Uzbekistan political prisoner freed after 22 years

Samandar Kukanov, 72, is described by human rights activists as one of the longest serving political prisoners in Uzbekistan was finally released on Thursday (November 24) after 22 years in prison.

Kukanov a former parliamentary deputy was sentenced to 20 years in 1994 on charges of embezzlement after he had become a fierce critic of then president Islam Karimov. Karimov died in September after ruling the Central Asian country of 32 million with an iron fist for over 26 years. Karimov was the first president of Uzbekistan from its independence on 1 September 1991 to his death in 2016. a period of 25 years. However, before that, he was the President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic from 24 March 1990 until he declared the independence ofUzbekistan on 1 September 1991.

The move was a surprise. This could boost the image of Karimov's successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev who is running for president in an election of December 4. In 2014 his term had been extended for 2 more years because he breached prison rules. Although Kukanov's relatives were expecting him to be released last month, instead they received a letter informing them that Kukanov had his term extended again for violating prison regulations. Yet according to rights group Ezgulik, which contacted his family, he was unexpectedly released. A report in the Diplomat claims " Qoqonov’s relatives told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service that they had received a call on November 24 informing them that the October court decision which extended the 72-year-old former politician’s sentence by three years and five days had been annulled. " Kukanov's last name can also be spelled "Quqonov".

Mirziyoyev who is acting as the interim ruler is expected to win the December election. Although he amnestied several less prominent political prisoners as well observers expect Uzbekistan's political environment to continue as before under Karimov.

NATO negotiates new supply route through Central Asia to Afghanistan

The NATO head Anders Rasmussen reports that the three central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to allow NATO supplies through a new land supply route to Afghanistan. The new deal will allow European nations who are withdrawing from Afghanistan over the next few years to return troops and equipment by land through Russia to Europe. It will also provide a temporary alternative for NATO supplies since the Pakistani routes are not still not reopened.

However, the U.S. is intending to stay in Afghanistan until 2024 and the Central Asian route is much more expensive than the sea route with transhipment through Pakistan. Pakistan closed the border to NATO supplies last November and negotiations have still not been completed to reopen the routes. Pakistan has demanded an apology for the incident that provoked the closing. Numbers of Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on the a border base. An end to drone attacks was also a requirement but drone attacks are actually increasing. For more see this article.

US and UK rendered supsected militants to Uzbekistan.

Interesting that one reason for rendition is that it is thought that it is not illegal to use information obtained through torture as long as someone else did it! While all this was going on US human rights groups were rightly lambasting Uzbekistan for its human rights record including boiling opponents alive.
These are a couple of snippets from a UK diplomat's article who served in Uzbekistan. The whole article is available here. There is a you tube video available here.



I falsely presumed, that these people they were bringing in and handing over to the Uzbek security service were Uzbeks who had been captured elsewhere and brought back to Uzbekistan. I did not realize that in fact they were of many other nationalities and were being handed over in order to be tortured. That they were being tortured I knew. That Uzbekistan was a destination for the extraordinary rendition system from all over the world I really didn't quite realize at the time. We now know, following, for example, a Council of Europe investigation, that 90 percent of the airplanes that stopped at the famous secret prison in Poland had Tashkent as their next destination. I complained back to London. I said we're getting this intelligence from torture

..... our legal advisers had decided that under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture, as long as we didn't do the torture ourselves