Subject: An Osh based journalist charged with incitement of ethnic hostilities
From: Alisher Khamidov (alisher@infotel.kg)
Date: Thu Jun 08 2000 - 13:01:52 EDT
While Zamira Sydikova, editor-in-chief of the Bishkek based weekly newspaper
"Respublika", prepares for the International Women's Media Foundation Award
to be taken place in October, 2000, another Kyrghyzstani editor-in-chief
from Osh is getting ready for his court hearing scheduled on June 13th,
2000. This is the third one, and it will conclude a series of hearings held
on different levels (the first held in Osh local court, the second in the
Supreme Court). The case is closely connected with the period of heated
political campaign of parliamentary election in February, 2000 in the
southern Kyrghyzstan.
Khakimjon Khusanov, 27, a Kyrghyzstani Uzbek who works for the Osh based
TV-station Mezon (broadcasting language mainly Uzbek), is presently charged
with accusations described in the article 299 of the Kyrghyz Republic's
criminal code (incitement of nationalistic, racial and religious tensions
using the mass communications). The main evidence used by the Osh
Procurator, the accusation body, is "politicheski reklamni rolik," -a TV
commercial that was produced by Khakimjon, his assistant and 4 actors from
the Osh Uzbek Drama Theatre in January, 2000. The commercial was prepared
to assist the elections campaign of Davron Sabirov, an ethnic Uzbek, then a
candidate to the parliament from a majority Uzbek election disctrict # 34.
It was aired on local Uzbek station OshTV on February 2nd and 3rd, 2000.
On February 11th, the district #34 election committee issued a ruling that
barred incumbent, Davron Sabirov from running for reelection. Authorities
based their ruling on the TV commercial produced by Khakimjon Khusanov which
was aired on Osh TV. At the meeting, which invited neither Davron Sobirov
nor the producer of the broadcast, 12 committee members of the district #34
and a group of local experts viewed the commercial that depicted a
historical scene of a traveler in the forest being attacked by several
robbers. The broadcast ended with a written appeal to voters: " If you do
not wish such a thing to happen to you, do cast your ballot for the worthy
candidate - Davron Sobirov." The 9 out of 12 members of the committee
alleged that the "traveler" in the commercial, who appeared to be an Uzbek,
was being attacked by "robbers" who looked very much Kyrghyz. Despite of
the fact that a number of invited experts stated that people shown in the
commercial could be equally identified as Uzbeks, Kyrghyzs, Kazakh ( who
shared similar facial appearance and attire since many centuries), the
committee accused Davron Sobirov of inciting interethnic hostility. A ruling
that barred him from running for reelection followed shortly after.
Davron Sabirov immediately appealed the decision of the district committee
in Bishkek, capital of Kyrghyztan. According to him, the "notorious"
commercial was produced and aired without his acknowledgement and prior
consent. He even expressed his wish to bring an action against Mezon and Osh
TV in court for their unauthorized production. This seemed quite ironic,
with Mezon TV being an organ of the Osh Oblast Uzbek Association headed by
Mr. Sobirov himself. On February 12th, the Central Elections Committee (CEC)
upheld his appeal finding that the district #34 election committee had
violated the elections code by not allowing Sobirov to testify at the
meeting before the committee made its ruling. With that done, the CEC
forwarded the tape with the commercial to the General Procurator's Office of
the Kyrghyz Republic for further investigation.
In the meantime, with only few days left before the first round poll on
February 20, Davron Sobirov was again taken to the court in Osh. This time
by his opponents Ashirbek Bakiev, army general, and Khikmatillo Abdullaev, a
prosperous local businessman, who, in addition to the "nationalistic"
commercial, accused Sobirov for the words used in his campaign slogans:
"UZing haksan, UZing halksan, UZing Mezon - Mening halkim!" ( "YOU
yourselves are right, YOU yourselves are the people, YOU Yourselves are the
measure- My people). According to Sobirov's opponents, these words were
directly referring to the word "UZbek."
On 17th of February, the Osh court ruling found Davron Sobirov guilty of
incriminated charges and terminated his candidacy for the second time. This
resulted in protests of Sobirov's supporters who headed to the governor's
office straightly from the courtroom. A number of Davron Sobirov's female
supporters attempted to assault his opponent Khikmatillo Abdullaev, an
ethnic Uzbek, for his offensive tone towards Sobirov during the court
hearing. At the square, infront of the Osh oblast administration building,
crowds of Davron Sobirov's electorate ( among whom were Uzbeks, Russians,
Kyrghyzs, Tatars, etc.) demanded that the governor take an action to
reinstate Davron Sobirov as a candidate. Since the governor was not
available, a march ended at the Osh Town Administration Head, Jusupbek
Sharipov's office. Mr. Sharipov discussed with protesters their demands and
promised to help. In the evening, local TV "Pyramid-Osh", aired news reports
from protest sites in which one could see people who angrily shouted at
police and to officials: " There is no democracy in this country, where is
the justice when the most suitable candidate is taken out ??!!!" The news
reports showed a number of ethnic Uzbek women who cried and yelled infront
of cameras. According to Davron Sobirov's critics, participants were paid
for their participation in the protests. Moreover, critics believe that
previously, as the chairman of the Osh natural gas management, Davron
Sobirov assisted his supporters to install gas meters for very low prices.
With only three days left before the election, Davron Sobirov's appeal to
overturn the decision of the court decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Eventually, in the second stage of a run-off between Davron Sobirov and
Ashirbek Bakaev, Sobirov got the majority of the vote and became the member
of the Jogorku Kenesh (national parliament).
For Davron Sobirov, the end was rather positive. But for Khakimjon Khusanov,
things seem to take a rough turn. On February 12th, the Central Elections
Committee, which reinstated Davron Sobirov as a candidate, who claimed he
did not give authorization for the broadcast, forwarded the tape with the
commercial to the General Prosecutor's Office. The Prosecutor's office
delegated the case to the National Security Ministry official in Osh. On
31st of March, 2000, the National Security senior investigator submitted the
case to Osh prosecutor's office. After a month of investigation, the
prosecutor charged Khakimjon Khusanov with the above described article 299
of the Kyrghyz Republic's criminal code. Initially scheduled on May 2nd,
2000, the court hearing was postponed several times for a number of reasons:
at first, Khakimjon received the court's summon too late; second; from May
8th to May 27th, he was hospitalized due to health problems (bleeding
stomach ulcer).
Now, the court hearing is postponed from June 9th until June 13th, 2000. In
case the court finds him guilty of charges, Khakimjon is facing following
punishment: a) to pay a fine in som amount up to 500 minimal wages; b) 6
months imprisonment; c) from 1 to 3 years of imprisonment; d) from 3 to 5
years imprisonment. The court's decision will be based on the opinion of
experts who are expected to determine whether the video commercial contained
incitement of ethnic hostilities.
According to Khakimjon Khusanov's lawyer, A. Kim, the commercial did not
intend to neither depict nor hint on incitement of ethnic hostilities.
Khakimjon's mere goal was to demonstrate to the public social inequality
between the rich people - "robbers" who can equally be Uzbek, Kyrghyz,
Turkmen, Kazakh , and poor - "the traveler" who can also represent any
Central Asian nationality. Khakimjon's idea was to show ordinary people to
cast their ballots for the parliament member who can protect them from
"robbers" i.e. rich people. Moreover, the script of the video was borrowed
from a famous Soviet poet Khamza Khakimzade Niazi, who devoted a number of
his satirical poems ("Elect me," and "The Bai (rich) and Batrak(poor)" to
the theme of elections conducted before the Soviet Union. The hardest issue
about Khakimdjon's video commercial is that it can be interpreted
differently depending on which perspective one takes.
The issue separated local experts and journalists. As of now, 30 regional
journalists and experts from Osh believe that Khakimjon Khusanov is not
guilty. 10 journalists from CIS and abroad joined this group. The Osh Media
Resource Center, a media development organization in the south of
Kyrghyzstan, has launched a campaign to collect signatures of journalists to
support Khakimjon Khusanov. Internews Network -Kyrghyzstan, and association
"Journalists" headed by Kuban Mambetaliev are supporting Khakimjon Khusanov
as well.
With best regards,
Alisher Khamidov
Director, Osh Media Resource Center
Email: alisher@infotel.kg
Fax: (996) 3222 20858
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