Uznews, Tashkent, 18 Sep 2008 – Eight human rights activists from Jizak and Namangan spent four hours today in Tashkent’s Mirzo Ulugbek district police department for attempting to discuss the human rights situation in the country.
Human rights activists knew from their previous experiences that police would raid their meeting and might even detain some of them.
The chairman of the Committee to Release Prisoners of Conscience, Bahodyr Namazov, told Uznews.net that as soon as human rights activists from Tashkent, Jizak and Namangan had gathered in a hired house police arrived there for passport check and four activists from Jizak and Namangan each had been taken to the police department.
“It is clear why they did it,” Namazov said. “The authorities needed to disrupt our meeting and prevent people from discussing their plans. Of course, this is a human rights violation, it is arbitrariness.”
The Sunshine Coalition rights organisation, the Ozod Dehkonlar (Free Farmers) party and the Awaken Uzbekistan youth movement wanted to discuss attracting young people to human rights and democratic activities, he said.
Activists managed to discuss some of these issues yesterday but could not continue discussion because of the police raid.
After their release, the regional human rights activists headed straight home.
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