Winrock International officers in Uzbekistan prosecuted

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A criminal action has been brought against the representatives of the Office of the Winrock International NGO in Uzbekistan. As REGNUM was told by a source in the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan on August 7, “the office has been charged with carrying out publishing activities without license.”

The source says that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating into the case but refuses to give the details. As was reported earlier, on July 26 the Tashkent civil court, based on the findings of the Justice Ministry, ruled to liquidate the Winrock International Office in Uzbekistan.

The cause of the verdict was the NGO’s non-compliance with own charter tasks. When getting registered at the Uzbek foreign and justice ministries, the NGO said that its key charter task in Uzbekistan was “to carry out ‘Farmer to Farmer’ program in order to help farmers to raise their outputs and efficiency.” However, later, the Justice Ministry found out that the WI office had implemented a project that was beyond its charter – “Project to Raise the Integrated Legal Awareness of Women.” Under that project, the NGO held training courses and workshops and issued grants for projects having nothing to do with agriculture.

The office also published and disseminated among local NGOs a number of manuals and guides, thereby grossly violating the Law “On Publishing Activities.” Even more, contrary to the current Uzbek legislation, with no expert resolution by the Committee on Religion, the office financed the publication of a book “Islam and Women.” “Later, the Committee found out that the book contains gross deficiencies, like misinforming about the history of Islam, misinterpreting Quran, depreciating national and other values,” says the Committee.