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By Country / Russia

Russia To Extradite Andijon Refugees

August 03, 2006

Adijon demonstration at UN headquarters on May 12 (RFE/RL)

August 3, 2006 -- Russia's official government newspaper today reports that the Prosecutor-General's Office has ordered the extradition of 13 people wanted in Uzbekistan for their alleged participation in last year's Andijon unrest.

The "Rossiiskaya gazeta" daily says that among those awaiting extradition in the central Russian city of Ivanovo is a Kyrgyz citizen identified as Mamirzhon Tashtemirov. All others are Uzbek nationals.

The newspaper does not say when the decision to hand them over to Uzbek authorities was made.

But Russia's Memorial human rights group earlier this week reported that the decision to extradite Tashtemirov was made on July 27.

Tashtemirov's lawyers say their client was in Turkey when the Andijon unrest broke out and that he was arrested while making a business trip to Ivanovo.

The 12 Uzbek refugees have been in custody since June 2005.

"Rossiiskaya gazeta" reported that they all have UN refugee status.

("Rossiiskaya gazeta," memo.ru)

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Faces And Voices

WE WERE THERE: RFE/RL correspondent Gulnoza Saidazimova visited a group Andijon refugees in the Czech town of Straz pod Ralskem and spoke to them about their recollections of the May 2005 violence and their lives since. (Photographs by G. Saidazimova)

ZUHRA, aged 33: "On 13 May, I learned what APCs [armoured personnel carriers] and kalashnikovs were."

MOMINA, aged 29: "I called my parents twice from here. The second time they said: 'We are scared to talk to you. Our neighbor also received a phone call [from a relative who was granted asylum abroad]. Then the police came and beat him up.'"

ODINA, aged 34: "I saw a woman with bullet wound in the back. From behind, we could see her hearting. It was beating. She was begging: 'Call the doctor. I don't want to die.' Later, in Kyrgyzstan, we heard she had died. "

THE COMPLETE STORY: A dedicated webpage bringing together all of RFE/RL's coverage of the events in Andijon, Uzbekistan, in May 2005 and their continuing repercussions.