In early 2002, Uzbekistan took a few halting positive steps, including the registration of one independent human rights organization and the trial and conviction of several law enforcement officers for two deaths in custody. In March, Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington and signed an ambitious agreement to uphold human rights. But after that, forward progress appeared to halt, and human rights abuses continued unabated. Hundreds of independent Muslims were arrested, tortured, convicted, and sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison. In particular, the government targeted members of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), a non-violent Islamic group that sought to establish a Caliphate, or Islamic state, in Central Asia. As of this writing, five people had died of injuries from apparent torture in Uzbek prisons during the year, and six human rights defenders were in prison or pre-trial detention, while a seventh was held in forced psychiatric hospitalization.

Reports of ill-treatment and torture by law enforcement officials of alleged supporters of banned Islamist opposition parties and movements, such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, continued unabated. Thousands of devout Muslims and dozens of members or supporters of the banned secular political opposition parties and movements Erk and Birlik were serving long prison sentences, convicted after unfair trials of membership of an illegal party, distribution of illegal religious literature and anti-state activities. Reports continued to be received that devout Muslim prisoners were singled out for particularly cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in places of detention, particularly prison camps. Several prisoners, among them a prominent human rights defender, died in custody, allegedly as a result of torture. There were at least 22 death sentences, reportedly imposed after unfair trials, and at least four executions were carried out.

Uzbekistan is now the world's second largest cotton exporter, a large producer of gold and oil, and a regionally significant producer of chemicals and machinery....

Transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and, to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for domestic consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by government crop eradication program; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan