Musical Thought-Crime in Uzbekistan

Tuesday, 30 May, 2006

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IWPR staff

			There Was a Massacre in Andijan (Translation of a song by Dadakhon Hasanov) Don’t say you haven’t heard, You well-dressed princesses. Hey, you deaf and blind ones - There was a massacre in Andijan. On the president’s orders, With Kalashnikov bullets The people were shot at by his servants. There was a massacre in Andijan The Padishah [Shah] did not listen to the people, He did not hear their cries of suffering, He has not chosen the path of justice. There was a massacre in Andijan He let the armoured vehicles open crackling fire, Killing young and old, Shooting, shooting, shooting terribly. There was a massacre in Andijan. Shooting, cutting people to ribbons, Hunting them down in the streets, Like dogs biting their prey. There was a massacre in Andijan. Children died on the streets, Bright red like tulips, Shattered mothers were weeping, There was a massacre in Andijan. He destroyed a local community, Shaken like fruit from a mulberry tree, Both men and women. There was a massacre in Andijan. Women with babes in arms, Pregnant women too, Died begging for mercy. There was a massacre in Andijan. The whole world found out about this massacre, Everyone was filled with anger. There was a massacre in Andijan. Fatherless sons born in the street - That’s who did the shooting. There was a massacre in Andijan. The bastards who fired the shots Are the kind who sleep with their mothers, And are mired in their own excrement. There was a massacre in Andijan We tested our ruthless leader, And found him a terrorist. We were filled with hatred and sorrow. There was a massacre in Andijan. Uzbeks will not awaken, Sunk in their fear, Dictators will continue to shoot. There was a massacre in Andijan. Don’t say you haven’t heard, You well-dressed princesses. Hey, you deaf and blind ones - There was a massacre in Andijan.

Following the jailing of two men for listening to a song criticising the government’s
role in the Andijan violence last year, there are concerns for the safety of
the poet who wrote the words.

After security forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators in the city
of Andijan on May 13, 2005, poet and singer Dadakhon Hasanov felt impelled to
write something the very next day.

In the days following the Andijan violence, listeners to Radio Liberty's Uzbek-language
service, which is beamed into the country from Prague, heard a series of angry
songs written and performed by Hasanov.

“Don’t say you haven’t heard…. There was a massacre in Andijan,” one of them
began, before accusing President Islam Karimov of presiding over an indiscriminate
massacre.

While the government insists that fewer than 200 people died – few or none
of them innocent civilians – human rights groups inside and outside the country
say that based on eyewitness accounts, many hundreds of men, women and children
were killed in cold blood by the security forces.

The official refusal to allow an independent investigation to clarify matters
has led to a rift with the West, which President Islam Karimov previously courted.

Using images redolent of the Central Asian landscape, Hasanov sang of people
being shot down like mulberries shaken from a tree, and children lying dead
and bloodied like red tulips.

Karimov was described as an unjust “Shah” who ordered Kalashnikov bullets to
fly and ignored his subjects’ “cries of suffering”.

Hasanov is a well known figure in Uzbekistan and his songs are widely circulated
even though they never get airtime on the tightly controlled state broadcasting
outlets.

He has an impressive track-record as a dissident – his works were first banned
in the Eighties at a time when no one would have believed Uzbekistan would ever
be a separate country. Throughout the transition from Soviet republic to Uzbek
nation-state, he has continued to use his songs, accompanying himself on a traditional
lute or "tar", to comment on events and criticise the powers that
be.

“Hasanov only sings political, revolutionary songs about Uzbekistan – about
how instead of becoming independent, the country has grown dependent on its
dictator,” said Alisher Saipov, a journalist in southern Kyrgyzstan where there
is a large ethnic Uzbek community.

“These songs raise people’s spirits. He’s singing about what ordinary people
are thinking... [the songs] create euphoria and excitement, and sometimes make
you want to cry.”

“That’s the reason the authorities persecute people who listen to these songs
and pass them around.”

Hasanov was called in for questioning on April 12 and a criminal case has been
opened accusing him of actions undermining the constitutional system – a grave
charge which amounts to an accusation of plotting a coup d’etat – and "producing
and distributing materials that threaten public safety and order", presumably
the music tapes.

He has not been detained but has been ordered not to leave the country, and
his Tashkent home and car have been seized as security.

“He’s been arrested a few times [already], but he still stands up and expresses
his views on every historic event, such as Andijan,” said a local human rights
activist who remains anonymous because of fears for his safety.

In a recent interview with the AFP news agency, Hasanov said, “Why should I
be afraid?… If they shoot again, I will answer with songs.”

As in the Soviet days of "samizdat", cassettes with Hasanov's recordings
are passed privately from hand to hand.

To date, it has been unusual for the post-Soviet Uzbek authorities to jail
someone for possessing dissident music, although other literature such as leaflets
from the banned Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been used to secure convictions
of Muslim extremists, real or imagined.

Last month two men - Hazrat Ahmedov, a 68-year-old pensioner, and pediatrician
Jamal Kutliev, 58 - were sentenced to four and seven years respectively the
western city of Bukhara. They were arrested in November last year, reportedly
on the basis of an anonymous denunciation to the secret police.

They were then charged under the same "constitutional system" and
“illegal materials” clauses as Hasanov, plus an additional provision which bans
the illegal formation of public associations and religious organisations. This
is likely to relate to their membership of the outlawed opposition party Erk.

Kutliev has led the local branch of Erk since 1990. Both he and Ahmedov were
reportedly placed under heightened surveillance as part of the general post-Andijan
crackdown, as the authorities pursued both open critics of the regime and other
potential dissident voices.

“The two arrested in Bukhara belonged to the opposition, so other charges are
brought against them accordingly,” said Ghofurjon Yoldashev, a former correspondent
with Radio Liberty correspondent in Andijan, who pointed out that “even the
police in Bukhara have their own cassettes of Hasanov recordings”.

Kutliev and Ahmedov are well-known and respected figures in the Bukhara area,
so despite the secrecy surrounding the trial, many residents have heard what
happened to them.

Before his arrest, Kutliev was the head of a children’s hospital in the town
of Gidjuvan, where residents describe him as a decent and educated man. They
also expressed shock that a pensioner like Ahmedov should be imprisoned.

As the human rights activist said, “His songs express the pain of the Uzbek
people. And anyone who publicises the feelings and pain felt by the people is
persecuted by the dictatorship.”

IWPR contributor Rahmat Zokirov (pseudonym) contributed material for this report.