EMBASSY TASHKENT HOSTS ROUNDTABLE ON IMPRISONED

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000927

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA, DRL, SCA/PPD, AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/12/2018
TAGS: PHUM KDEM KPAO ICRC PGOV PINR PREL UZ
SUBJECT: EMBASSY TASHKENT HOSTS ROUNDTABLE ON IMPRISONED
OPPOSITIONIST

REF: A. TASHKENT 854

B. TASHKENT 819

C. TASHKENT 893

D. TASHKENT 403

E. TASHKENT 702

Classified By: POLOFF R. FITZMAURICE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D)


1. (SBU) Summary: On August 6, poloff hosted an informal
roundtable at the Embassy with Arslan Umarov, the son of
imprisoned Sunshine Coalition leader Sanjar Umarov. The
roundtable was attended by the Charge, the Swiss Ambassador,
the French and Italian DCMs, and officers from the German and
British Embassies. It served as a follow-up to a
DRL-sponsored "Prisoners of Conscience" panel discussion held
at the United Nations on July 24 at which Umarov's other son
Gulam spoke. The roundtable also enabled Arslan to share
with European Embassies information regarding his father's
deteriorating health in prison (ref A) and allowed Western
diplomats to formulate a common message on Umarov to deliver
to the Uzbek government. End summary.

FOLLOW-UP TO DRL PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE EVENT
-------------- -


2. (U) Poloff began the event by welcoming Arslan Umarov and
noting that the Embassy continues to closely monitor his
father's health condition in prison and has advocated with
the government for his release on medical grounds. Poloff
also informed the attendees of a DRL-sponsored panel
discussion hosted by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations
in New York entitled "Courageous Voices: Speaking Out for
Prisoners of Conscience," which featured Arslan's brother
Gulam as one of the speakers. Poloff also made available
copies of a U.S. State Department press release on Gulam's
speech at the event. In addition, poloff explained that the
Embassy continues to closely monitor the cases of several
other individuals who have been recently detained or
imprisoned on politically-motivated charges, including former
Radio Free Europe journalist Salidjahon Abdurakhmanov, human
rights activist Akzam Turgunov, and two Margilan-based
Jehovah's Witness congregants (refs B and C).

UMAROV DISCUSSES CONDITION OF FATHER'S IMPRISONMENT
-------------- --------------


3. (C) After the introduction, Arslan Umarov, who normally
resides in the United States with the rest of his immediate
family, described his father's deteriorating health. Arslan
said that he last visited his father at the Qizil-Tepe prison
in Navoi province on July 19. His father's health appeared
to be worse than during previous visits. Arslan said that
his father had lost so much weight that he resembled "a
concentration camp victim." When he hugged his father, he
said that he could feel the ribs in his back, as there was
little muscle or fat mass remaining, "just skin and bones."
He also reported that his father had difficulty walking,
speaking, eating, and sleeping and appeared to be in a
confused mental state. Arslan speculated that his father
might have been given psychotropic drugs. He also noted that
his father had mysterious marks on the back of his legs.


4. (C) Arslan explained the difficult conditions his father
has endured while imprisoned. He said that his father was
first detained in pre-trial detention in October 2005. In
March 2006, he was convicted on politically-motivated charges
of tax evasion and illegal commodities trading (his sentence
was eventually reduced to seven years and eight months on
humanitarian grounds). In May 2006, Sanjar Umarov was
transferred to the Qizil-Tepe prison. According to Arslan,
the approximately 3,000 inmates at Qizil-Tepe are required to

work at a brick-making factory adjacent to the prison. He
said that his father was one of only three inmates at the
prison who was required to work inside the factory's brick
furnace, which is considered to be the most difficult and
dangerous job. After three days of working in the furnace,
his father refused to work further and was thrown in solitary
confinement for three weeks. Following his release, Sanjar
Umarov briefly went back to the furnace, but after eventually
refusing to work again, he was reportedly placed in solitary
confinement for 14 months. Arslan also shared with the
attendees enlarged Google Earth aerial photographs of
Qizil-Tepe, which showed the location of the prison, nearby
factory, and isolation cells.


5. (C) Arslan said that he was able to visit his father
twice in the summer of 2006. He said that his father's
health at the time was stable but had already begun to
deteriorate. After his father's 14-month stint in solitary
confinement, Arslan was able to visit his father again in
July 2007. At the time, Arslan said that his father's mental
condition had worsened and he was speaking incoherently.
From that point onwards, Arslan and other family members were
able to visit Sanjar approximately once every three months.
Arslan reported that his father's condition began to take
another serious turn for the worse in March (ref D). Arslan
said that he will have one last chance to see his father
before he departs Uzbekistan again and offered to provide an
update on his father's health to the attendees via poloff.


6. (C) While the news about Umarov's deteriorating health
was reported on independent websites, it still appeared to be
new information for some of the European diplomats. For
example, German Political Officer Uwe Berndt said that he had
not heard of Umarov's deteriorating condition and planned to
cable Berlin that night with the news.

UMAROV DESCRIBES ADVOCACY EFFORTS BY HIS FAMILY
-------------- --


7. (C) Arslan reported that his family has repeatedly
attempted to advocate for Sanjar Umarov's behalf with the
government. He reported that his family has sent numerous
letters to all relevant government bodies - including the
Presidential Apparatus, the Supreme Court, the National
Security Service, the General Prosecutor's Office, the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and its Prisons
Directorate (GUIN),the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, and
the National Human Rights Center - asking that his father be
amnestied or released on humanitarian grounds. Arslan said
his family rarely received replies, and the replies they did
receive invariably stated that Umarov had been duly convicted
of his alleged crimes and was ineligible for amnesty as he
had violated internal prison regulations (Note: Political
prisoners are routinely accused of violating internal prison
regulations in order to disqualify them for the annual
amnesty. End note).


8. (C) Arslan reported that according to Uzbek law, Sanjar
Umarov could be released from prison if he paid the 8.6
million dollar fine that was levied against him at trial.
Umarov reported that his family was unable to pay such a
large fine, as the government had already confiscated most of
their former property and business interests. Arslan
provided the attendees with a list of property that had been
confiscated by the government from the Umarov family. Arslan
said that almost all of the property belonged to Sanjar's
brothers and not Sanjar himself. He estimated that the
property's combined worth was about 10 million dollars. He
noted that almost none of the confiscated property was
counted towards Sanjar's fine.


9. (C) Arslan said that he had met with representatives of
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),which
restarted prison visits in Uzbekistan in February. The ICRC
representatives reportedly told Arslan that they have not yet
visited the Qizil-Tepe prison, where his father is being
held, and would not say if they planned to visit the prison
in the future.

UMAROV PROVIDES BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON FATHER'S CASE
-------------- --------------


10. (C) Umarov also recalled the history of his father's
involvement in the opposition Sunshine Coalition, a
pro-democracy secular opposition movement. He described his
father as an idealist who sought to unite independent groups
to engage in dialogue with the Uzbek government and encourage
gradual democratic and economic reforms. He stressed that
his father publicly affirmed his allegiance to the Uzbek
Constitution and disavowed any attempts to force President
Karimov from power. Arslan believes that his father was
making progress until the government unleashed a ruthless
crackdown of all perceived opposition groups following the
May 2005 Andijan events. While Sanjar Umarov was a
successful businessman, Arslan noted that by the time he
formed the Sunshine Coalition, Sanjar had few remaining
business interests in Uzbekistan. According to Arslan,
Sanjar's two brothers controlled the delivery of oil to the
Ferghana Valley through Tajikistan and were far wealthier
than Sanjar himself.

A (FORMERLY) WELL-CONNECTED FAMILY
--------------


11. (C) Before his father's imprisonment, Arslan noted that
his family had well-developed connections among Uzbekistan's
elite. He said that his great-grandfather served as the
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan in the
1950s. He also noted that National Security Service (NSS)
Chairman Rustam Inoyatov was a distant relative (Sanjar
Umarov's sister-in-law is married to Inoyatov's brother).
Soon after the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001,
Arslan said that Inoyatov provided his father with a
monopoly on renewed trade with Afghanistan across the
Friendship Bridge at Termez. As soon as his father was
arrested, though, Arslan explained that his family's contacts
became afraid to be associated with them and have not been
able to do much to help Sanjar. In addition, many of his
father's former contacts in government have since lost their
positions.


12. (C) Arslan reported that Rafik Sayfullin, the former
head of Uzbekistan's Strategic Studies Institute and now an
"independent" political consultant, served as an informal
consultant for the Sunshine Coalition before his father's
imprisonment. In June, Sayfullin traveled to Washington,
where he met with Gulam about Sanjar Umarov (Sayfullin also
had meetings on other topics with U.S. government officials
and representatives of non-governmental organizations).
According to Arslan, upon his return, Sayfullin briefed
National Security Council Chairman Rustam Ataev and Inoyatov
on his trip to Washington. However, Sayfullin reportedly
told Arslan that "no one" wants to brief President Karimov on
Umarov's case, as Karimov "is paranoid" and has a tendency
"to shoot the messenger."


13. (C) The Umarov family has hired Anatoliy Lisunov, who
served as the director of the Qizil-Tepe prison in the 1980s,
to serve as Sanjar Umarov's lawyer. Lisunov knows the
current director of the Qizil-Tepe prison well, having served
at one point as his supervisor. However, Lisunov was
reportedly told by the current prison director that Sanjar

Umarov was under the "special control of Tashkent," and he
therefore could not intervene to improve conditions for him.
The prison official even allegedly refused to accept a bribe
from Lisunov. Arslan speculated that his father was under
the "special control" of President Karimov, and only Karimov
could decide whether to improve conditions for Umarov or
not.

UMAROV SAYS SUNSHINE COALITION STILL ACTIVE
--------------


14. (C) Arslan said that the Sunshine Coalition was still
active and was now registered as a non-profit organization in
the United States. While their main focus continues to be
Sanjar Umarov's release, Arslan said that the Sunshine
Coalition - now headed by his older brother Gulam - continues
to work on other human rights issues. For example, Arslan
reported that the Sunshine Coalition operates a fund to
support human rights defenders in Uzbekistan, conducts
research on the use of child labor in Uzbekistan's annual
cotton harvest, and is working with a group of American and
Uzbek economists to promote economic reforms in Uzbekistan.


SANJAR'S WIFE GAINS AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP
--------------


15. (C) Arslan also reported that his mother had finally
become a naturalized United States citizen in June. Arslan's
two sisters were born in the United States and are already
citizens. Arslan reported that his mother is interested in
traveling to Uzbekistan on her American passport to visit her
husband, but she is afraid to leave her daughters alone in
the United States. According to Arslan, the daughters have
applied for Uzbek visas with the Uzbek Embassy in Washington,
but have not yet received a response.

REACTION OF EUROPEAN DIPLOMATS
--------------


16. (C) After Arslan's presentation, the attendees discussed
what steps the West could take to intervene on Sanjar
Umarov's behalf with the Uzbek government. French DCM
Christophe Le Rigoleur believed that issuing an EU
declaration on Umarov would be counterproductive. He noted
that the treatment of human rights activist Mutabar
Tojiboyeva, who was released from prison in May, appeared to
worsen every time the EU issued a declaration on her case.
German Political Officer Uwe Berndt agreed with Le Rigoleur
that the Uzbek government did not respond well to public
pressure. He also expressed his belief that having
high-level officials raise Umarov's case with government
officials was possible but probably would be ineffective.
British Political Officer Ben Greenwood believed it was
important to raise Umarov's case with government officials,
but likewise cautioned that is was unlikely to result in
Umarov's release. The EU officials also assured Arslan that
his father was on a list of political prisoners that it had
presented to the government and that the EU continues to urge
the Uzbeks to release greater numbers of political prisoners
(Note: Umarov is also on a list of political prisoners that
the Embassy presented to the government earlier this year.
End note.)


17. (C) In the end, all of the attendees agreed that the
best approach was for the United States and European
Embassies to privately express concerns to the government
over reports of Umarov's worsening health and request that he
be released on medical grounds. As poloff noted, Umarov's
release would be in the government's best interest, as his
deteriorating health is becoming another public relations

disaster for the Karimov regime.

ARSLAN DISCUSSES CONFLICTING REPORTS IN PREVIOUS MEETING
-------------- --------------


18. (C) Poloff also met separately with Arslan on July 23.
At that meeting, poloff inquired with Arslan about a report
from June that Umarov's condition had improved in prison,
which had been relayed to poloff by Sunshine Coalition member
Nigara Khidoyatova (ref E). Arslan reported that his aunt
had visited Umarov in June, but she could only see him
through glass. After that meeting, the aunt told Arslan that
Umarov's mental condition had appeared to improve since she
last saw him in March, but also noted that his body was
covered in a black robe and it was difficult to assess his
general health. Arslan added that his family did not share
everything they know about Umarov with Khidoyatova, as they
did not fully trust her.

COMMENT
--------------


19. (C) The informal roundtable served as a substantive
follow-up to the DRL-sponsored "Prisoner of Conscience" panel
discussion at the United Nations and provided Arslan Umarov
with the opportunity to share with European diplomats
information about his father's deteriorating health in
prison. It also enabled Western diplomats in Tashkent the
opportunity to formulate a common message to deliver to the
government on the issue. Arslan appears to be a sincere
young man and genuinely worried about his father's worsening
health. While it is impossible for us to verify his
information, we believe that it is credible.
BUTCHER