Human rights fears as 15 charged with massacre in Uzbekistan

ABC.net.au October 12 MARK COLVIN: It's nearly six months since government troops in the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan opened fire on a crowd of protesters and killed scores of men, women and children. International requests for an independent inquiry into the massacre have been denied. Instead Uzbekistan appears to be closing itself off from the West. It's holding 15 men responsible for the deaths - men accused of being Islamic extremists. But human rights groups are worried the suspects are being tortured and will be sentenced to death. ABC Correspondent, Emma Griffiths, reports. EMMA GRIFFITHS: The government in Uzbekistan is one of the most authoritarian to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The regime has been accused of corruption and human rights violations. The most deadly atrocity was a government crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan in May. Human rights groups say more than a thousand unarmed civilians were killed. The President, Islam Karimov, claims the number is far fewer and insists that the perpetrators were Islamic militants. Amnesty International's Denis Krivosheev says the truth may never be known. DENIS KRIVOSHEEV: Uzbekistan is increasingly reluctant to admit international researchers on various human rights issues and would certainly not accept anyone to investigate events in Andijan. Therefore it's hard to tell what really happened. EMMA GRIFFITHS: Bahrom Hamroev is a member of Uzbekistan's main opposition party. He says he's been arrested several times and his family threatened. He now lives in exile in Moscow. (Bahrom Hamroev speaking below translation) "I've been fighting against this dictator's regime for 13 years," he says. "He's still hiding the truth about what has happened in Uzbekistan and doesn't let international organisations in to investigate." Instead, the Uzbek Government has blamed 15 men for the bloodshed. Their trial began late last month with immediate confessions from the suspects. They pleaded fully guilty. Prosecutors say they're Islamic militants who stirred up the protest then fired on the crowd. Human rights defenders say the trial is a farce and believe the defendants have been tortured. Uzbek opposition politician, Bahrom Hamroev, says it's all done to confuse the world, to pretend that these 15 people are guilty of something. (Bahrom Hamroev speaking below translation) "In reality, nobody knows the truth," he says. "These people are horribly tortured. I had a call from one of the relatives who said these people were tortured and are under physical and psychological pressure." Amnesty International fears the worst, too, and believes that the men will be found guilty and sentenced to death. Denis Krivosheev again: DENIS KRIVOSHEEV: It's difficult to take these confessions for face value. We know of torture, we know of how confessions are systematically extracted from suspects in Uzbekistan and when it's such a plain confession of guilt, some of it sounding quite unbelievable, then we very seriously suspect torture, ill treatment and persecution of, including families and people close to the suspects. EMMA GRIFFITHS: Then United Nations has pressed for access to the court and the suspects, but to no avail. Its request for an international investigation into the massacre was ignored too. Western criticism of the Uzbek regime has been met with anger from President Karimov. He's ordered American troops and warplanes out of an air base set up shortly after the 9/11 attacks and used for counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. American officials say Uzbekistan has also abandoned an agreement to cooperate with the West in fighting terrorism. Instead, Karimov is turning to an old ally: Russia. It has accepted the government's explanation about the events in Andijan and the prosecutor's allegations in the trial over the massacre. Late last month the two countries held their first joint military exercises since the break-up of the USSR.