Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service's Central Asia Correspondent, was detained on the morning of August 11 by the Uzbek authorities on arrival at Tashkent Airport.

According to Forum 18 News Service, Rotar is still being held by the Uzbek authorities, who are forcibly preventing him from communicating with anyone. He is being held in the airport's transit lounge, where he spent the night.

Reliable sources indicate that the detention was ordered "for political reasons at the highest levels" and that the detention was carried out by the Immigration Service and Border Guards, on the instructions of the National Security Service secret police.

The Uzbek authorities are refusing to comment on the case, but international condemnation is growing as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other international diplomats follow Igor Rotar's detention closely.

According to John Kinahan of Forum 18 News Service, Igor Rotar was detained by Uzbek authorities as he arrived at Tashkent Airport from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan at 10.25 local time. He was initially asked to buy his own deportation ticket.

One observer, who saw Igor from a distance some two hours after his detention began, described him as being at that time physically unhurt but shaken and disturbed.

Igor is a Russian citizen and the Russian Embassy in Tashkent is aware of the case. Igor Rotar has earned widespread praise for his consistently informed reporting of the religious freedom situation in Uzbekistan. His most recent article, of 10 August, can be viewed at
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=626
The Uzbek authorities have been attempting to stifle independent media outlets, as in the case of their harassment of the Western Non-Governmental Organisation, Internews.

Several human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have condemned Rotar's detention and called for his release.

Stuart Windsor, CSW's National Director, said: "Rotar's detention is yet another example of Uzbekistan's determination to silence the media and other independent voices. CSW is calling for his immediate and unconditional release, and further calls upon the international community to urge Uzbekistan to ensure its national legislation and practice complies with international human rights guarantees, in particular freedom of speech and religion."

Notes to editors.
 
President Islam Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan since 1989 when he became Uzbek Communist Party leader.

Communist ideology has long been abandoned, but his rule remains highly authoritarian, with little political, social, media or religious freedom. Thousands of real or suspected opposition activists – including Islamic radicals – have been
incarcerated in labour camps where torture is routine. The death penalty is still carried out in secret.

Opposition political parties are banned and leaders imprisoned or driven into exile. Independent newspapers have been shut down and human rights activists
threatened. Meanwhile, the country remains poor and many live at subsistence level.

Religious Freedom
In theory Uzbekistan is committed to religious freedom – the Constitution enshrines such freedom and the country has signed up to international human rights commitments to respect religious freedom (such as the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). But in practice such commitments are ignored.

Unregistered religious activity is banned and even meetings in private homes have been punished by detention, fines and even imprisonment, as Forum 18 News Service has reported.

Religious literature is censored and needs official approval before it can be published. Books and magazines confiscated during police raids on religious communities or seized at the border – including Bibles – have been burnt on court orders.

Missionary work and proselytism are banned. Religious education is tightly controlled: only religious groups that have registration (such as the Muslims
and Russian Orthodox) are officially allowed to maintain colleges. Private religious meetings and teaching, such as Bible study groups, are banned. Wearing "religious clothes" in public is prohibited.

Religion Law
The harsh 1998 religion law – which brought in the ban on unregistered religious activity – requires religious communities to have 100 adult citizen members
before they can apply for registration and requires the approval of numerous local and national government agencies for each community. This makes it all
but impossible to register new religious communities, many of which do not have enough members. But even some with more than the minimum 100 have
been refused.

Although traditionally a Muslim country, or perhaps because of it,
Islam remains the faith that is the most tightly restricted. With Muslims constituting over 90 per cent of Uzbekistan's population, the authorities see Islamic radicalism as a serious threat to the country's security. Mosques and Islamic schools have been closed down.

The Muslim Board – which is in effect an agency of the state – controls the appointment of all imams and issues the texts of sermons for Friday prayers. The
government even controls the numbers of Muslims who can travel on the Haj pilgrimage.

For a personal commentary by a Muslim scholar, advocating religious freedom for all faiths as the best antidote to Islamic religious extremism in Uzbekistan, see www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338
For more background, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=546
A printer-friendly map of Uzbekistan is available at www.nationalgeographic.com Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at www.forum18.org or email  18news@editor.forum18.org