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Survivors of Uzbekistan massacre may be sent home to torture, UN warns
By GRAEME SMITH
06/24/05 "Globe
& Mail" - MOSCOW -- At least 29 people who escaped the massacre in Andijan will be sent back to their home country within a week, Kyrgyzstan's top prosecutor said yesterday, defying international pressure to protect the survivors.
The announcement was made one day after United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he remained "seriously concerned" about whether the Uzbek survivors camped inside the Kyrgyz border would be forcibly returned.
It also came after comments from Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who released a statement saying the Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan could be tortured if they are returned to Uzbek authorities, who are accused of killing hundreds of protesters on May 13.
"There are well-founded reasons to believe that asylum seekers in Kyrgyzstan . . . may face an imminent risk of grave human-rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial and summary executions, if returned to Uzbekistan," Ms. Arbour said.
Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General Azimbek Beknazarov was less sympathetic to the asylum seekers.
"These are criminals, they killed people," Mr. Beknazarov told reporters in Bishkek yesterday. "They need to be punished."
The group of about 450 asylum seekers are what is left of thousands who tried to escape the bloodbath in Andijan's main square last month, when troops opened fire on a demonstration.
Uzbekistan has been trying to suppress reports of the events, and has already taken dozens of people from the border camp.
In letters addressed last week to the United Nations and the Kyrgyz government, obtained and translated by The Globe and Mail, the survivors begged for help.
"We are seriously worried by the latest actions of Kyrgyz law-enforcement bodies," the survivors wrote, in neat cursive with a blue ballpoint pen.
"This is a violent abuse of the human rights of the people, who suffered losses, who lost dear ones and who were humiliated by their own government."
© Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc
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