Survivors break their silence: 5 years after the Andijan Massacre

Flora Carmichael — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:30:00 +0000

When state security forces opened fire on protestors in Andijan on May 13, 2005, killing hundreds, about 500 escaped and sought asylum outside of Uzbekistan. Fearing for the lives and well-being of their family members, for five years they did not speak out about the massacre. Now, some have broken the silence.

Bakhtiyar Muhtarov of Andijan – Justice and Rebirth is one of them. He has interviewed 220 witnesses of the massacre and the subsequent arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions. Nadejda Atayeva, Association of Human Rights in Central Asia, has collected evidence from Andijan morgue employees. Shamsuddin Atamatov is one of the 23 businessmen whose trial led to the protests, and was a witness to the massacre. Monica Whitlock recently produced a documentary film chronicling the tragedy. She gained interviews with eyewitnesses.

With Bahtiyar Muhtarov, deputy director, Andijan – Justice and Rebirth

Shamsuddin Atamatov, former businessman in Andijan

Nadejda Atayeva, president, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia

Monica Whitlock, producer, Through the Looking Glass: The Andijan Massacre, and former BBC correspondent in Central Asia.

For further information please contact Luis Montero at Luis.Montero@osf-eu.org, telephone 07798737516

Please RVSP to Daniela White, Daniela.White@osf-eu.org

In the Picture with Daniel Schwartz: Central Asia, the hinterland of war

Flora Carmichael — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:00:00 +0000

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This event will be moderated by Mitchell Albert associate editor of Steppe Magazine.

Swiss photographer and writer Daniel Schwartz has been travelling and documenting the Central Asian republics since the early years of their independence from the Soviet Union. His artistic book about the region Travelling Through the Eye of History reflects on the entangled histories of the Silk Roads as well as present-day political and economic interdependencies linking the Caspian Sea and Kashmir, Iran and Western China via Afghanistan and the Pamirs.

Central Asia has been conquered and fought over for centuries. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the Russian and British empires during the Great Game and present day British and American troops have all battled there. Yet so little of what goes on between the countries and peoples that inhabit this vast swathe of land penetrates the Western media.

Schwartz is the recent recipient of the culture prize of the canton of Zurich, for his photographic achievement if the past 30 yrs, for bringing seemingly detached realities in front of the eyes of a saturated Swiss and Western public.

Photograph: Daniel Schwartz. Earning a Living on the Smuggler’s Road between Herat and the Iranian border- Afghanistan 2001.

CentralAsia – Frontline Club

Survivors break their silence: 5 years after the Andijan Massacre

In the Picture with Daniel Schwartz: Central Asia, the hinterland of war