Uzbekistan: Punitive Treatment

Inmates of a drug abuse centre in Jizak in central Uzbekistan are subjected to regular beatings, according to many eyewitnesses.

“It’s a real concentration camp in there,” a drug addict at the centre told IWPR when he was allowed out briefly to buy bread in a nearby shop. “They treat us like criminals. The main medicine is the police truncheon, handcuffs and swearing. It’s impossible to escape.”

The allegations of ill-treatment are all the more plausible because the story was publicised by outside observers as well as inmates of the drug centre.

Residents living close to the clinic have complained to the local authorities about the scenes they have witnessed from a nearby apartment block

“From the second floor, you can see the patients being beaten with truncheons, even at night,” the residents said in a letter to their “mahalla” or official neighbourhood committee. “They are forced to sit for hours under the blazing sun, and we can’t sleep because of their screams. We demand that you intervene.”

A woman who lives in the apartment block told IWPR that on June 18 she personally saw both uniformed police and medical staff beating up a young patient in the street, “He was covered in blood, they were beating him with truncheons and kicking him in the stomach. When he lost consciousness, he was dragged into the hospital. These beatings are not just seen by us – our children see them as well,” she said.

Most of the people at the centre are there because they have been arrested on drugs charges. Because they are forcibly confined there for treatment, police are posted to stop them escaping. Other patients have come here voluntarily, and while they are allowed to leave the building they are still legally barred from discharging themselves – only a doctor can do that.

A doctor at the clinic – who spoke to IWPR on condition of anonymity – admitted that violence was used routinely against inmates, but he denied that medical staff were involved.

“We don’t torture them. The police do,” said the doctor. “We cannot intervene as the police are in charge of this department. And while the patients do make official complaints, the staff lock the letters in a safe so that nothing comes of them.”

A policeman who worked at the clinic – again, he did not want to be named - was candid about the abuse. “We beat them to make them obedient and stop them running away,” he said. “But sometimes we just do it for fun.”

Patients and relatives told IWPR that anyone who tried to escape was likely to get a severe beating.

The health department for Jizak region said it was unaware of allegations that physical force had been used against drug patients. Deputy department head Pulat Boboev said it was the first time he had heard such a claim.

The chief doctor responsible for drug abuse cases in the region, Nodira Odilova, dismissed talk of torture out of hand, saying, “We do work in close cooperation with the police, but our patients enjoy full civil rights - and rumours of torture are spread only by ignorant people.”

Odilova explained that the police presence provided round-the-clock security in line with government regulations.

One doctor who recently lost his job at the clinic and wished to remain anonymous reported cases where patients were taken away at night to a police station, and pressured to sign false testimonies. “After these interrogations, most drug addicts will admit to any crimes,” he said.

The Jizak clinic has been at the centre of another controversy, in which a local human rights activist was assigned there for treatment. Muidin Kurbanov was charged with drug abuse in 1999 – an accusation other human rights workers say was fabricated to stop him speaking out.

Although he was not confined at the clinic, he was put on a register and was supposed to turn up for treatment. Nothing more was heard – until it transpired that someone at the clinic was altering documents to make it seem that he was regularly attending a course of treatment for an alleged addiction.

The British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, showed an interest in Kurbanov’s case and visited Jizak in spring 2004 to find out what was going on.

Medical staff initially turned down the ambassador’s request to see Kurbanov’s medical records, but eventually they handed them over. The documents indicate that the patient attended the clinic every month for a period of more than five years, gave blood samples and was prescribed medicine.

“That is not true,” insisted Kurbanov. “I was here only once in 1999, but they were filling in my record themselves until April 2004 - faking my signature over five years.”