15.08.14 19:19

Kayum Ortikov: “Three or four deaths a week in Tashtyurma prison”

 

Kayum Ortikov with his wife Mohira in the United States © family archive

 

If you want to know what Hell feels like, you should go to the basement of the Tashkent prison known as Tashtyurma and listen to the screams of people being tortured, says Kayum Ortikov, former guard at the British embassy in Uzbekistan and an ex-prisoner, in his interview to Uznews.net.

Kayum Ortikov is a principled man with an iron will. In 2009 the former military man and guard at the UK embassy in Tashkent was accused of espionage and human trafficking and thrown in prison.

He was essentially used as a pawn by the Uzbek government that was trying to take revenge against the British for their condemnation of their actions in Andijan in 2005.

He was subjected to an entire spectrum medieval forms of torture: from hanging to being set on fire. The torture reached such a frenzied pitch that even the people involved in – the so-called executioners – started asking for it to come to an end [it is a common practice in Uzbekistan to enlist prisoners to torture their fellow prisoners in exchange for favored treatment. They are commonly known as executioners – Editor].

His wife, Mohira, instead of falling into despair, got the British newspaper The Independent, as well as the Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations involved in his case.

After Kayum Ortikov was freed in 2011 the family moved to Ukraine and from there to the United States. The couple spends their free time helping people write complaints about human rights violations to the United Nations while waiting for a decision about their own case from the UN Committee against Torture.

Kayum Ortikov and his wife Mohira Ortikova recently spoke with an Uznews.net correspondent about his new life and the nightmare he experienced in his native Uzbekistan.

How is your life in the United States?

K.O. We came here as refugees and were given everything we needed for the first-half year. We were given all the necessary documents, health insurance, schools for our children, money for food, and offered jobs appropriate to our language abilities.

For the past two months my wife and I have been working at a distribution company. I pack jewelry and perfume for shipment while my wife places price tags on merchandise.

Our children are at a summer camp and will start a new school year soon. The most important thing right now is that we are protected by the law.

Do you ever think about Tashtyurma? Do you believe that the information you revealed about the amount of torture that takes place there has changed things?

К.О. Nothing is going to change there for the next 10-15 years. Not until all the people involved in this system die! The repression is not getting any less stringent or brutal. In one month alone in Qashqadaryo 70 people were thrown in prison for alleged religious extremism. The mechanism of making people look like villains has been finely tuned.

It has been said that the Tashtyurma’s basements have been shut since 2008 but I was there in 2009 and I was tortured. I was burned with boiling water, set on fire, administered electric shock… I still receive psychiatric counseling twice a week. Twice I was in hospital in Ukraine. Doctors advised me not to remember the torture. But I have nightmares where I am struggling against my executioners all by myself.

The Tashtyurma executioners Pantelej and Chelovechkov are known to be the cruelest. Are they still there? What do you think drives them to torture people?

К.О.: Weak people are bought easily and cheaply. The most vicious executioners in the country are prisoners themselves, one is there for rape and the other for murder.

Pantelej and Chelovechkov are strong men like boxers. For every confession they obtain they get a free pass on something as well as money from the prison administrators. Pantelej is the worst. He has been in prison since he was a teenager. He is usually given the most difficult cases: people who refuse to testify that they are involved in religious extremism or espionage.

They tortured me for seven months trying to make me into a British spy. They killed me five times but I did not die. I saw how my cell mates could not handle it anymore and would cave in and implicate their neighbor or a former colleague. Only to end their own life the next day.

I myself tried to committed suicide twice. But I did not testify against myself or anyone else. The Uzbek government was not able to stage a spy scandal at the British embassy and take revenge against London for condemning the Andijan Massacre.

Is this common practice for Uzbek employees of foreign embassies to be suddenly accused by the Uzbek government of spying?

К.О.: In the end they tried to get me to confess that I delivered embassy information to Jerkin Musaev. But I have never seen this person in my life and only recently found out who he is. It turns out that he is ex-military and who worked for a grant program at the United Nations. He was thrown in prison after the events in Andijan on trumped up charges for 20 years. He is still in prison.

What kind of people are in prison?

К.О.: Prisons in Uzbekistan are full with many people many of them political prisoners. The latter try to behave very well; they know they are being watched all the time.

The real criminals are the National Security Services’ and prison administrations’ spies and ears. Every political prisoner is watched by three or four criminals. If you gave someone a cigarette, you must write an explanatory note. If you step the wrong way that can be a violation that disqualifies you from being amnestied.

Why were you released? Why was your term not extended like so many others? How was your wife able to get you out? Do you have a special secret on how to get political prisoners out of prison?

Mohira Ortikova: At first I was at a loss. But when I found out that my husband was being tortured, I understood that no one but I could help him. I turned to Jezgulik activists, wrote complaints and telegrams to the president, attorney general, and head of the Supreme Court.

I went to see the UK Ambassador and begged him to help get Kayum out. But there was no reaction from anywhere.

The British started helping only after I spoke to journalists from The Independent who flat out accused British officials of doing nothing to help in their articles. After this the British Ambassador finally spoke to the Uzbek Minister of Internal Affairs and a month later my husband was released.

Do not give up! There are plenty of institutions in the world that can help.

Are you going to sue Uzbekistan’s government?

К.О.: We submitted a complaint to the UN Committee against Torture based in Switzerland last year. We listed the names of everybody who tortured me. The Uzbek government responded that I have no proof of torture. That is not surprising: they always deny torturing people and have not given anyone any compensation. As always the head of National Center for Human Rights in Uzbekistan, Akmal Saidov, is going to come to Geneva and scream that Tashtyurma is a resort.

After my release the police put me on the watch list for terrorism. They threatened me, saying that if I were to speak out, they would give me a life sentence on terrorism charges. I told them that I had forgotten everything.

I want to speak at the United Nations and ask: Why are Uzbek authorities such animals? Why are they torturing their own people?

Kayum Ortikov

But I want to speak at the United Nations and ask: Why are Uzbek authorities such animals? Why are they torturing their own people?

And I also want to say that if someone wants to know what Hell feels like, they should go to Tashtyurma’s basement and listen to the screams as legs and ribs are being broken, people are being hanged, doused with boiling water, needles are placed under their nails, or the scariest of all as they are being set of fire.

Three or four corpses leave Tashtyurma every week. And I am not even talking about the National Security Services’ prison in Yunusabadsky district of Tashkent. It is worse there. They have doctors during torture: if someone loses consciousness, they resuscitate you, throw some water at you, give you an injection, and carry on.

Do you have any plans for the future? Have you thought of getting into politics?

К.О.: Politics is not my thing. I like my freedom, getting things done. I’d prefer to be a farmer. There is more benefits from farming than politics (laughs).

I cannot handle politics and my nerves are shot. I am going to focus on my children’s education. I want them to become diplomats and to fight for the plight of the abused.

On a serious note, if we tolerate such humiliation and torture, then we deserve this kind of government. We lack unity. Even Uzbeks living abroad cannot band together. They suspect each other of everything. They say, he has left but he is still a government man.

Uznews.net

 

http://www.uznews.net/en/interview/1240-kayum-ortikov-three-or-four-deaths-a-week-in-tashkent-prison