US embassy cable - 05ALMATY2121

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ALMATY 002121 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CACEN; TBILISI FOR REFCOORD CHEEVER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2015 
TAGS: KZ, MOPS, PHUM, UZ, POLITICAL 
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: CONVERSATION WITH UZBEK HUMAN RIGHTS 
ACTIVIST LUTFULLO SHAMSIDDINOV 
 
REF: A. A) TASHKENT 1544 
     B. B) TASHKENT 1537 
     C. C) TASHKENT 1536 
     D. D) TASHKENT 1446 
     E. E) IIR 6 955 0183 05 
 
Classified By: CDA Mark Asquino, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
1. (C) Summary:  POEC chief met with Uzbek human rights 
activist Lutfullo Shamsiddinov (refs A-C) and his wife on 
June 2 to discuss their efforts to obtain refugee status in 
Kazakhstan.  Shamsiddinov, who is from Andijon and witnessed 
the killing of civilians there on May 13, also briefed POEC 
chief on what he saw.  He estimated that up to 300 people, 
only 25 of whom were armed, were killed on Cholpon Street the 
evening of May 13. 
 
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Seeking Asylum 
-------------- 
 
2. (C) As reported ref A, Uzbek human rights activist 
Lutfullo Shamsiddinov fled with his family to Kazakhstan on 
May 26.  They reached Almaty on May 27 and immediately 
contacted UNHCR to request refugee status.  UNHCR protection 
officer Narasimha Rao told POEC chief on May 31 that due to 
the political sensitivity of the case and the fact that the 
Kazakhstani Department of Migration had expressed reluctance 
to take the lead, UNHCR would make the refugee determination 
itself.  After Shamsiddinov's first in-depth interview with 
UNHCR on June 3, Rao told POEC chief that Shamsiddinov's 
claim to refugee status appeared clear due to his activities 
in Andijon May 13-14 and the fact that he is a known human 
rights activist.  Rao indicated that it might take less than 
two weeks to make the determination. 
 
3. (C) In a June 2 meeting with POEC chief, Shamsiddinov 
expressed concern that Kazakhstani authorities might return 
him and the six members of his family to Uzbekistan.  They 
have rented an apartment and registered with immigration 
authorities as required by law.  Although they have had no 
problems with Kazakhstani authorities to date, Shamsiddinov 
said that he has reason to believe that at an upcoming 
'summit' (most likely the June 3 meeting of SCO Security 
Council heads in Astana), the GOU will ask the GOK to return 
him.  He is particularly concerned because UNHCR has not yet 
issued him any documents proving that he is seeking refugee 
status.  He asked if there was any way for his family to be 
sent to a third country to await the determination. 
 
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Shamsiddinov's Involvement 
-------------------------- 
 
4. (C) Shamsiddinov, of the Independent Human Rights Society 
of Uzbekistan, told POEC chief that he had monitored the 
trial in Andijon of the 23 Islamic businessmen charged with 
anti-constitutional activity and extremism, the Akromiylar. 
He stressed that the friends and relatives of the accused who 
observed the trial each day had behaved in a completely 
orderly way throughout the proceedings.  Shamsiddinov 
asserted that the presiding judge had received instructions 
from above to find the accused guilty, but had demonstrated 
that she did not think the charges were founded by handing 
down sentences that were less strict than usual for extremism 
cases.  He claimed that such cases usually brought a minimum 
sentence of five years; in this case, three of the Akromiylar 
had been freed, one had been paroled, and 13 had been 
sentenced to only three years imprisonment.  The remaining 
six defendants had received five, six, or seven year terms. 
 
------------------------ 
May 13 Events in Andijon 
------------------------ 
 
5. (C) Shamsiddinov said that when he learned of the attacks 
on the morning of May 13, he went to the oblast 
administration building (hokhimyat).  That morning he saw 
five or six dead bodies on the street near SNB headquarters 
and the hokhimyat, including both militia and civilians, and 
several burned out vehicles.  At the hokhimyat he saw armed 
people in civilian clothes, and two to three thousand people 
(including women and children) gathered in the square. 
People took turns speaking about hard economic times, the 
unfair justice system, abusive tax inspections, and beatings 
 
 
by the security forces.  Several wives whose husbands had 
been imprisoned on extremism charges complained of the shame 
of being forced to clean houses or work abroad to feed their 
families.  Shamsiddinov stressed that he did not hear one 
political statement during the speeches, only complaints of 
mistreatment by authorities. 
 
6. (C) Many of the people with weapons were the Akromiylar, 
men he recognized immediately from having attended their 
trial.  Shamsiddinov said that he rebuked them for using 
force instead of waiting for the appeals process and the 
results of the peaceful protests. 
 
7. (C) By mid-day on May 13, according to Shamsiddinov, the 
militia had practically abandoned the center of Andijon and 
many residents were out in the streets.  He estimated that 
50,000 to 100,000 people were in the streets within a three 
kilometer radius of the main square.  He claimed that militia 
and MVD forces fired on people three to four times from noon 
to 14:00, killing 20 to 30 people in the vicinity of the 
hokhimyat. Negotiations were then held from 14:00 to 16:00. 
By that evening, he said, approximately 15,000 people had 
gathered on the square.  At some point after the negotiations 
ended, the crowd in the square divided and approximately 2000 
people left the northern side of the square by Cholpon St. 
Shamsiddinov said he was standing on Cholpon St. in front of 
School No. 15, across the street from a movie theater, when 
he saw the crowd approaching (see ref D, para 9, and ref E, 
para. 9).  At the front were 13 government officials who were 
being held hostage; they included the presiding judge from 
the Akromiylar case, a militia member, a procurator, an SNB 
representative, and a tax inspector.  There were also 
approximately 25 Akromiylar members with guns, and about 2000 
civilians, including women and children. 
 
8. (C) According to Shamsiddinov, two armored personnel 
carriers parked just north of School No. 15 on Cholpon St. 
opened fire on the crowd at 18:15.  He ran into an alley on 
the south side of School No. 15 but stayed close enough to 
the street to see the shooting.  Shamsiddinov claimed that 
the Akromiylar members tried to shoot back in self-defense, 
but did not know how to use the weapons they had seized and 
were killed relatively quickly.  He said that the BTRs 
continued to fire on the crowd as people attempted to flee. 
The large caliber weapons inflicted severe damage.  He 
estimated that 300 people were killed. 
 
9. (C) Shamsiddinov said he went back to the scene of the 
shooting early the morning of May 14.  He gathered spent 
cartridges from the BTRs, some approximately one inch long 
and some two inches long, as evidence.  His associate 
Saidjahon Zainabitdinov later displayed these cartridges in a 
television interview with Western media before his arrest. 
Shamsiddinov said that he saw government officials load four 
trucks and one bus with bodies; many of them were women and 
children.  They left the bodies of 17 "young and strong" men 
with weapons in the street, presumably, he said, to give the 
impression that only "terrorists" had been killed. 
Shamsiddinov said he thought that many of the bodies had 
already been collected before he returned on May 14.  The 
street was covered in blood. 
 
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Decision to Flee 
---------------- 
 
10. (C) Over the course of the day on May 13, Shamsiddinov 
had been reporting what he saw to Western media outlets and 
embassies.  Some of the media outlets had quoted him by name, 
and his associate Zainabitdinov had been shown on television. 
 Shamsiddinov said he began to hear of GOU threats against 
witnesses, and decided to flee with some members of his 
family.  He initially went to Osh, Kyrgyzstan, but they were 
not admitted into the refugee camp and could into find 
anywhere to stay.  They spent one night on the streets and 
then returned to Andijon.  Zainabitdinov was arrested when 
trying to return to Uzbekistan.  Shamsiddinov believes he 
escaped detection only because he used a different border 
crossing point (Kara Sov) and was accompanied by his family. 
ASQUINO 
 
 
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