Uprising in Andijan an Internal German Affair
// UN calls for trial of Uzbek minister
Justice The United Nations yesterday called on Germany to hand over Uzbek Interior Minister Zakirdzhon Almatov for trial. The minister is on a European Union list of the 12 officials facing charges for the cruel repression of the uprising in Andijan in May of this year. And Almatov is the only one of them who is accessible to international justice, being in Germany for cancer treatment.
Manfred Novak, the UN Human Rights Commission's special investigator on torture, called for court proceedings to be started against Almatov. He presented petitions to the German authorities by several people who suffered as a result of the actions of Uzbek law enforcement as the basis for the court action. The petitioners, whose last names are not being revealed for fear of their safety, stated that hey were mistreated at the time of the suppression of the uprising in Andijan. Several of them were tortured after the bloody events in May as well.
The German federal prosecutor's office has also received petitions from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. They are accusing Uzbek authorities of crimes against humanity and are demanding that German authorities press charges against Almatov. He is the only member of the Uzbek security agencies who is accessible to international justice. Almatov has been under treatment for several months for spinal cancer at the Neurological Institute in Hannover. He was in charge of the shootings in Andijan and is first on the list of 12 Uzbek officials responsible for the mass murder of civilians. That list was published by the EU in November after international sanctions were imposed on Uzbekistan. Almatov arrived in Germany before the sanctions were imposed and therefore was not expelled from the country.
It is likely that the suits against Almatov will be ignored by German law enforcement. Yesterday, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said that the suits against Almatrov have been accepted for consideration, and it will be decided whether there are sufficient grounds for am investigation. That spokesman mentioned that the German prosecutor's office had refused to investigate the incidents in Abu Ghraib Prison because Germany was a third party to it.
