But officials appear hesitant to hold the government of Uzbekistan to account for its abysmal record on religious freedom. The government of Uzbekistan has waged an unrelenting campaign against independent Muslims for the past several years. Government repression against them stepped up after a series of explosions rocked Uzbekistan's capital in February 1999. Arrests continue to target religious persons linked to clerics who have fallen afoul of the government or pray outside of government-run mosques. Singled out for nothing more than the peaceful expression of their religious beliefs, they face torture in custody and unfair trials on trumped-up charges.
Sentences range from fifteen to twenty years in prison.
Conditions in prison facilities are harsh and death tolls of those who have fallen victim to excessive physical abuse or rampant disease continue to rise. Last year, Uzbekistan narrowly missed classification as a country of particular concern for religious freedom, when, just before the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom was published, its government released its known Christian religious prisoners, promised registration for Christian congregations, and claimed to have freed more than 200 Muslim prisoners as well. But against a backdrop of the wrongful imprisonment of thousands of peaceful religious believers, they can hardly be characterized as progress. On August 23, Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expressing the organization's concerns regarding religious freedom in Uzbekistan and urging the administration to name Uzbekistan as a country of particular concern in this area.