Horrifying new details of systematic torture and extrajudicial executions by the Uzbek authorities have been published to mark the sixth anniversary of the massacre of demonstrators in Andijan.
The reports show that the killings of May 13 2005 – when unarmed protesters were gunned down en masse by armoured cars and snipers – was followed by a campaign of medieval torture by local security forces, which continues to today.
One report giving copious medical details of torture, recorded by a witness who worked examining corpses at the Andijan city morgue between September 2005 and February 2007 and corroborated by other sources, was published last month by the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia.
The witness examined 500 bodies, of which “more than 300 had gunshot wounds and bore evidence of having been recently tortured”, the Association stated. “Most of the bodies belonged to men, but there were also about 20 to 25 women as well as six children.”
The bodies were brought in by officers of the SNB secret police with cards bearing only an identification numbers but no names. The SNB monitored the bodies at all times, personnel were ordered to conceal evidence of gunshot and stabbing wounds and compelled to falsify the causes of death. No official records were kept about the bodies, the report stated.
The witness, a medical school graduate, was himself arrested and tortured after the Andijan massacre and then ordered to work in the morgue. His duties included taking bullets out of bodies, sampling tissue for histological examination and examining the condition of bodies.
He concluded that “before death, [the victims] were held without water or food, in unsanitary conditions. There were marks of violence of various types and degrees on their bodies, including evidence of rape.”
The report’s editors interviewed the man a year ago, and “the allegations were so grave that we were sceptical about their veracity at first”. They found corroboration from other sources, including photographs and witness statements provided by human rights activists based in Kyrgyzstan and journalists.
Further details of extrajudicial killings and torture have been published separately by a new campaign group, Andijan – Justice and Revival, formed by refugees from Andijan living in the USA and Europe.
A report compiled by Bakhtiyor Mukhtarov, a refugee from Andijan based in Finland, lists by name 241 people serving prison sentences of five to 21 years after participating in or witnessing the demonstration in the city on 13 May 2005.
It also details the cases of 15 missing people, and nine whose bodies were returned to relatives with wounds including badly-mangled male corpses with the sexual organs missing and others with bullet wounds, multiple bruising, open and closed fractures, cuts and stab wounds and removed nails on fingers and toes.
Alisher Ilkhamov, research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told Emerging Markets, said: “Two things have changed. First, the Andijan refugees are themselves getting organised and speaking out. Second, a great deal of information is now available about the torture and disappearances perpetrated by the security forces not only in May 2005 but subsequently. This is an ongoing issue for Europe.”