Vasila Inoiatova is chair of Ezgulik – one of the two registered human rights organizations in Uzbekistan. Ezgulik has branches throughout Uzbekistan. The organization was registered in 2003, on the eve of the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which took place in Tashkent.
Ms. Inoiatova became active in the civil movement Birlik in 1989 and is now secretary general of the Birlik political party. In 1992 Ms. Inoiatova joined the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan. A year later, the Supreme Court sentenced her to two years in prison for insulting the president for an article she had published about the killing of about 100 students by Uzbek governmental forces in 1992. She was released under an amnesty. In 1994 she was held for 16 days in administrative detention to prevent her from travelling to the United States.
After the mass arrests of independent Muslims that followed the February 16, 1999, bombings in Tashkent, Vasila Inoiatova became involved in documenting cases of religious persecution.
Ezgulik reports these violations on a regular basis in letters sent directly to the Uzbek government and in other statements that it distributes widely and posts to its website.
www.ezgulik.org
