Freedom for Eurasia is publishing a letter from Akylbek Muratbai (Muratov), a Karakalpak human rights activist, which was intended to be presented on October 9, 2024, during a side event focused on repression in Karakalpakstan. This event was organized by Freedom for Eurasia as part of the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Akylbek Muratbai (Muratov) was detained in Kazakhstan at Uzbekistan’s request, facing charges related to reposting a speech by Koshkarbay Toremuratov delivered at the 2023 OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Regrettably, the letter from the Kazakhstani pre-trial detention center arrived late. It’s now been eight months since Akylbek’s detention.
Below is Akylbek’s letter in English.
Hello everyone!
I don’t know and I’m not sure that my letter will reach and be read before you, but I’m writing nevertheless. However, just as before years ago, we Karakalpaks are trying to inform the world community about our difficult situation, but often it seems as if our voices do not reach the addressees.
Everything is fine with me. I have been sitting in a Kazakhstan’s pre-trial detention center for 8 months, and I don’t know how long I will stay here. Uzbekistan is seeking my extradition, and Kazakhstan has already denied me asylum.
I am fighting and trying to challenge this denial of refugee status.
In my cell I spend my time reading and providing legal assistance to other detainees.
Apart from the lack of walks I do not complain about anything, as I know that things are much worse for Karakalpak activists arrested in Uzbekistan – torture is often used there, is murder possible? I would like to elaborate on this point.
In a week it will be 8 months from the day Alexei Navalny was murdered in a Russian prison by Putin’s regime. And I am sure that in some number of weeks or months already in an Uzbek prison the Mirziyoyev’s regime will kill Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov. I am not speculating or writing about this as one of many likely outcomes – I am convinced of it. The Uzbek authorities are seeking the death of the Karakalpak human rights activist. All the more so the latest report on his state of health confirms my fears.
Alexei Navalny’s death has had virtually no effect on the Russian regime, nor has it caused any damage to Putin and his entourage. Moreover, Alexei’s friends and associates, unfortunately, have been waging a war of kompromat among themselves since the death of their leader and discrediting each other with mutual accusations. Therefore, it can be said that Vladimir Putin has only benefited from Navalny’s assassination in prison.
All this combined pushes the Mirziyoev regime to kill the national hero of the Karakalpaks in an Uzbek prison.
If the death in custody of the Kremlin’s main adversary had no effect on the Russian government and even strengthened it, what can we say about Uzbekistan, which is on the relative periphery of the world community’s attention.
Therefore, international human rights activists and governments of democratic countries should more often and more loudly raise questions about human rights violations in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and the fate of Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov in particular. Tazhimuratov and other political activists should be immediately released, and the Uzbek authorities should stop repression and start a real and open dialog with the Karakalpaks.
Now the Mirziyoyev regime on its side is completely closed for dialog with the civil community of Karakalpakstan and uses only the language of arrests, torture and killings of Karakalpaks. If Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov dies in prison, the Karakalpaks (many or even most of them) who are now ready to communicate with Tashkent will also close down and turn to more radical methods of fighting for their rights.
The Karakalpaks will never forgive or forget Tazhimuratov’s death. In the next generations for sure. And this will undoubtedly affect stability and security in the entire Central Asian region.
Therefore, I once again urge the Uzbek authorities to release Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov and other political prisoners, including me, and start a dialog about the future of Karakalpakstan and the rights of Karakalpaks. It is better late now than never in the future.
Sincerely, Akylbek October 4, 2024
