US-based Human Rights Watch said on Friday the lives of Uzbek refugees suspected of having been seized in Kyrgyzstan and returned to their homeland were in danger.
Kyrgyzstan is under fire from the West over reports that refugees who fled to its territory to escape a crackdown by troops in neighbouring Uzbekistan were being forcibly sent home.
"In recent weeks, Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies have detained a number of asylum seekers as part of what the government calls counterterrorism sweeps, which are believed to be carried out in close consultation with Uzbek security forces," HRW said in a statement.
"We're afraid these men have been handed over to Uzbek authorities and that their lives are in danger," HRW said, adding it knew of at least four such cases in the past week.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan denied the allegations. "We don't have a problem with refugees in the south. ... We have seen no reports of anyone being deported," said Toktogul Kakchekeyev, a Kyrgyz General Prosecutor's office spokesman.
"We do have bilateral agreements on joint efforts against extremists and crime... But accusations against Kyrgyzstan or that Uzbek security forces are operating there and violating human rights are untrue."
Hundreds of people fled the Uzbek town of Andizhan into Kyrgyzstan in May 2005. Witnesses said they saw troops kill hundreds of men, women and children in Andizhan when they fired on a crowd which had gathered in the centre of town.
Uzbekistan has pressed Kyrgyzstan to return them, saying they are criminals. The West believes Uzbek refugees may face torture and execution at home.
The US embassy in Bishkek said this week it knew of at least two refugees seized in Kyrgyzstan and sent to a detention centre in Andizhan. Uzbekistan denied the statement.
"In the Andizhan remand prison there are no Uzbek citizens who allegedly disappeared in the southern Kyrgyz town of Osh," Ismail Pulatov, head of the prison, told Uzbekistan's official www.press-uz.info Web site. There are about 90 registered Uzbek refugees in southern Kyrgyzstan, according to their lawyer.
HRW said it feared that if the four it knew of were returned to Uzbekistan "they could be forced to publicly incriminate themselves and others as part of the Uzbek government's campaign to shift blame away from government troops for the deaths of hundreds of people in the Andizhan massacre."
Uzbekistan says 187 people died in the Andizhan clashes and that most of the victims were armed extremists whose aim was to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic caliphate.
Comments
Comments are closed.