Employee of British Embassy in Tashkent loses appeal against fine

Leonid Kudryavtsev, press secretary of the British Embassy in Tashkent

A court in Tashkent has dismissed the appeal petition of the press secretary of the British Embassy in Uzbekistan, Leonid Kudryavtsev, who was ordered to pay a large fine for holding meetings with Tashkent human rights campaigners.

On 11 August the appeal panel of the Tashkent city court examined Leonid Kudryavtsev’s appeal and ruled that the decision of the court of first instance must stand, a spokesperson for the British Embassy in Uzbekistan confirmed.

Kudryavtsev was found guilty on 15 July by the Mirzo-Ulugbek district court in Tashkent and ordered to pay a fine equivalent to 80 times the minimum wage. The total fine is 3,978,800 sums, or US$1,620 at unofficial exchange rates.

The court convicted Kudryavtsev under article 210 of Uzkekistan’s civil code - “contravening the laws on organisations holding meetings, street protests and demonstrations”.

His conviction was for holding meetings with human rights activists at the British Embassy in Tashkent.


“We have expressed our deep concern to the Uzbek authorities regarding this case,” a spokesperson from the British Embassy said after the appeal court’s decision was announced.

“We are certain that the routine contact between the Embassy and representatives of civil society which are daily occurrences in British Embassies throughout the world took place entirely in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and with Uzbek law,” he added.


Despite the conviction of Mr Kudryavtsev, the British Embassy’s statement includes a commitment to continue its work to improve the human rights situation in Uzbekistan.

The Embassy diplomat did not confirm whether or not meetings with Uzbek human rights campaigners would continue at the Embassy after the conviction of Leonid Kudryavtsev.

He cited the British Foreign Minister William Hague in saying that the defence of human rights is an integral part of the work of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its overseas Embassies.

Human rights campaigners in Tashkent described the conviction of the British Embassy employee as an example of the tactics used by the Uzbek authorities to intimidate foreign diplomats.

Condemnation of Leonid Kudryavtsev’s actions before the trial, was only possible because he is an Uzbek citizen, Tashkent human rights activist Elena Urlaeva believes.

As if to demonstrate the power of the foreign citizen’s passport and position, the Uzbek authorities were involved in a more incident with the German Ambassador in Uzbekistan, Wolfgang Noyen.

On 28 July, Tashkent authorities “detained” Noyen for one and a half hours after he came to the aid of a German company, Tasty Bread, which had been raided by Uzbek law enforcement agencies, sais local website Uzmetronom.com.

The German foreign ministry announced that the incident took place but added the correction that the Ambassador was not “held” by police, but prevented from entering Tasty Bread’s premises.


Link to the article: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=hot&cid=3&nid=17671

Uzbek Government Shuts Down Human Rights Watch Office in Uzbekistan

Tashkent City

The Uzbek government has forced Human Rights Watch to close its Uzbekistan office, Human Rights Watch said on June 9, 2011. For years the government has obstructed the organization's work by denying visas and work accreditation to staff, and has now moved to liquidate its office registration, forcing Human Rights Watch to end its presence in Tashkent after 15 years.

"With the expulsion of Human Rights Watch, the Uzbek government sends a clear message that it isn't willing to tolerate critical scrutiny of its human rights record," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But let me be clear, too: we aren't going to be silenced by this. We are as committed as ever to report on abuses in Uzbekistan."

On March 10, 2011, Human Rights Watch received information from the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan that the Justice Ministry had moved to liquidate the organization's office in Tashkent, with a first hearing apparently set for March 15. Human Rights Watch has been registered in Uzbekistan since 1996. Uzbek authorities have provided no information about the alleged grounds for the liquidation proceeding.

The Uzbek government had previously denied work accreditation to Human Rights Watch's Uzbekistan researcher, Steve Swerdlow, a decision conveyed in a letter handed to him by the Justice Ministry on Christmas Eve 2010. The letter states that the Ministry denied accreditation to Swerdlow because of Human Rights Watch's "established practice" of "ignoring Uzbekistan's national legislation" and because Swerdlow "lacks experience cooperating with Uzbekistan" and "working in the region as a whole." The letter does not specify what laws Human Rights Watch allegedly violated.

"Uzbek government claims that we ignore Uzbek legislation and ‘lack experience in the region' have been used repeatedly to deny accreditation to our staff," Roth said. "These claims are implausible and a transparently deceitful pretext to prevent us from maintaining a presence in the country."

Since 2004, the Uzbek government has interfered with the work of Human Rights Watch by denying or severely delaying visas and/or accreditation to every Human Rights Watch representative in Tashkent, and even threatened criminal charges against one staff member. The government has made it impossible for the organization to maintain a regular presence in the country since July 2008, when authorities denied accreditation to its former representative and then barred him from the country on the grounds that he "did not understand Uzbek culture or traditions." Swerdlow was allowed access to the country for only two months in 2010 before being denied work accreditation.

In the last two-and- a-half years, Uzbek authorities have further obstructed Human Rights Watch's attempts to work in Uzbekistan. In July 2009, they deported a Human Rights Watch research consultant upon her arrival in Tashkent. In December 2009, a Human Rights Watch researcher was the subject of a violent attack in the town of Karshi, which appeared to have been orchestrated by the authorities. Following the attack, police detained her and then expelled her from the city. Police in Karshi and Margilan also detained human rights defenders to prevent them from meeting with her.

Human Rights Watch's expulsion comes during a deepening human rights crisis in Uzbekistan. Well over a dozen human rights and political activists and independent journalists are in prison, torture and ill-treatment in the criminal justice system are systematic, and serious violations go unpunished. Over the last seven years, the Uzbek government has expelled nearly every international nongovernmental organization from the country. It also has consistently denied access to independent human rights monitors, such as United Nations special rapporteurs, no fewer than eight of whom have longstanding requests for invitation pending.

"The Uzbek government's persistent refusal to allow independent rights groups to carry out our work exacerbates the already dire human rights situation in the country, allowing severe abuses to go unreported, and further isolating the country's courageous and beleaguered human rights community," Roth said.

Human Rights Watch's expulsion from Tashkent also comes at a time of renewed engagement between Uzbekistan and the European Union. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso recently hosted the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, a move that was widely criticized by human rights activists and the media. While the EU has repeatedly stated that enhanced relations are contingent on progress on human rights, it has not followed through with any known policy consequences in response to Uzbekistan's consistent failure to make concrete, demonstrable progress with respect to the EU's human rights criteria.

Human Rights Watch called on the United States, and the EU and its member states  to  publicly condemn the Uzbek government's expulsion of Human Rights Watch and overall to pursue a more robust human rights policy with Tashkent.

"Uzbekistan has now unambiguously joined a short list of repressive governments that prevent Human Rights Watch from carrying out our work on the ground," Roth said. "Tashkent has apparently calculated that brutalizing the population and stonewalling international reporting are cost-free. The EU and the US need to prove this cynical calculus wrong and make sure human rights abuses will be noticed and carry clear consequences."

Human Rights Watch urged the Uzbek government to end the crackdown on civil society immediately and allow independent domestic and international human rights groups to operate without government interference. It should register groups that remain unregistered, have been liquidated or otherwise forced to stop working in Uzbekistan, and issue visas and accreditation for staff of international nongovernmental organizations.

Human Rights Watch remains committed to investigating human rights abuses in Uzbekistan and communicating its concerns to the Uzbek government.


Link to the story: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/15/uzbekistan-government-shuts-down-human-rights-watch-office

An interesting article: Medvedev To Karimov -- Leave Office Voluntarily

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov

June 14, 2011


Title sounds far-fetched, eh? But that is what a broadcast on Russia's "Kommersant FM" radio said on June 14. The radio station interviewed Sergei Zatsepilov, the general director of the "For a Just Foreign Policy" center.

Zatsepilov said on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, that Dmitry Medvedev wants to impress upon Islam Karimov the need for Uzbekistan to have a "peaceful transfer of power" and that to ensure this the SCO was willing to "take it upon itself to guarantee security."

Zatsepilov said "internal upheavals in Uzbekistan are entirely possible," especially if Karimov died in office, which could lead to a power struggle among the country's elites.

Zatsepilov said the "Arab Spring" has frightened the Uzbek authorities and caused concerns among Uzbekistan's SCO allies that similar unrest could strike Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan.

Russian TV First Channel showed Medvedev meeting with Karimov in Tashkent on June 14.

The report showed the two presidents looking very glum and Medvedev saying the year started with the Arab Spring and such events are likely to have unforeseeable consequences around world.

"We are interested that (future) events develop along scenarios that are understandable and predictable for us," Medvedev said, as Karimov sat a meter away looking very unhappy.

Russian media has recently done other reports portraying Uzbekistan and the country's leadership in an unflattering light. Karimov has always been suspicious of Russia and has again seemingly cast his lot in with the West.

But Karimov is also surely aware of the fate of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who became a victim of Russian soft power when Russian media launched an all-out blitz on Bakiev and his family in early 2010.

Angry crowds chased Bakiev from power in April of the same year.

-- Bruce Pannier for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Link to the article: http://www.rferl.org/content/medvedev_to_karimov_--_leave_office_voluntarily/24234960.html

Released Uzbek Poet Says Torture Common In Uzbek Jails

Yusuf Juma in a photo from 2005

May 24, 2011

A prominent Uzbek dissident poet recently released from prison says torture is common in Uzbek jails, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports.

Yusuf Juma, 53, who was jailed in 2008 for "resisting police and injuring two policemen" during an antigovernment protest in the city of Bukhara, was released on May 18 after serving three years of his five-year prison term. He left for the United States the next day.

Juma told RFE/RL by phone from Louisville, Kentucky, on May 23 that he was tortured in the notorious Jaslyk jail in western Uzbekistan. He said he was subjected to regular beatings and said the prison authorities kept him in solitary confinement for 15 days at a time for no apparent reason.

Starting in 2009, Juma says, the authorities took him every 15 days from Jaslyk to a prison in Nukus, the capital of Uzbekistan's autonomous republic of Karakalpakistan, and back.

"They transported me in a tiny cell within a police car on horrible roads," Juma said. The cell was so small that he was constantly bumped and jolted while traveling the 500 kilometers between Nukus and Jaslyk on "a road that cannot even be described as a road."

"The special police car with that tiny metal cell inside had no ventilation and no windows, it was torture," Juma said.

"But the real torture for me," Juma continued, "was being deprived of a pen and a sheet of paper."

Juma said that prisoners in Uzbekistan face beating and humiliation on a daily basis. He expressed his gratitude to the United States, saying he survived the Uzbek prison system and was allowed to leave Uzbekistan for the United States only because human rights organizations based there raised concerns about his fate.

Juma mentioned the names of several jailed prominent Uzbek opposition figures whom he saw while in prison, adding that he does not believe they will ever be released.

Domestic and international human rights organizations had campaigned for Juma's release.

His family alleged that Juma was tortured in prison. His wife, Gulnora, told a panel in Washington last year that prison officials had broken her husband's ribs, knocked his teeth out, and repeatedly broken his fingers to prevent him from writing.

Link to the article: http://www.rferl.org/content/released_uzbek_poet_says_torture_common_in_jails/24185243.html

U.S. Human Rights Report Chides Uzbek Government For Poor Rights Record

Secretary Clinton delivers remarks to the press on the release of the 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights 
State Department photo by Michael Gross

This year the United States Department of State issued its annual Human Rights Report later than expected on April 8. The section devoted to Uzbekistan has been as usually filled with criticisms over its human rights abuses, persecution of media workers and religious followers. Explicitly, the opening statement outlines as follows:

“Human rights problems included citizens' inability to change their government peacefully; tightly controlled electoral processes with limited opportunities for choice; instances of torture and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; incommunicado and prolonged detention; occasional life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of due process and fair trial; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; governmental control of civil society activity; restrictions on religious freedom including harassment and imprisonment of religious minority group members; restrictions on freedom of movement for citizens; violence against women; and government-compelled forced labor in cotton harvesting. Human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government were subject to physical attack, harassment, arbitrary arrest, and politically motivated prosecution and detention.”

The report specifically notes that the freedom of expression was strictly limited in the country as the law enforcement (police and security services) increasingly harassed journalists through arrests, intimidation, and imposing bureaucratic restrictions on their activities. The following statement clearly notes of how the pressure is being practiced:

“The Uzbek government’s criminal and administrative codes impose significant fines for libel and defamation and charges of libel, slander, and defamation were used to punish journalists, human rights activists, and others who criticized the president or the government.”

Additionally, government authorities continued to arrest persons arbitrarily on charges of extremist sentiments or activities and association with banned religious groups. Police and security service officers often detained and mistreated family members and close associates of suspected members of religious extremist groups and used force to get confessions and testimonies.

Specifically, report states that “authorities reportedly meted out harsher than typical treatment to individuals suspected of Islamist extremism throughout the year, especially to pretrial detainees who were allegedly members of banned religious extremist political organizations or to the Nur group. Local human rights workers reported that authorities often offered payment or other inducements to inmates to beat other inmates suspected of religious extremism.”

Although, the Uzbek law provides criminal penalties for corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively and government officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.

However, the Uzbek government in some way was praised for allowing over 100,000 Uzbek refugees fleeing Kyrgyzstan over ethnic tensions in June 2010 to stay in its territory for a certain period of time and providing food and shelter to them.

The full text of the U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report on Uzbekistan can be found at: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154489.htm

Turkish Businesses Blamed For Being a Part of “Nur” Movement in Uzbekistan

Turkish businesses are blamed for providing financial support to banned religious movements

Turkuaz supermarket

Almost 50 Turkish-owned businesses were closed in Uzbekistan to date. They are blamed for allegedly providing support to “Nur” movement, which the Uzbek government labels as a group that undermines constitutional order.

The latest incident happened on Wednesday, March 2, when a large number of law enforcement officers were brought to the “Turkuaz” supermarket in buses and the building was surrounded. After police forced the four-story supermarket to shut its doors, they rounded up all workers.

According to the source close to the Turkish embassy, the Uzbek law enforcement’s raid was described as a “terror”, in which all employees were ordered to lay down on the floor and the director of the store Vohid Gunesh was beaten in his office. Afterwards, Mr. Gunesh was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Turkish embassy employees were not allowed to visit Mr. Gunesh the same day. Most of the goods from the store were loaded into trucks and taken away.

The closings follow a similar shutdown by law enforcement authorities of a popular Turkish-owned supermarket “Mir” in Tashkent in January. Both supermarkets are owned by the same holding company Sharq-MIR.

According to the BBC’s Uzbek service, on Thursday, March 3, the state television of Uzbekistan in a special program blamed that Turkish businesses took advantage of friendly relations between two countries and of a good investment environment  in the country and have hidden taxes from authorities.

According to the Uzbek state television, Turkish-owned businesses such as “Turkuaz”, “Gunesh” and “Kaynak” have disseminated literature related to the banned “Nur” movement and are behind establishing underground religious groups.

The Nurchilar, or Nurcular, Islamic movement is banned in Uzbekistan. It was founded in 1945 by a Turkish religious scholar Said Nursi, the movement encourages the combination of educational pursuits and religious devotion.

In a TV program it was said that more than 50 Turkish-run businesses were closed down and their assets of about 400 million Uzbek soums (about $300,000) have been confiscated and business leaders were called for a criminal investigation.

The Turkish embassy in Tashkent is not commenting regarding the incidents, but the source at the embassy said that Turkish diplomats are outraged. There were some raids before, but never been conducted in such a terrible manner.

No Twitter revolt for Central Asia's closed regimes

High fees, spying, and outright blockage -- Central Asia's regimes are not short of ways to control Internet blogs and social networks which have mobilised the recent protests in the Middle East.

Strategies vary across the former Soviet republics of the region, whose regimes are largely authoritarian and where voicing dissent online can result in persecution.

In some countries, even getting online is an insurmountable challenge. Internet access at home became available in Turkmenistan only in 2008, and state provider charges $7,000 dollars per month for unlimited high speed access.

That is beyond reach for the vast majority of people in a country where monthly per capita GDP is just over 600 dollars. But even at that price, only the so-called "Turkmenet" is available: access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and popular blogging platforms like LiveJournal are blocked.

Internet cafes have existed in the isolated energy-rich state since 2007, but customers have to show their passports to use them.

Media in Turkmenistan or neighbouring Uzbekistan have not highlighted the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, where mobilisation was largely possible due to the Internet.

US Assistant Secretary Robert Blake issued a soft warning last week during a visit to the region, marking the "importance of free media and other such mechanisms" in letting young people express themselves.

"It's important for leaders in relatively closed societies to heed the lessons, to listen to the lessons of what's happened in Tunisia and in Egypt," he said in Ashgabat.

That message has been ignored in Uzbekistan, ruled for more than two decades by President Islam Karimov, where tight control over the Internet was imposed after regime changes in Ukraine and Georgia in mid-2000s.

Any Internet user can be disconnected the moment his activities are deemed dangerous for the state. But disconnection is not the worst outcome for independent thinkers in Central Asia's most populous country.

A moderator of popular forum arbuz.com, which was created abroad and is critical of the regime, recently urged visitors to be careful after "some forum participants got arrested by the security forces in Uzbekistan for participating in this forum."

"You should NEVER under ANY circumstances attempt to open the forum when you are in Uzbekistan... I want you guys all to be safe and take my message very seriously," the message stated.

Warning signs at Internet cafes in the country openly say that "Visiting websites that contain anti-constitutional, religious extremist and pornographic contents are prohibited," and independent news websites are blocked.

"Despite the existence of new communication technologies, Uzbekistan remains largely isolated from the rest of the world," said rights activist Surat Ikhramov.

Rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has named Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan among the 12 countries that are "enemies of the Internet," along with North Korea.

In Kazakhstan, the region's most prosperous country, where Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled since 1989, Internet control has tightened with a 2009 bill naming every website a media outlet.

"The situation with the freedom of expression has worsened since 2009, and in 2010 there was the biggest degradation," said Irina Mednikova, coordinator of Kazakh movement "For Free Internet".

"Every website automatically becomes a media outlet, even blogs that don't require any registration," she said.

"Very often the government uses a standard method, where media criticizing the government are accused of absurd things, and after a series of court cases, fines, and arrests they simply close."

Kazakhstan's oppositional news website Respublika, the online TV channel KPlus-TV.net, and Internet radio Inkar, have been blocked, along with blogging platforms Kub.info and Livejournal.

"We constantly observe continued pressure on independent publications, of which there are no more than ten in the whole country," Mednikova said.


Antoine Lambroschini (AFP)

Private Driving Schools To Close in Uzbekistan

Tashkent City Street

According to the RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, the government of Uzbekistan made an order that all private driving schools to close and that as of April, 1, 2011, all driver education will be conducted by Defense Ministry’s Vatanparvar (Patriot) branches similarly to the ones that existed during the Soviet’s rule.

Now, more than 130 private driving schools exist in Uzbekistan and this measure will definitely leave many people unemployed.

One owner of a driving school, Svetlana Aleksandrova, noted that “if the decision is not withdrawn, 12 of my employees will lose their jobs and you may count yourself how many people out there working in such schools will be jobless."

Driving school owners gathered in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, on January 5 and filed a complaint about the government’s decision with the Union of Entrepreneurs of Uzbekistan. The owners noted that 2011 was proclaimed by the President Islam Karimov as the "year of small businesses and private entrepreneurship" and that such measures only hurt private businesses.

The government’s reason for closing private driving schools comes from the poor skills of graduates and an increase in road accidents. Many students do not regularly attend the driving lessons and pay bribes to receive their driver's licenses. So, the real issue might be with the Traffic Security Department of the Interior Ministry where a person goes for an exam, and often, pays the department employees through their driving school teachers to get through the exam. Consequently, the responsibility should be increased at the traffic security department so that only able students can pass the tests.

Accordingly, experts say that without eliminating corruption within the Traffic Security Department, the closure of private driving schools is meaningless as road accidents due to poor driving skills will continue to occur and the government's new plan will only worsen corruption.

U.S. - Central Asia Relations 2010

In 2010, the United States intensified its efforts to broaden relations with the five Central Asia countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Private U.S. companies are involved in oil and natural gas development in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

In 2010, the United States intensified its efforts to broaden relations with the five Central Asia countries:  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 

"The United States is seeking to expand its engagement with all of the Central Asian countries on all of the issues of concern to us," said U.S. Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake, Jr.  "That means not only our common interests in Afghanistan but also how to expand trade and investment, and also how to work to improve human rights and democracy throughout Central Asia."

The U.S. is working with these countries to help support democratization and respect for human rights, and to promote open trade and free markets while helping to establish strong East-West and Central Asia-South Asia trade links.  The U.S. is also helping to reduce trafficking in persons, arms and illegal drugs, and cooperating to combat terrorism and nuclear proliferation, all of which have a destabilizing effect on society. 

The United States has tailored U.S. policy in Central Asia to the varying characteristics of each state. In Kazakhstan, we have helped to secure and eliminate Soviet-era nuclear and biological weapons, materials and facilities, signed a bilateral science and technology cooperation agreement, and urged the government to implement its National Human Rights Action Plan.

Private U.S. companies are involved in oil and natural gas development in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.  We have significantly increased U.S. humanitarian, health, and education assistance to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, hard hit by the 2008 global economic down-turn.

The U.S. has strongly supported Kyrgyzstan’s recent transition to parliamentary democracy, and donated $100 million following the ethnic violence in the south last June to help to support stabilization, humanitarian needs, police reform and reconciliation as well as move the democratic processes forward.  

We also support the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline, or TAPI, because, as Assistant Secretary Blake said, "We believe there is a great strategic logic in trying to link the oil and gas reserves of Turkmenistan with the large and growing energy markets of South Asia," he said.  At the same time, we continue to press the government of Turkmenistan to improve its human rights record.

We have deepened our economic and security relationship with Uzbekistan, while continuing to urge the Government to make progress on human rights and democratic reforms.

The United States appreciates the Central Asia nations' support of the multinational mission in Afghanistan.


Link to the article: http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/US---Ce-ntral-Asia-Relations-2010-112791629.html

Uzbek human rights group claims 39 died of torture in prisons

MOSCOW (AP) — At least 39 people have died of torture in prisons of authoritarian Uzbekistan this year amid a spiraling crackdown on religious groups and government critics, a respected rights group said Thursday.

The Independent Human Rights Defenders Group said the figure was based on information from the victims' families and former inmates. It added that the actual number of such deaths could be higher, but many are not reported because the families fear official reprisals for contacting rights activists or reporters.

In 2009, the group registered 20 prison deaths by torture.

Prison authorities often return bodies to relatives in sealed coffins to conceal torture, the report said. Police officers force the families to ignore Muslim burial rites and bury the unopened coffins, it said.

"They bring the bodies late at night, tell the relatives to bury them at dawn and then patrol their houses for several days after the funeral," the group's chairman, Surat Ikramov, told The Associated Press.

Muslim law prescribes the washing of bodies and burials in a shroud.

Uzbek officials were not available for comment.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in 2007 that Uzbek authorities routinely beat prisoners and used electric shocks, asphyxiation and sexual humiliation to extract information and confessions. A forensic report commissioned by the British Embassy concluded that in 2002 two jailed rights activists were boiled to death.

Dozens of rights and opposition activists have been jailed in Uzbekistan in recent years.

Worried by the revival of Muslim traditions and the threat of radical Islamism from neighboring Afghanistan, the government of former Communist boss Islam Karimov has for years suppressed peaceful Muslims who practice their faith outside government-approved mosques.

Ikramov said the number of peaceful Muslims that serve time in Uzbek jails approaches 10,000. "The number is always rising," he said.

His group said this year alone 370 Uzbeks, including dozens of women, have been convicted and jailed on trumped-up charges of membership in radical Islamic groups. It said the defendants are routinely tortured before they face closed trials. Once in jail, they face beatings and abuse from other inmates encouraged by prison authorities, the group said.

Other religious groups such as Protestants also face constant pressure in Uzbekistan, and several pastors have been convicted and jailed in recent years for allegedly preaching hatred against Muslims.

Karimov has ruled the predominantly Muslim nation of 28 million since before the 1991 Soviet collapse. His government had a falling out with the U.S. and other Western countries after a brutal suppression of an uprising in the eastern town of Andijan in May 2005.

Witnesses and rights groups said government troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in Andijan. The government said 187 died and blamed Islamists for stoking the violence.