VIENNA, Austria - Human rights are under unprecedented threat across Central Asia, where people still lack basic rights and terrorists can flourish, an international monitoring group warns in a new report.
Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said the human rights situation in the region "is deteriorating precipitously, increasing the threat of terrorism."
"Many of the basic human rights ... are still under serious threat despite years of so-called 'transition,'" Rhodes said as the IHF released its annual report on human rights across the 40-nation region covered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Numerous human rights defenders were unjustly detained, beaten and tortured, among them a Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan activist who died of his wounds in 2001.
The IHF said freedom of expression has been restricted across Central Asia, ranging from virtual censorship in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to the failure of authorities elsewhere to grant journalists access to information.
Religious freedoms also have been under fire in countries such as Uzbekistan, where the IHF said thousands of Muslims have been persecuted over the last two years. It said many of those arrested were sent to a prison located in a former chemical weapons testing area.
The IHF report also was critical of anti-terrorism measures adopted after Sept. 11 by the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Sweden, which it said "expand police powers to intrude into the private life of individuals" and endanger the rights of asylum seekers and other foreigners.
Torture and ill treatment by law enforcement officers remained among the most widespread human rights violations, with cases of police violence reported in nearly all countries, but were most routine in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the report said.
"In Uzbekistan, torture and ill treatment were not only used to extract confessions from detainees, but also to force victims to incriminate or reveal the whereabouts of others, mostly relatives," the IHF said.
Over the past two years, 70 political prisoners reportedly have died as a result of police violence, the group said.