By empty (6/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The UN Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has \"expressed shock at the deportation of four Uzbek men from Kyrgyzstan and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to halt further deportations of Uzbek asylum seekers until they have gone through proper procedures to determine whether or not they are refugees under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention,\" according to a 10 June press release on the organization\'s website (http://www.unhcr.ch).
The UN Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has \"expressed shock at the deportation of four Uzbek men from Kyrgyzstan and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to halt further deportations of Uzbek asylum seekers until they have gone through proper procedures to determine whether or not they are refugees under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention,\" according to a 10 June press release on the organization\'s website (http://www.unhcr.ch). UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis called the deportations \"a direct violation of an agreement UNHCR had reached with the Kyrgyz government.\" The UNHCR identified the four men as Dilshod Hadjiev, Tavakal Hadjiev, Abdubais Hasan Shakirov, and Muhammad Kadyrov and suggested they are now \"presumably in the custody of Uzbek authorities.\" Acting Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Feliks Kulov told journalists in Bishkek that the case should be investigated if, in fact, the handover took place, Kabar reported. Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR\'s head of mission in Kyrgyzstan, told Reuters that the four were part of a group of 16 asylum seekers who had earlier been removed by Kyrgyz authorities from a camp housing nearly 500 Uzbek asylum seekers. Edil Baisalov, head of the NGO coalition For Democracy and Civil Society, condemned the handover and called for the resignation of Tashtemir Aitbaev, head of Kyrgyzstan\'s National Security Agency, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. (RFE/RL)