(MintPress)—Uzbekistan is denying claims made by women and doctors who say the government is carrying out a forced sterilization program to control the population by mandating doctors meet quota, after a report by the Expert Working Group found that over 80,000 sterilizations occurred in 2010 within a seven month period.
A BBC documentary released this month exposing the Uzbek practice tells stories of anonymous doctors and women who say speaking out against the program could lead to jail time and torture in a country known for its grave human rights violations, pointing to a 2005 case in which a female pathologist who reported sterilizations was fired and arrested.
Doctors say they were told by hospital administrators, by way of government officials, that they were to perform a certain number of sterilizations, which included up to eight per week in rural areas. Women say they experienced medical issues following pregnancies, which they later discovered were due to forced sterilizations carried out in hospitals after cesarean sections.
A growing concern
Claims made by women are backed up the Expert Working Group, a in 2010 conducted a seven-month survey of doctors and nurses. The report found that roughly 80,000 sterilizations occurred over the course of the survey.
The UN Committee Against Torture released a 2007 report on Uzbekistan, in which it gave mention to the country’s practice of torture through forced sterilization. The report states the Ministry of Health allegedly ordered women to be sterilized after their first or second child.
“Uzbekistan has not officially adopted the ‘one-child policy.’ However, the large number of cases of forced sterilization and removal of reproductive organs of women at reproductive age after the first or second pregnancy indicate that the Uzbek government is trying to control the birth rate in the country,” the report states.
The report identifies the names of three women who reported to the NGO Women Forward that they had either been deceived by the government or that procedures took place without their knowledge. One woman, specifically, said her husband left her as a result — a common complaint among women living in a society that values large families.
The 2011 U.S. State Department human rights report on Uzbekistan identifies forced sterilization as a violation of women’s rights. The report cites several cases of involuntary sterilization and accusations that doctors were forced by the government to meet sterilization quotas to control the population. It acknowledges the Uzbek government claims that it operates under a policy in which doctors are encouraged to inform patients of family planning options, including sterilization, but that it does not force the procedure.
Human rights in Uzbekistan
The U.S. State Department has labeled Uzbekistan an authoritarian state that consistently violates human rights. In its 2011 report, Uzbekistan was cited for prosecuting and detaining those who oppose and speak out against the government. Arbitrary arrests, torture and prolonged detentions were also documented.
In 2005, the first person to speak out against government-sponsored sterilization was fired and arrested for anti-government literature. The female pathologist researched and provided data on the forced sterilization of 200 women. Her research was inspired by an abundance of young, healthy females’ uteruses that were being transported to the mortuary where she worked.
Human Rights Watch deems Uzbekistan’s record as “appalling,” citing extremely restrictive freedoms in regard to speech, press and religion.
US relations with Uzbekistan
In 2003, former president George W. Bush cited Uzbekistan’s abysmal human rights record as the motive behind the decision to ban military aid to the country, at which time the U.S. made it clear that aid would not be distributed without evidence the nation was improving.
In 2005, the government, led by President Islam Karimov, used deadly force on a group of protesters in Andijan. After the U.S. condemned the attacks, Uzbekistan cut off the United States’ access to its border with Afghanistan.
In January, sanctions on Uzbekistan were reversed when U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton signed a waiver to once again issue military assistance through non-lethal defensive weapons — a move criticized by Human Rights Watch, which said it came at a time when Uzbekistan’s record on human rights was declining.
Speculators claim the agreement with Uzbek authorities will open up its Afghan border to U.S. troops, creating what is known as the Northern Distribution Network (NDN). Critics claim the move is in response to the November Pakistani government lockdown of U.S. supply routes into Afghanistan — a move that came after the United States’ deadly strikes of Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border.
The US deals with controversial past
The situation in Uzbekistan is eerily similar to North Carolina’s past eugenics program, in which the state sterilized 7,600 people from 1929 to 1974 — a practice specifically targeted at people with mental disabilities and a history of criminal behavior.
The Associated Press reported in January that the state, for the first time, moved forward with reparation plans. While not official, a task force voted that living victims should be awarded $50,000 by the state. At the time of the recommendation, the state had accounted for 72 living victims who qualified.
North Carolina was by no means the only state to take part in the practice, but the highlight remains on the state for its post-WW II practices. Even after Nazi Germany was criticized worldwide for its eugenics program, North Carolina continued on with its own. According to the Associated Press, 70 percent of sterilization cases came after the war.
Thirty-two states at one time or another had eugenics programs to rid society of those determined to be unfit for reproduction, but many were ditched after the Nazi scandal.
California’s former eugenics program is considered the largest ever in the country. It sterilized an estimated 20,000 California men and women from 1909 to 1963. In 1979, legislation in California finally outlawed the sterilization practice. However, reparations for victims remain unsettled. Though an apology was issued on behalf of former Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, a payment program for victims was never instituted.