Uzbeks flee Kyrgyzstan for Russia

An estimated 20,000-25,000 Uzbeks have emigrated, most to Russia, with one prominent Uzbek leader suggesting that the real number may be two or three times higher. (Sam Kahn/GlobalPost)

( / )

•  
• 1 of 9
• ››

OSH, Kyrgyzstan — A month after ethnic clashes devastated southern Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeks are leaving the region in droves, citing police harassment and widespread discrimination.

An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 Uzbeks have emigrated, most of them to Russia, with one prominent Uzbek leader suggesting that the real number may be two or three times higher. Uzbeks lacking the means to emigrate suffer from constant police harassment and intimidation.

Many of the Uzbeks interviewed said that the threat of police beatings and shakedowns has made them afraid to travel outside of their neighborhoods.

“If I have the money to go to Russia of course I’ll go,” said Baburjan, an ethnic Uzbek man who, like many interviewed, declined to give his family name. “There’s no life for Uzbeks here. No one can provide us with security.”

Uzbeks in Osh, the principal city in the south, have been regularly denied access to medical facilities. As the Osh city center regains vibrancy, Uzbek stores remain smashed and looted, the owners unable to reopen or, in some instances, even to return to the site of their businesses. 

Mistrust had long run high between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, with Kyrgyz accusing Uzbeks of hoarding wealth and of secretly desiring secession from Kyrgyzstan and with Uzbeks complaining of chronic discrimination by Kyrgyz authorities. But the outbreak of violence in early June caught both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks by surprise.

“We couldn’t have imagined this in our wildest dreams,” said Nazira Khasanova, an Uzbek woman whose house in Osh’s Cheryomushki neighborhood was destroyed in the fighting.

Clashes broke out on the evening of June 10 when Uzbeks and Kyrgyz scuffled inside an Osh casino. It then spread rapidly to neighborhoods throughout the city. By the next morning, several thousand Kyrgyz had travelled to Osh from their villages in surrounding regions to protect Kyrgyz from what they believed to be an Uzbek attack. The Kyrgyz were met by armed resistance from some Uzbeks, but in four days of clashes Uzbeks had the worst of it.

Estimates of the numbers killed varied, with an official tally of 316 dead. Some believe the real total runs into the thousands.

Police raids have been the greatest source of aggrievement for Uzbeks. Uzbek men, detained on charges related to the June violence, are frequently beaten in detention, denied access to a lawyer and released only after paying large amounts of money to police officers. 

Reports are widespread that police regularly extort money from Uzbeks traveling to the center of the city or to the airport.

One elderly Uzbek man told Human Rights Watch researchers that police placed a gas mask over his face and turned off the air in an effort to make him confess to a role in instigating the June violence. Another Uzbek man showed bruises from where police had hung him upside down while they beat him with rubber batons.

At least one Uzbek man, Khairullo Amanbaev, died from injuries suffered while in police custody. Human Rights Watch said it had collected evidence of police brutality against Uzbeks in over 30 additional cases.

“We’re scared that they’re taking our sons,” said an Uzbek woman from Uzgen, who asked not to be identified. “We want to hide our sons, to send them to Russia or Uzbekistan.”

Kyrgyzstan’s police and military are dominated by ethnic Kyrgyz with the vast majority of Uzbeks paying fines to avoid mandatory military service. Ethnic Uzbeks comprise around 15 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s population with southern Kyrgyzstan almost equally divided between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.

The intent of local Kyrgyz police remains an open question. With abuses documented in multiple police departments in southern Kyrgyzstan over a period of several weeks, Paul Quinn-Judge, the International Crisis Group’s Central Asia project director, said there appeared to be a degree of planning aimed at making Uzbeks’ continued residence in Kyrgyzstan unendurable.

“It seems to be a policy,” said Quinn-Judge. “It’s not the work of a few random angry cops.”

Alisher Sabirov, a four-term parliamentarian who is one of the few nationally-known Uzbek leaders still in Kyrgyzstan, said the abuses more likely stemmed from the anger and vindictiveness of individual policemen in southern Kyrgyzstan, operating outside of the national government’s control.

“I don’t think it’s a plan,” Sabirov said. “It’s based on individual, personal vendettas. One factor is police in the Kara-Suu department taking revenge [for the death of a police chief during the June violence]. There’s also an economic factor, with police rackets targeting rich Uzbeks.”

Police in Osh and the surrounding area uniformly denied discrimination against Uzbeks, saying that Kyrgyz have been detained as well as Uzbeks. An investigation has been opened by Osh police into the death of Amanbaev.

In private conversations, several policemen pinned the June violence on ethnic Uzbeks, who, they claimed, committed atrocities against Kyrgyz, including the rape and mutilation of Kyrgyz women, in an attempt to drive Kyrgyz out of the south.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia/100725/kyrgyzstan-uzbek-humanitarian-ngo-human-rights-watch