Uznews.net – Germany’s leading newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung published an article entitled the Uzbek Gulag about human rights activist Mutabar Tajibayeva, who had fallen seriously ill in prison and is now deprived of right to medical examination and treatment when she is free. The article was written by the editor-in-chief of Uznews.net, Galima Bukharbayeva, who knew Mutabar Tajibayeva closely until her arrest in 2005 and had conducted an active campaign to achieve her release.
The article describes about Mutabar Tajibayeva as a wonderful woman who combines courage and persistence in defending the ideals of human rights and simplicity and kindness, and how these qualities were violently tested by the regime of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The article is about the woman who was imprisoned in the 21st century only because of her convictions and faced torture and mistreatment which led to a serious illness.
Mutabar had a hysterectomy at Tashkent’s oncology hospital in March 2008. She still does not know anything about that operation but is continuing to suffer from pains. Rumours spread in the hospital and prison that she had developed cancer.
Mutabar is not allowed now to establish whether this is true or not. After her release she was placed under house arrest in Margilan where she is not able to undergo a professional medical check, while she is banned from travelling to Tashkent.
“What has happened to Mutabar is a crime. No operation should have been conducted without the consent of the patient or her relatives,” Galima Bukharbayeva said. “But I am not blaming the doctors who are also responsible for this but the Karimov regime.”
The article also cited Mutabar’s story about the life in prison where inmates are beaten up and punished for seeking justice, attempting to defend others and refusing to grass on others.
“Prison is a hell where each second is counts the time when your soul and body are destroyed,” the article cites Mutabar.
The regime of Islam Karimov, who has been ruling Uzbekistan single-handedly since 1989, Bukharbayeva said, has seized almost everything from the country’s people – freedom, right to be oneself, wealth and prosperity, religion and – is destroying places and monuments that are dear to people.
In Mutabar’s case, it destroyed not only externally but also internally, using a surgeon’s scalpel and this is inhumane, Bukharbayeva said.
