Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service's Central Asia Correspondent, was this morning detained by the Uzbek authorities on arrival at Tashkent Airport. He is still being held by the Uzbek authorities, who are forcibly preventing him from communicating with anyone. 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 the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other international diplomats are following Igor Rotar's continuing detention closely.
Igor Rotar, Forum 18's Central Asia Correspondent, was this morning detained by Uzbek authorities as he arrived at Tashkent Airport from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan at 10.25 local time. Now, over 11 hours later, Igor Rotar is still being held by Uzbek authorities, who are currently forcibly preventing him from communicating with anyone. 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.
The Uzbek authorities are refusing to make any comment on the detention, but reliable sources have indicated 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 Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other international diplomats are following Igor Rotar's detention closely. He is a Russian citizen and the Russian Embassy in Tashkent are aware of the case.
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.