• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Uzbek journalist ends hunger strike after hospitalization

July 12, 2011

Uzbek journalist Saodat Omonova

TASHKENT – One of the two journalists protesting media censorship in Uzbekistan has ended her hunger strike after being forcibly hospitalized, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports.

Saodat Omonova told RFE/RL she was taken to the hospital today, the 16th day of her hunger strike, after her health seriously deteriorated.

Her colleague, Malohat Eshonqulova, told RFE/RL she will continue her hunger strike.

Eshonqulova's husband, Avaz, told RFE/RL he was unable to persuade the two women to end their hunger strike but did manage to get his daughter, Zarnigor, to end it. She had joined the strike a few days ago.

Surat Ikramov, head of the Independent Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan group, told RFE/RL he is shocked by the lack of interest in the journalists' protest.

He said he called the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan and was told they are aware of the journalists' protest and are willing to visit them. He said he was informed by the German and British embassies that the officials who monitor such issues are on vacation.

Omonova and Eshonqulova were detained in Tashkent on June 27 – which is Media Workers' Day in Uzbekistan – when they tried to start a hunger strike outside President Islam Karimov's residence.

They were arrested, and a Tashkent district court fined them 2.94 million soms (about $1,500) for holding an unauthorized protest.

The two women were seeking a meeting with Karimov to discuss media censorship at the Yoshlar (Youth) TV station, from which they were both dismissed in December, three days after staging a protest on Tashkent's main square against media censorship.

They filed a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal against the management of Yoshlar, but on May 31 a district court ruled in favor of the TV station, saying the women's dismissal was legal. They have appealed that verdict.

Eshonqulova told RFE/RL that since May 2 they have sent 56 letters to Karimov detailing examples of censorship at Yoshlar and requesting a meeting with him.

On July 22, Several attackers tried to plant bombs at the shrine of Pashto poet Hamza Khan Shinwari but a security guard, who told RFE/RL his name is Ikram, opened fire on them.

After an exchange of gunfire, the guard telephoned for help from the political administration. Reinforcements arrived and forced the attackers to flee.

Ikram, who is a member of the Khasadar force of tribal police, told RFE/RL the attackers threw two hand grenades that destroyed a nearby shop and damaged the wall enclosing the Hamza Khan complex.

"I saw five people who came there and asked me to surrender," Ikram said. "I refused and did not let them come in. I phoned to other [tribal police] for help. They came and there was an exchange of fire. Then the attackers threw hand grenades which damaged the shrine complex."

No one was killed or injured in the attack. Eyewitnesses said the boundary wall of the complex was damaged and the windows of the Hamza Khan Library, which is part of the shrine, were smashed.

Attacks on Sufi shrines are common in northern Pakistan and some other parts of the country. Most such attacks are thought to be carried out by radical, Salafi-minded Taliban groups.

In March 2009, attackers blew up the shrine of Sufi poet Rehman Baba in Peshawar. That attack was widely condemned across the country.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Topics: Freedom of expression,