Kazaks Refuse to Extradite Uzbek Refugees
Kazaks Refuse to Extradite Uzbek Refugees
As Kazakstan prepares to chair the OSCE in 2010, NBCentralAsia observers say the authorities are taking a softer line on refugees from Uzbekistan.
On September 26. Gelya Rerikh, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, in Kazakhstan, announced that Hasan Temirov, an Uzbek citizen wanted on charges of instigating terrorist acts in Tashkent and Bukhara in 1999 and 2004, would not be handed over to the authorities Tashkent.
“On September 12, our organisation gave Hasan Temirov refugee status, and we have already informed the Kazak government that a person deemed to be a refugee cannot be sent to a country where they might be in danger, under the refugee convention ratified by Kazakstan,” she said.
Temirov entered Kazakstan illegally in May this year, and the following month he was arrested for breaching passport regulations and placed in pre-trial detention by the National Security Committee. Tashkent was notified about his detention.
Temirov had been in hiding in the Tashkent region for the past four years, living in a basement and never going out.
The Uzbek authorities had placed him on their international wanted list.
This summer, the Uzbek prosecution service sent the Kazaks a request for Temirov’s extradition, but this took longer than expected because local police spent three months conducting their own investigation.
On September 27, Temirov was freed from detention, and the Kazak prosecutor’s office informed the Uzbeks and the UNHCR that as a refugee, he would not be extradited.
Ninel Fokina, head of the Helsinki Committee in Almaty, believes prosecutors took this decision after running a “very careful” check on the case file.
“I think Uzbekistan was unable to furnish enough material implicating Temirov,” she said.
Other NBCentralAsia commentators note that local media have in the past reported cases where refugees have been “unofficially” extradited to Uzbekistan.
They cite the case of a number of refugees abducted by the Uzbek security service in the southern Kazak city of Shymkent in 2005. With reference to this case, the National Security Service of Uzbekistan announced that nine individuals were captured inside the country, in Tashkent region.
Ruhiddin Farhutdinov, who was accused of religious terrorism and extremism after fleeing from Andijan following the violence in May 2005, was detained in Kazakstan in November that year and extradited to his home country without a pretrial investigation. Another refugee, Khurshid Shamsutdinov, disappeared without a trace in Almaty in November 2007.
According to Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan, “There are unwritten agreements between the Kazak and Uzbek secret services under which Astana can hand Uzbek nationals over without making it public, under certain circumstances.”
Other analysts say the situation is looking more favourable for the Uzbek refugees, in view of Kazakstan’s preparations to take over the OSCE chair in 2010.
“At an OSCE foreign ministers’ conference in Madrid [in 2007, when Kazakstan was awarded the chairmanship], Kazak foreign minister Marat Tazhin made a public pledge to pursue reforms in the sphere of human rights,” said an NBCentralAsia media-watcher in Kazakstan.
This analyst, who did not want to be named, said the responsibility of heading this powerful European organisation required the Kazak authorities to comply with all its international obligations, including a positive approach to Uzbek refugees residing in Kazakstan.
(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
On September 26. Gelya Rerikh, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, in Kazakhstan, announced that Hasan Temirov, an Uzbek citizen wanted on charges of instigating terrorist acts in Tashkent and Bukhara in 1999 and 2004, would not be handed over to the authorities Tashkent.
“On September 12, our organisation gave Hasan Temirov refugee status, and we have already informed the Kazak government that a person deemed to be a refugee cannot be sent to a country where they might be in danger, under the refugee convention ratified by Kazakstan,” she said.
Temirov entered Kazakstan illegally in May this year, and the following month he was arrested for breaching passport regulations and placed in pre-trial detention by the National Security Committee. Tashkent was notified about his detention.
Temirov had been in hiding in the Tashkent region for the past four years, living in a basement and never going out.
The Uzbek authorities had placed him on their international wanted list.
This summer, the Uzbek prosecution service sent the Kazaks a request for Temirov’s extradition, but this took longer than expected because local police spent three months conducting their own investigation.
On September 27, Temirov was freed from detention, and the Kazak prosecutor’s office informed the Uzbeks and the UNHCR that as a refugee, he would not be extradited.
Ninel Fokina, head of the Helsinki Committee in Almaty, believes prosecutors took this decision after running a “very careful” check on the case file.
“I think Uzbekistan was unable to furnish enough material implicating Temirov,” she said.
Other NBCentralAsia commentators note that local media have in the past reported cases where refugees have been “unofficially” extradited to Uzbekistan.
They cite the case of a number of refugees abducted by the Uzbek security service in the southern Kazak city of Shymkent in 2005. With reference to this case, the National Security Service of Uzbekistan announced that nine individuals were captured inside the country, in Tashkent region.
Ruhiddin Farhutdinov, who was accused of religious terrorism and extremism after fleeing from Andijan following the violence in May 2005, was detained in Kazakstan in November that year and extradited to his home country without a pretrial investigation. Another refugee, Khurshid Shamsutdinov, disappeared without a trace in Almaty in November 2007.
According to Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan, “There are unwritten agreements between the Kazak and Uzbek secret services under which Astana can hand Uzbek nationals over without making it public, under certain circumstances.”
Other analysts say the situation is looking more favourable for the Uzbek refugees, in view of Kazakstan’s preparations to take over the OSCE chair in 2010.
“At an OSCE foreign ministers’ conference in Madrid [in 2007, when Kazakstan was awarded the chairmanship], Kazak foreign minister Marat Tazhin made a public pledge to pursue reforms in the sphere of human rights,” said an NBCentralAsia media-watcher in Kazakstan.
This analyst, who did not want to be named, said the responsibility of heading this powerful European organisation required the Kazak authorities to comply with all its international obligations, including a positive approach to Uzbek refugees residing in Kazakstan.
(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
