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Son Pleads for Release of Activist Father in Uzbekistan

By Jane Morse  

At a U.N. event to highlight the plight of political prisoners everywhere, a son pleaded for the release of his activist father imprisoned in Uzbekistan.

During the July 24 panel discussion in New York hosted by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Gulambek Umarov said he fears his father, Sangar Umarov, who has been subjected to torture and all sorts of deprivations, might die at any time in government custody.

"We implore the world's democratic nations to demand his immediate and unconditional release," Gulambek Umarov said on behalf of himself and his family.

He joined other advocates for political prisoners at the panel discussion "Courageous Voices: Speaking out for Prisoners of Conscience."

The son also made a personal appeal to the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Abduganievich Karimov, to release all prisoners of conscience and to "please release my father."

The senior Umarov has been imprisoned since October 2005 on "unfounded charges," according to Ambassador T. Vance McMahan, U.S. representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, who moderated the discussion.

Sangar Umarov, a successful businessman, is the founder of the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition, a pro-democracy secular opposition movement. According to his son, the coalition comprised independent civil society groups that hoped to "engage in dialogue" with the government of Uzbekistan and "bring about democratic and much-needed economic reforms through gradual and evolutionary means."

The younger Umarov said that although his father "publicly affirmed his allegiance to Uzbekistan's Constitution and disavowed any attempts to force change through threats, bloodshed or abuse," he was accused, convicted and imprisoned based on testimony provided by witnesses who had been subjected to torture.

The family was forced to flee Uzbekistan and now lives in the United States. A graduate student in finance studies from the University of Memphis in Tennessee, Gulambek Umarov has testified on behalf of his father and other political prisoners before several human rights organizations, including the Helsinki Commission.

CALL FOR GOVERNMENT ACTIONS TO MATCH OFFICIAL POSITIONS

The July 24 discussions in New York underscored international commitments made in the U.N. Declaration of Prisoners of Conscience issued in June. That declaration, sponsored by the United States and 63 other U.N. member states, calls on nations to work for the freedom of prisoners of conscience and to make the release of these prisoners a key international priority.

Gulambek Umarov said the government of Uzbekistan has made progress in some areas, such as instituting habeas corpus and abolishing the death penalty. It also ratified the International Labor Organization Convention 138 on Minimum Age and Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

But, he added, the Uzbek government's "official positions continue to sharply diverge from the application of its hollow version of the democratic rule of law. The biggest problem is that government officials interpret the law in their own understanding as they see fit to achieve efficiency in overall statistical results."

Gulambek Umarov said he and his family remain committed to pursuing his father's vision of meaningful reform through dialogue with the Uzbek government.

"But real reform will be possible only when the leaders of Uzbekistan listen to the cries of their long-suffering brothers and sisters, rather than jail them for expressing their despair," he said.

"We therefore call on the sponsors of the Declaration on Prisoners of Conscience to support a meaningful dialogue with the government of Uzbekistan through continued pressure for the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience as well as pressure for concrete steps toward the establishment of a genuine rule of law culture."

Source: U.S. Department of State