20.06.12 15:30
The open society “SHOOT me” has condemned the Uzbek authorities’ decision to fine members of the Birdamlik (Unity) movement for a picket they were going to stage outside the Kyrgyz embassy.
Filmmaker Alisher Hamdamov, art photographer Umida Akhmedova and actor Dmitriy Rezepin voice their opinion in a new edition of the Uznews.net’s programme “SHOOT me”
– If pickets are rare in Uzbekistan and if this phenomenon occurs in small forms, I believe, the state must encourage them instead of shoving people in vehicles to take them to police stations and threatening them. The level of fear is already so high that it will take long time before people start coming out and believing that they can say something openly, Hamdamov thinks.
– As a matter of fact, the image of the state and its reputation among other states in the modern world is determined by human rights, the protection of these rights, as it is declared everywhere, including here as well, by the way, the filmmaker continues.
– Speaking about the picket which Birdamlik failed stage, honestly speaking, it looked very funny. They say that they were not allowed to stage a picket, but no-one can get permission like this. If they were taken away then this means they had informed well everyone about their unsanctioned picket especially for this, Rezepin says with irony.
– But it is another thing that is absurd – they were taken even before they could unfold their placards, – Akhmedova says. – Meanwhile, every person has the right to express his civic position.
– Fear takes molehills for mountains! And a question arises unintentionally: what are the authorities afraid of? We are a powerful state, aren’t we? Why do we fear certain citizens’ opinions about some certain events, especially those which have taken place not even in our country, but in the neighbouring state? – Hamdamov wonders.
Ten activists of the Birdamlik movement were detained not far from the Kyrgyz embassy in Tashkent on 12 June on charges of attempting to protest against the Kyrgyz government, which they think “are responsible for the June 2010 bloody events in the south of Kyrgyzstan, and is still running a policy of apartheid”.
The same day, a court in Mirzo-Ulugbek district found the failed picketers guilty under article 201 of the code of administrative liability “Violation of procedures for organising and holding assemblies, meetings, street rallies and demonstrations” and sentenced three of them to a fine worth 80 minimal monthly wages each, which is about $1,760 at the black market rate.
The new edition of the programme “SHOOT me” has more details of the attitude of “shooters” towards the Birdamlik picket and pickets in general in Uzbekistan, as well as about their opinion about the two-year old bloody events in the town of Osh.
Uznews.net