Imprisoned Uzbek woman wins human rights award
GENEVA, May 15 (Reuters) - An Uzbek woman imprisoned for criticising the government over its armed response to a protest in the town of Andizhan three years ago has won a prestigious international human rights award, organisers said on Thursday.
Mutabar Tadjibaeva, laureate of the 2008 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, is in declining health and her life is in danger, according to a statement by 10 leading human rights groups that form the prize's jury.
They demanded Tadjibaeva's immediate release and praised her as an "an exceptionally brave woman in a country where standing up for human rights is a dangerous activity which can lead to imprisonment and death, where human rights defenders often have to choose between prison or exile."
Uzbekistan has put pressure on activists since its troops quashed an uprising in the eastern town of Andizhan in May 2005. The government says that 187 people died during a police action against Islamist extremists, and that all the dead were either government troops or "terrorists".
Independent witnesses reported seeing troops fire on a large crowd of unarmed civilians who had gathered in a central square after armed men conducted a jail break, took police hostages and occupied a government building. Witnesses said at the time that more than 500 people were killed.
United Nations human rights investigators who interviewed survivors who fled to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan accused Uzbekistan of using indiscriminate force in the crackdown. In a report, the experts said hundreds more than the official toll may have died.
Tadjibaeva, born in 1962, was sentenced in March 2006 to an eight-year jail term on charges including "slander and "membership of an illegal organisation," the rights groups said.
She was transferred to a psychiatric detention centre and is in deteriorating health due to her isolated confinement and limited access to her lawyer and relatives, they said.
The annual award is named after British lawyer Martin Ennals who was the first secretary-general of Amnesty International. Previous laureates include Akbar Ganji of Iran, Arnold Tsunga of Zimbabwe as well as Chinese dissident Harry Wu.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists are among those comprising the jury. The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in Geneva on November 20.
"I do not want to be forgotten," Tadjibaeva said in letters written between August and Nov 2007, according to the jury. "They are afraid of my truth, so they torture me this way." (Editing by Laura MacInnis and Matthew Jones)
Mutabar Tadjibaeva, laureate of the 2008 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, is in declining health and her life is in danger, according to a statement by 10 leading human rights groups that form the prize's jury.
They demanded Tadjibaeva's immediate release and praised her as an "an exceptionally brave woman in a country where standing up for human rights is a dangerous activity which can lead to imprisonment and death, where human rights defenders often have to choose between prison or exile."
Uzbekistan has put pressure on activists since its troops quashed an uprising in the eastern town of Andizhan in May 2005. The government says that 187 people died during a police action against Islamist extremists, and that all the dead were either government troops or "terrorists".
Independent witnesses reported seeing troops fire on a large crowd of unarmed civilians who had gathered in a central square after armed men conducted a jail break, took police hostages and occupied a government building. Witnesses said at the time that more than 500 people were killed.
United Nations human rights investigators who interviewed survivors who fled to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan accused Uzbekistan of using indiscriminate force in the crackdown. In a report, the experts said hundreds more than the official toll may have died.
Tadjibaeva, born in 1962, was sentenced in March 2006 to an eight-year jail term on charges including "slander and "membership of an illegal organisation," the rights groups said.
She was transferred to a psychiatric detention centre and is in deteriorating health due to her isolated confinement and limited access to her lawyer and relatives, they said.
The annual award is named after British lawyer Martin Ennals who was the first secretary-general of Amnesty International. Previous laureates include Akbar Ganji of Iran, Arnold Tsunga of Zimbabwe as well as Chinese dissident Harry Wu.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists are among those comprising the jury. The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in Geneva on November 20.
"I do not want to be forgotten," Tadjibaeva said in letters written between August and Nov 2007, according to the jury. "They are afraid of my truth, so they torture me this way." (Editing by Laura MacInnis and Matthew Jones)
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