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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |
| Uzbekistan Accused of Detaining Activist | |
| 2005-10-23 | |
| TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - A leading international human rights watchdog accused Uzbek authorities Saturday of holding a prominent rights activist in a psychiatric hospital and forcibly medicating her. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Elena Urlayeva told its representative that doctors at the Tashkent City Psychiatric Hospital where she was being held on Friday had given her a dose of a drug used to treat schizophrenia. "Using psychiatric treatment to silence Elena Urlayeva is a gross violation of medical ethics and international standards," Holly Cartner, the group's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement Saturday. "It's shocking that the hospital began the treatment without even waiting for the courts to consider her appeal."
A court had ordered Urlayeva to be committed to the hospital, but according to Uzbek law, the decision cannot take effect until the appeal period expires on Oct. 28 and she only can be given compulsory treatment afterward. A harsh critic of Uzbek President Islam Karimov's authoritarian regime, Urlayeva has been subjected in the past to repeated beatings and detentions, and was twice hospitalized by the ex-Soviet republic's authorities for psychiatric treatment. She was released following strong international pressure both times. Psychiatric treatment was commonly used in the Soviet Union as a way to silence dissidents. Urlayeva said she experienced dizziness and shaking after being forced to take the medication, symptoms that are consistent with the drug, the group said. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |