Unifeed
KYRGYZSTAN / ONE YEAR ADVANCER
STORY: KYRGYZSTAN / ONE YEAR ADVANCER
TRT: 3.00
SOURCE OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: RUSSIAN / UZBEK/ ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27, 30 MAY 2011, OSH, SOUTHERN KYRGYZSTAN / FILE
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE JUNE 12 2010 / INTERNEWS
1. Tracking shot, views of smoking buildings, burnt out cars and houses from a moving car
27, 30 MAY 2011, OSH, SOUTHERN KYRGYZSTAN
2. Wide shot, Osh City, southern Kyrgyzstan
3. Various shots, police in Osh city market
4. Various shots, consultations at Human Rights Advocacy Centre, Osh
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Director of Centre, Zhenisbek Toroev:
“Law enforcement agencies have for a long time used ill treatment and torture. We have been raising these issues for at least 10 years. Torture was made a criminal offence in 2003 but no one has ever been prosecuted so that shows how the system works.”
6. Wide shot, Farrakh Gapirov in his garden
7. Various shots, Farrakh Gapirov with family having tea
8. SOUNDBITE (Uzbek) Farrakh Gapirov, torture victim:
“When I was detained I felt like I would be killed and murdered in that place. I just prayed to Allah. I could not think of anything else as I was in a deep state of shock.”
9. Med shot, Gapirov-s lawyer looking at photos of his torture
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatiana Tomina, defense lawyer:
“In my practice there were only 2 acquittals out of 18 cases relating to mass violence. In all the other cases the judge didn’t take into account that the confessions were extracted under.”
11. Various shots, Osh city police department drill
12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mazat Orozbaev Head of Osh City Police department:
“This is all lies. After committing crime no one wants to be arrested and detained so that is why they make these thing up. No single complaint has been confirmed against my police officer.”
13. Various shots, meeting between human rights NGOs, UN human rights office and public prosecutor
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Chiara Pallanch, UN Human Rights Office Osh:
“It is definitely a welcome first step in the right direction. However there is still a long way to go. Human rights violations are still to be addressed and the fight against impunity, it has probably just begun.”
15. Wide shot, Osh City, southern Kyrgyzstan
One year after hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured in inter ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, concern is mounting over the way the authorities are conducting criminal investigations into the tragic June events.
More than 400 people were killed in the fighting between ethnic Uzbek and ethnic Kyrgyz that rocked the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad between 10 and 14 June last year, forcing thousands to temporarily flee their homes.
Hundreds of people had been detained following police investigations into those responsible for the violence.
But the struggle for accountability has been marred; police are extracting confessions from detainees under ill treatment or at worst torture, denying immediate access to a lawyer and in some cases extorting money in return for dropping charges; Allegations that the police firmly deny. The courts have repeatedly failed to respond when defendants and lawyers claim due process is not being guaranteed.
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Director of Centre, Zhenisbek Toroev:
“Law enforcement agencies have for a long time used ill treatment and torture. We have been raising these issues for at least 10 years. Torture was made a criminal offence in 2003 but no one has ever been prosecuted so that shows how the system works.”
Torture was made a criminal offense in 2003 but no one had ever been tried for practicing it. So that shows how the system works.
The Human Rights Advocacy centre provides free legal aid to the Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities and has seen a spike in complaint about human rights violations since the June violence.
22 year old Farrakh Gapirov was arrested in June 2010 and forced to confess under duress to participating in the violence. He was tied to a table, beaten on his genitals and on the soles of his feet with a truncheon.
SOUNDBITE (Uzbek) Farrakh Gapirov, torture victim:
“When I was detained I felt like I would be killed and murdered in that place. I just prayed to Allah. I could not think of anything else as I was in a deep state of shock.”
Fortunately his lawyer, Tatiana Tomina, funded by the UN human rights office, got a medical certificate and took photos of the bruises to his body. Usually she said courts don’t accept evidence that confessions were extracted under torture but exceptionally in the case of Gapirov the judge did and he was acquitted.
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatiana Tomina, defense lawyer:
“In my practice there were only 2 acquittals out of 18 cases relating to mass violence. In all the other cases the judge didn’t take into account that the confessions were extracted under.”
All allegations of ill treatment and torture were strongly denied by the head of Osh city police,
SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mazat Orozbaev Head of Osh City Police department:
“This is all lies. After committing crime no one wants to be arrested and detained so that is why they make these thing up. No single complaint has been confirmed against my police officer.”
The newly appointed public prosecutor for Osh province, Aibek Turganbaev, concedes however that NGO complaints were “not without justification”.
Following the recent decision of the General Prosecutor on the investigations of complaints of ill treatment / torture, he is signing a memorandum of understanding with leading human rights NGOs with the support of the UN human rights office (OHCHR), which will pave the way for closer cooperation with the aim of preventing the use of torture by the police by holding them accountable.
A development welcomed by Chiara Pallanch from the UN human rights mission to Osh, who says that justice and accountability are key for reconciliation efforts and are the basis for long term stability within the country.
SOUNDBITE (English) Chiara Pallanch, UN Human Rights Office Osh:
“It is definitely a welcome first step in the right direction. However there is still a long way to go. Human rights violations are still to be addressed and the fight against impunity, it has probably just begun.”
Farrakh Gapirov has lodged a complaint of ill treatment with the public prosecutor, who has opened a criminal case against Osh City Police.
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