Please write a polite letter, or copy the one below, on your personal or institutional letterhead and mail to President Islam KARIMOV (postage 90¢), and Abdulaziz Kamilov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the U.S. (41¢).

[Date]

President Islam KARIMOV
Rezidentsia prezidenta
ul. Uzbekistanskaia 43
700163 Tashkent
UZBEKISTAN
Fax: + 998 71 139 53 25
Email: presidents_office@press-service.uz

Your Excellency,

I am writing to express my concern over the psychiatric detention of independent journalist Dzamshid Karimov without explanation.  I understand that he was detained in September 2006, and sentenced to a six-month sentence in a psychiatric hospital in Samarkand, where he remains under successive psychiatric detention orders.

I believe Dzamshid Karimov to be detained for his critical writings in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Uzbekistan is a signatory, and therefore call for his immediate and unconditional release.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Name and Signature]

CC: H.E. Abdulaziz Kamilov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the U.S.
Embassy of Uzbekistan
1746 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1903
Fax: (202) 293-6804