Ukraine claims deported Uzbeks were members of al-Qaida linked terror group

Associated Press March 1 Ukraine's Security Service said Wednesday that 10 Uzbek asylum seekers deported recently were members of an al-Qaida linked terror group, a claim that appeared aimed at blunting international criticism over the refugees' forceful return. The 10 Uzbeks were deported two weeks ago after being detained in two cities on the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine and accused of illegal migration. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday joined the U.N. refugee agency and human rights groups in condemning the deportation amid concerns that the men would face ill-treatment and torture at home. Critics also rejected Ukrainian claims that the men's asylum applications were processed fully under Ukrainian law, and that the Uzbeks had refused to appeal their rejections. Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the Ukraine Security Agency, defended the deportation, saying the men were members of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was blamed for a series of bombings in Tashkent. She also accused the men of having spread radical propaganda in Ukraine. "They were not only on the territory of Ukraine illegally, but from May to July of last year they actively were spreading propaganda among Ukrainians about their organization's radical ideas, which run counter to Ukrainian law," Ostapenko said. She said that the security service detained the men at the request of prosecutors, and then a local court ruled to deport them. "If they had continued to remain, Ukraine could have been criticized by other states and international organizations as a country that wasn't fulfilling the U.N. Security Council resolution on fighting terrorism," Ostapenko said. Criticism of Ukraine over the deportation has cast a pall on Ukrainian government's efforts to prove that it is committed to pro-democratic aims, and would become an example for other ex-Soviet republics. Critics said the men deported had been involved in the May 2005 uprising in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, which was brutally suppressed by government troops. Rights groups and witnesses said hundreds were killed, most of them peaceful protesters. The government blamed Islamic militants for the uprising, and said 187 people died. In the past four months, Uzbek courts have convicted 151 people in closed-door trials denounced by human rights groups as a government-orchestrated show using evidence coerced by torture. Ismail Dodjonov, an Uzbek activist in Ukraine, had denied that the men deported had any links to terror groups or the uprising in Andijan.