Uzbekistan was in compliance with the specified human rights requirements of the act. H.Con.Res. 32 expresses the sense of Congress that Uzbekistan "risks designation [as a CPC] if conditions in that country do not improve." S.J. Res. 3 also expresses the sense of Congress that Uzbekistan should accelerate reforms to fulfill its human rights obligations, including religious persecution.

With regard to Uzbekistan, the Commission has recommended that the U.S. government should:

• continue to press forcefully its concern about religious freedom violations in Uzbekistan, consistent with the Uzbek government's obligations to promote respect for and observance of human rights. The U.S. government should also encourage scrutiny of these concerns in appropriate international fora such as the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe and other multilateral venues;
• press the Uzbek government to cease its abuse of those articles in its criminal code, including Articles 159 and 216, that impinge on religious freedom;
• strongly encourage the Uzbek government to establish a mechanism to review the cases of persons detained under suspicion of or charged with religious, political, or security offenses and to release those who have been imprisoned solely because of their religious beliefs, practices, or choice of religious association, as well as any others who have been unjustly detained or sentenced;
• instruct the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent to continue to every extent possible its policy of carefully monitoring the status of individuals who are arrested for alleged religious, political, and security offenses;
• press the government of Uzbekistan to discontinue its practice of excessively regulating the free practice of religion in Uzbekistan, including the oppressive regulation of the Islamic clergy and the use of registration requirements to prevent minority religious groups from practicing their faith;
• press the Uzbek government to adhere to its international commitments to abide fully by the rule of law and to protect human rights ensuring due process of law to all;
• press the Uzbek government to ensure that every religious prisoner has access to his or her family, human rights monitors, adequate medical care, and a lawyer, as specified in international human rights instruments, including Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and press the Uzbek government to ensure that all prisoners are allowed to practice their religion while in detention, to the fullest extent compatible with the specific nature of their detention;
• make contingent all U.S. assistance to the Uzbek government, with the exception of assistance to improve humanitarian conditions and advance human rights, on that government's taking a number of concrete steps to improve conditions for religious freedom for all individuals and religious groups in Uzbekistan, including: a) releasing persons imprisoned solely because of their religious beliefs, practices, or choice of religious association; b) ending torture; c) halting the arrest and detention of persons because of their religious beliefs, practices, or choice of religious association; and d) refraining from using registration requirements to prevent religious groups from practicing their faith;
• continue to develop assistance programs for Uzbekistan designed to encourage the creation of institutions of civil society that protect human rights and promote religious freedom, including training in human rights, the rule of law, and crime investigation for police and other law enforcement officials, conditioned upon fulfillment of specific goals; and
• retain the reinstated Uzbek language program at the Voice of America (VOA), use VOA and other appropriate avenues of public diplomacy to explain to the people of Uzbekistan why religious freedom is an important element of U.S. foreign policy, and continue its practice of encouraging exchanges between the people of Uzbekistan and the United States, paying attention to opportunities to include human rights advocates and religious figures in those programs.