by Johan Huizinga
Erkin Musaev, a manager with the United Nations Development Programme in Uzebekistan, was arrested on dubious charges in January 2006 and subsequently sentenced to 25 years in jail for espionage. His requests to the UNDP for support and legal assistance went unanswered for many months. However, UNDP officials have said there was not much they could do to save the man from being persecuted since he was he was a contract worker and not a permanent UN staff member.
In December 2004, Uzbek Lieutenant Colonel Erkin Musaev left his post at the country's ministry of defence for a job with the UNDP where he was to be in charge of a border control project. However, following a failed uprising in the province of Andijan in May 2005 many Uzbeks were arrested. The government in Tashkent saw in the uprising an attempt to launch a popular revolution similar to those that had only recently taken place in Georgia and Ukraine. Erkin Musaev was one of the victims; he was detained at the airport whilst going about his work for the UNDP.
In a statement later smuggled out of jail by his sister he told how he had been tortured in order to force him to confess:
"They said if I do not agree with this accusation they will accuse me [of] sister, Mr Musaev told how he has been tortured in an attempt to obtain a confession from himdrugs trafficking and personal involvement in the Islamic movement. They said they can put literature or drugs in my house […] and accuse me on this [basis]."
Finally, also threatened, among other things, with his family being arrested, he broke and signed a written confession saying he had spied for the United States and the UN. On 13 July 2006, after a secret 'trial' without his having lawyer or any other legal assistance, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Second trial
One day later a second trial began in which he was accused of fraud involving UNDP funds. This time, however, the UNDP's regional programme manager Philip Peirce stood by Erkin Musaev, providing a written statement in which he stated that Musaev was in no way involved in such fraud and that the UNDP's financial transactions had taken place according to the rules.
These efforts were to no avail, however, and Mr Musaev was sentenced to another six years in jail. The UNDP undertook no further action to help him; it was neither represented at his trial, nor did it provide him with a lawyer or any other legal assistance. Requests from his family for a meeting with the head of the UNDP mission in Uzbekistan went unanswered.
The UNDP maintained there was a lack of clarity as to the status of Erkin Musaev as an employee of the UN, and hence his protection from prosecution by the Uzbek authorities. However, when the family asked for a copy of his employment contract, the UNDP could not produce one.
Petition
The family then turned to Dutch retired general Ton Kolsteren for help. He knows Erkin Musaev very well from the time both men were involved in a joint programme between NATO and former Soviet republics. Mr Musaev had spent more than a year in jail when on 5 March 2007 General Kolsteren sent a petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and to UNDP chief Kemal Dervis and his Dutch assistant administrator Ad Melkert.
It took more than a month before James Provenzano, director of the UNDP legal affairs department, responded by claiming Erkin Musaev was a temporary employee and not a staff member. This conclusion has been refuted by Musaev himself who claims he had a permanent contract and a UNDP identification pass which is not issued to temporary workers.
Mr Melkert, for his part, took one more month to respond, but his answer was at least somewhat more explicit. He said that he would do his best to help, but repeated that Erkin Musaev was not a member of UNDP staff. He said more clarity about his status, privileges and immunity was needed before the Uzbek government could be approached about the case.Two months later, in July 2007, the real situation became a little clearer when Mr Melkert revealed that the Uzbek government had been asked for further information, but referred at the end of his letter to "the necessity to maintain a working relationship with the Uzbek government on an ongoing basis".
He also wrote that he had brought the matter to the attention of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. By that time the head of the UNDP mission in Uzbekistan, Mr Ficret Actura, had agreed to see the Musaev family for the first time.
Third trial
In September 2007, Erkin Musaev went on trial for a third time and was sentenced to another 4 years in jail, again on charges of espionage for which the UNDP premises were allegedly used. This time the UNDP provided a written statement stating that three of Musaev's co-accused never entered the UNDP building in the period mentioned in the charges.
Yet again, however, the UNDP did not sent a representative to the trial nor provide a lawyer. Mr Melkert was asked to comment about the Musaev case when he visited The Netherlands this autumn, but he had no time to talk to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
Meanwhile, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva says the UNDP Legal Office in New York is handling the case. Radio Netherlands Worldwide is still hoping for a more substantial response from the UNDP.
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