REPORTER TELLS HIS STORY OF DETENTION IN UZBEKISTAN
By Jeremy Reynalds (08/17/05)
A reporter for an international news service detained and then deported by Uzbek authorities upon his arrival at Tashkent Airport has told his story.
Forum 18 News Service Central Asia Correspondent Igor Rotar was deported from Uzbekistan on Aug. 13.
Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html).
According to his account for Forum 18, Rotar was detained for two days at Tashkent airport by representatives of the Uzbek authorities, who initially tried to force him to leave the country "voluntarily" and at his own expense, thus avoiding an official deportation.
Rotar told his story in an article published by Forum 18.
He said his detention began on Aug. 11 when his name came up on a computer list of "undesirable" persons at the border control post. This list, Rotar wrote for Forum 18, was compiled by the Uzbek National Security Service (NSS) secret police. Rotar said his name had been on that list for at least three years, but until Aug. 11 he had nonetheless still been allowed into Uzbekistan as Forum 18 News Service's Central Asia Correspondent "after a telephone call was made to the NSS."
Rotar said his detention began when he was taken to an area of the airport used by passengers just passing through the country. He added that although there was a telephone there, he was not allowed to contact anyone "even the embassy of my own country, Russia. According to Uzbek laws, a detained foreigner has the right to contact his embassy."
According to Rotar, "The Uzbek authorities tried to keep me completely isolated, so both the airport workers and ordinary airline passengers were forbidden to associate with me. In answer to my requests to be allowed ... to contact other people immediately, and also to be told the reason for my detention, the border guards replied that my case was being decided ‘at the highest level' and that they could not do anything, explaining that it was ‘a matter of politics.'
When Rotar objected about the enforced isolation, he said he was told that officially he didn't exist. "The rather odd reasoning behind this statement was revealed by their words, ‘You have not crossed the border. Formally, you are not on the territory of Uzbekistan.'"
The border guards reiterated, Rotar wrote for Forum 18, that "it would be better if you bought a ticket and left the country of your own free will." However, Rotar said he told Uzbek authorities that he would only leave the country if he was officially deported.
Rotar said he began to quickly feel that there was a distinct purpose to the enforced isolation to which he was subjected: to break him down psychologically and force him to buy a ticket out of Uzbekistan.
He said that on the second day of his detention in the airport, he was taken into another building, where he was met by two men, claiming to be Immigration Department officials.
"However, I was quickly convinced that these men were really officers of the NSS secret police," Rotar wrote, "as they were very well acquainted with the details of my personal life in Tashkent, where I had lived for two years ... My two new acquaintances immediately began to use classic secret police tactics towards me. One of them, who called himself Andrei Andreyevich, played the role of the polite ‘good cop,' whilst the other, who called himself Alisher, was the ‘bad cop.'"
Alisher told Rotar that he would beat him up if he didn't buy a ticket and leave Uzbekistan. "I told him that he could, of course, do this," Rotar said, "but that this behavior would seriously damage the image of Uzbekistan. He then raised his hand threateningly against me, but then pushed my shoulder in a seemingly friendly way."
Andreyevich tried to psychologically pressure Rotar, saying "it's quite pointless being obstinate, nobody has any interest in you and no one is even trying to help you. So just behave yourself, buy a ticket and depart."
Rotar said he later discovered that Andreyevich's statement was a complete lie.
Rotar reported in his article for Forum 18 that he was told by Andreyevich that he and his "bad cop" colleague were being humane, and that this was the reason why they had not let him enter Uzbekistan.
According to Rotar, Andreyevich said, "If you had ended up on the territory of Uzbekistan, then we would have arrested you and brought a criminal charge against you. Our humane president has abolished the death penalty, so we would not have executed you, but you would have spent a very long time in prison."
That puzzled Rotar, so he said he asked what he could be placed in prison for as he had not violated any Uzbek laws. "My new ‘immigration official' acquaintance replied that I would find that out if I crossed the border. My new acquaintances tried constantly to persuade me to buy a ticket and leave Uzbekistan, while I continued to insist on official deportation. Andreyevich stated that they could not do that, as officially I had not crossed the Uzbek border."
Rotar said he told his two interrogators that he would continue living in the transit hall until he was allowed to enter Uzbekistan. "I am a Russian citizen and our countries have an agreement that visas are not required," he said. "Consequently you cannot refuse to allow me into Uzbekistan."
Rotar said he was told by Andreyevich that he would never be allowed into the country. "By your libelous articles you have done great harm to Uzbekistan. The Uzbek nation's patience is exhausted," Rotar said Andreyevich told him.
When authorities saw that Rotar would not buy his own departure ticket, he wrote that they took him back to the departure section of the airport. About a half hour later he was given an official order of deportation, and placed on the airplane. Rotar said he was not asked to pay anything.
According to Rotar's account written for Forum 18, the deportation order was "interesting."
Rotar said, "It's a pre-printed Certificate of Deportation, filled in with my passport details and stating that I arrived from Bishkek at 9.50 on 11 August. Very interesting is the part of the form which asks the authorities to give a reason why ‘the holder of the document was refused entry to the Republic of Uzbekistan.' Instead of a reason, there is the ... statement, ‘Entry to the Republic of Uzbekistan closed." It was signed on 12 August by Sergeant B. F. Isakov."
Nobody gave Rotar a reason for his deportation, he wrote.
"One official asked me if I knew why I was being deported, and when I began to guess at a reason, the official stopped me and said ‘just say yes or no.' I was willing to be deported over land to nearby Kazakhkstan, but an official told me that ‘we're not deporting you to Norway, or to England, but to Russia.' I explained to officials that detaining and deporting me would only attract negative attention to Uzbekistan, but was told that the country didn't have specialists who could think like that."
Rotar said that while he had been deported from Uzbekistan in 1991, when he was a correspondent for the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, he was not given a deportation order.
Rotar thanked a variety of people and organizations who had assisted in his release. They included, he said, Forum 18 News Service, Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, several foreign ministries, and a variety of news organizations.
Forum 18 reported that the Uzbek authorities have been attempting to stifle independent media outlets, demonstrated by their "harassment" of the Western non-governmental organization "Internews" (www.internews.org/articles/2005/20050809_eurasianet_uzbek.htm).
According to Forum 18, "Igor Rotar has earned widespread praise for his consistently informed reporting of the religious freedom situation in Uzbekistan."
His most recent article is available at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=626
For more background, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=546
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