UZBEKISTAN-TORTURE - Uzbeks promise to probe violent death in jail

     By Shamil Baigin

TASHKENT, May 26  - U.S. ally Uzbekistan has agreed to set up a commission to investigate the violent death of a suspect in a local jail, an Uzbek official said on Wednesday, after a human rights body suggested he was tortured.   

The inquiry is unprecedented in the secretive Central Asian state, where deaths in custody are common. 

The U.S. State Department is due to decide soon whether to "certify" Uzbek progress on human rights and democracy, without which Congress cannot approve tens of millions of dollars in aid. 

 The commission, to be headed by the Uzbek prosecutor-general, will also include Russian and U.S. diplomats, U.S. forensic experts and non-governmental organisations, an Uzbek government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) welcomed the decision to form the commission but raised doubts about the safety of the man's relatives and called for an independent inquiry.

Murder suspect Andrei Shelkovenko, 36, died last week while in police detention near the capital Tashkent. HRW said he had an open wound to his head, cuts on his neck and legs, a blackened scrotum and many bruises.

Police said Shelkovenko died on his way to hospital after trying to hang himself in his prison cell.

"Uzbekistan intends to find out the true picture of what happened," the government official said. "The only task is to conduct an objective investigation, leaving no controversy, and to inform the world public in full."

Allison Gill, HRW researcher in Uzbekistan, said the investigation must be "swift, impartial, thorough and transparent". "But I have concerns...about the safety of the (man's) family. Local police have threatened and pressured them.

"They employed a lot of pressure to bury the body as quickly as possible...so that an independent examination could not be performed," she said.

Uzbekistan has given Washington the use of an airbase for operations in neighbouring Afghanistan. Uzbek rights activists say they are concerned that Washington avoids condemning the authoritarian state for fear of losing access to the base.       Strongman President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan for 15 years, has said torture is no longer systematic in jails.

But human rights groups say thousands of prisoners, mainly Muslim dissidents, are jailed on flimsy pretexts.

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros's Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation, which encourages civil society, was forced out of the country in April.    

Uzbekistan - Investigation of torture death 

Uzbekistan (AP) _ A week after Andrei Shelkovenko was allegedly tortured to death by police, his mother refuses to bury his body _ insisting on an independent autopsy to prove he didn't hang himself as authorities claim.

   Her persistence, backed up with a lot of international pressure, has forced

Uzbekistan's government to take what rights activists say are unprecedented steps to investigate the death of an alleged torture victim and for the first time allow foreign experts to examine the body.

Uzbekistan has long been accused of rights abuses. A U.N. report last year found torture was <systematic> in prisons. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Shelkovenko's death was the fifth in police custody it has documented since May 2003.   On Thursday, U.S. and Canadian experts are due to observe an autopsy of Shelkovenko's body, which is being kept in a hospital morgue in Tashkent. In addition, Uzbek authorities have formed a special investigative team to probe the death. It had its first meeting Wednesday.

<We were promised access to each and every step of the way,> said Mjusa Sever, director of the U.S.-based rights group Freedom House. 

Activists praised the government's apparent openness in its handling of Shelkovenko's death, but say it's too early to judge whether those responsible will face punishment.   Uzbek officials have been closely monitoring the U.S. response to the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq and the determination of U.S. authorities to punish those responsible for those cases may have influenced Tashkent's handling of its own case of alleged detainee abuse, Sever said.    Other issues may also have influenced the Uzbek government. The United States is set to decide soon on whether to continue giving aid to this Central Asian nation. Washington has linked the aid to an improvement in human rights.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that the recurring deaths in detention were <unacceptable> and called for a <swift, transparent and professional investigation> into Shelkovenko's death, demanding those responsible be held accountable.    Shelkovenko, 36, was arrested April 23 on suspicion of committing a robbery that led to murder. His sister Viktoria, 24, was able to see him six days later, and said his face was swollen and he had a broken jaw and other injuries he alleged were the result of three days of torture that included being beaten with clubs and burned with cigarettes.

Authorities maintain Shelkovenko hanged himself  in his   cell at the Gazalkent police station and that his body was returned to his family without any other injuries other than those inflicted from the hanging.

     However, photographs of the body taken by Human Rights Watch do not show injury to the front of his neck, such as would have been inflicted in a hanging. Instead, the pictures show open, bloody head wounds and other bruises and abrasions. The body also had black marks and swelling in the genital area.

     Shelkovenko's mother, Lyudmila Bochkaryova, has been pushing for an independent investigation into her son's death _ a move, she says, that has not been welcomed by the authorities.    She has received phone threats, been confronted by officials and had plainclothes agents follow her family, Bochkaryova said. She has also been pressured to quickly bury Shelkovenko's body.

     <They pressured me to have a funeral,> Bochkaryova said at the family's apartment in Gazalkent, an industrial town about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the capital Tashkent. But <without an autopsy ... he won't be buried.>  She said she hoped publicizing her son's death will prevent the torture of other people.

     <I just want to do this so that no other mothers cry, so that I'm the last one that loses a son like this,> Bochkaryova said as she clutched a week after Andrei Shelkovenko was allegedly tortured to death by police, his mother refuses to bury his body _ insisting on an independent autopsy to prove he didn't hang himself as authorities claim.

    Her persistence, backed up with a lot of international pressure, has forced Uzbekistan's government to take what rights activists say are unprecedented steps to investigate the death of an alleged torture victim and for the first time allow foreign experts to examine the body.

    Uzbekistan has long been accused of rights abuses. A U.N. report last year found torture was <systematic> in prisons. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Shelkovenko's death was the fifth in police custody it has documented since May 2003.

    On Thursday, U.S. and Canadian experts are due to observe an autopsy of Shelkovenko's body, which is being kept in a hospital morgue in Tashkent. In addition, Uzbek authorities have formed a special investigative team to probe the death. It had its first meeting Wednesday.   <We were promised access to each and every step of the way,> said Mjusa Sever, director of the U.S.-based rights group Freedom House.   Activists praised the government's apparent openness in its handling of Shelkovenko's death, but say it's too early to judge whether those responsible will face punishment.   Uzbek officials have been closely monitoring the U.S. response to the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq and the determination of U.S. authorities to punish those responsible for those cases may have influenced Tashkent's handling of its own case of alleged detainee abuse, Sever said.   Other issues may also have influenced the Uzbek government. The United States is set to decide soon on whether to continue giving aid to this Central Asian nation. Washington has linked the aid to an improvement in human rights.

    The U.S. State Department said Friday that the recurring deaths in detention were <unacceptable> and called for a <swift, transparent and professional investigation> into Shelkovenko's death, demanding those responsible be held accountable.   Shelkovenko, 36, was arrested April 23 on suspicion of committing a robbery that led to murder. His sister Viktoria, 24, was able to see him six days later, and said his face was swollen and he had a broken jaw and other injuries he alleged were the result of three days of torture that included being beaten with clubs and burned with  cigarettes.

    Authorities maintain Shelkovenko hanged himself in his cell at the Gazalkent police station and that his body was returned to his family without any other injuries other than those inflicted from the hanging.   However, photographs of the body taken by Human Rights Watch do not show  injury to the front of his neck, such as would have been inflicted in a hanging. Instead, the pictures show open, bloody head wounds and other bruises and abrasions. The body also had black marks and swelling in the genital area.   Shelkovenko's mother, Lyudmila Bochkaryova, has been pushing for an independent investigation into her son's death _ a move, she says, that has not been welcomed by the authorities.

    She has received phone threats, been confronted by officials and had plainclothes agents follow her family, Bochkaryova said. She has also been pressured to quickly bury Shelkovenko's body.

    <They pressured me to have a funeral,> Bochkaryova said at the family's apartment in Gazalkent, an industrial town about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the capital Tashkent. But <without an autopsy ... he won't be buried.>  She said she hoped publicizing her son's death will prevent the torture of other people.   <I just want to do this so that no other mothers cry, so that I'm the last one that loses a son like this,> Bochkaryova said as she clutched a black-and-white photograph of her son.