The Ministry of Internal Affairs began to reckon with the work of the initiative group “Open line”, as evidenced by the request of the new head of the Main Directorate for the Execution of Sentences, Rustam Tursunov, to meet with independent human rights activists on March 23.
“We used to force our way into the Department,” says the leader Tatyana Dovlatova. “Quite unexpectedly, Tursunov’s assistant called and conveyed his request to talk about business and problems.”
The volunteers of the group Gulbahor Islamova and Viktor Kucherov got to the reception. Together with Dovlatova, they have been fighting for the rights of not only their relatives who are serving time, but also for other prisoners for several years. Even during the quarantine restrictions, the human rights defenders found an opportunity to receive incriminating information about the lawlessness and share it with journalists, international human rights organizations and publish posts on social networks.
Thanks to the activists, the facts of bullying and torture in the colonies were made public. Information was received directly in the regions, where occasionally it was possible to travel for monitoring. Often the sources of information are the prisoners themselves and their relatives. The “hot line” of the group operates regularly, more than a hundred calls have been received during several months.
The group’s activities didn’t stop even in December 2020, when its leader had an abdominal surgery and broke her arm.
According to Dovlatova, the conversation turned out to be constructive and correct. The cases of 14 prisoners will be considered in the near future.
“I think that we were able to convince the head of the Main Directorate for the Execution of Sentences of our impartiality, our desire in word and deed to help those who are powerless in the face of prison arbitrariness,” the human rights activist told the ACCA journalist.
At the suggestion of human rights activists, the ACCA invariably irritates the Ministry of Internal Affairs with its publications on violations of the rights of prisoners. The Department even accused it of “negative criticism” and received a reasoned response with compulsive evidence of physical and mental torture of prisoners.
Thus, the press service of the Department tried to react to the publication of the ACCA under the heading “Bullying and torture continues in the colonies of Uzbekistan”. The journalists in uniform didn’t forget to mention the material of the portal “Uzbekistan: systematic bullying forces prisoners to commit suicide”.
Volunteers don’t hope for full legitimization of their activities, but they are already satisfied that they are no longer considered marginal.
Open line is one of the few Uzbek initiative groups that are closely involved in problems in the penitentiary institutions of Uzbekistan, but it differs from similar ones by active informational and consulting work with prisoners. The assets include contacts with representatives of the administrations of colonies, upholding the rights of prisoners, knowledge of the nuances in drafting complaints to the Main Directorate for the Execution of Punishments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ombudsman, etc.
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