----------------------------
EXECUTIONS IN UZBEKISTAN:
BUSH'S
ALLY IN THE
"WAR ON TERROR."
[From Sis. Hamdiyeh, South Carolina]
This article fails to mention the US
taxpayers money paid to the head of this country to torture whomever is
sent there to be tortured and murdered. Let us not forget!!!
____________________
Uzbek executions 'lack justice'
Tuesday 18 November 2003, 4:55
Makka
Time, 1:55 GMT
Uzbekistan must stop executing dozens of people annually without giving
them access to a proper justice system, a leading human rights group has
said.
Amnesty International
on Tuesday called on the former Soviet state to end its use of the death
penalty.
It said executing people was irresponsible "where torture is systematic,
corruption is unchecked at every stage ... and where courts apply the death
penalty without the guidance of objective and publicly accessible sentencing
criteria".
Amnesty said that in many cases "family members do not know for months,
sometimes even years whether their relative is alive or has been executed".
Once informed that an execution has taken place, relatives "many search for
years in the hope of finding the grave" as the authorities often refuse to
release information about where the dead have been buried, Amnesty said.
Countries criticised
Amnesty also criticised countries it said had been involved in extraditing
individuals to Uzbekistan who had then been sentenced to death and possibly
tortured - namely
Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
President Islam Karimov has
been criticised over human rights
In July the
United Nations Human Rights Committee
strongly criticised Uzbekistan's execution of six people whose cases were
awaiting the committee's consideration.
On Tuesday Amnesty said it knew of at least nine young men who had been
executed despite interventions by the committee.
Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has been a key supporter of US-led
anti-terrorism efforts centred on neighbouring
Afghanistan
and some have argued that
US
support has given added legitimacy to his regime.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003-11-27 Thu 15:03ct