A Mid-South Red Cross HolidayStory
In mid-November of this year, the Mid-SouthChapter was ecstatic to receive word that after more than four years of workingand waiting, a missing person we had traced, Dr. Sanjar Umarov, a Germantown resident, wascoming home before the end of the year. The story of his return began right here at the Mid-South Chapter.
In October of 2005, a young man from Germantown walked into theMid-South Chapter office and asked to speak to someone about something urgent.
His family had emigrated to the United States in 2002, having come from theformer Soviet SocialistRepublic state of Uzbekistan. The young man’s father, Dr. Sanjar Umarov, aphysicist, had been instrumental in attracting American investors to helprebuild his country’s infrastructure. Dr. Umarov also founded the “Sunshine Uzbekistan” non-profitorganization to help further agrarian and industrial reforms in his homeland.
In October 2005, Dr. Umarov had returned on a shortbusiness trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan … and disappeared. His son asked to file an international tracefor his father through the Red Cross. Rosemary Cook, a Mid-South staff member, took thecase information and filed it with the American Red Cross International SocialServices department in Washington,D.C. From there, the case was referred to theInternational Committee for the Red Cross, in Geneva, Switzerland.
It was discovered that Dr. Umarov had beenarrested and was imprisoned in Uzbekistan. Over the next 39 months, the Mid-SouthChapter of the American Red Cross forwarded communications to Dr. Umarov onbehalf of his family and was visited by the International Committee of the RedCross (ICRC.) In October 2008, a visitwith Dr. Umarov’s wife was brokered and she journeyed half way around the worldfor a precious 20 minutes with her husband. She was desperate to secure his release.
Senators and Congressmen lobbied to pass a billdesignating Dr. Umarov as a “prisoner of conscience,” the first such bill passedby Congress since that enacted for Nelson Mandela. On November 23rd, Dr. Sanjar Umarov, of Germantown, TN wasgranted amnesty by the government of Uzbekistan and returned to his homehere and to the family who so steadfastly worked for his release andreturn.
Few in our community know of Dr. Umarov, thoughyou can look up more about this remarkable man online. Few in our community know of this aspect ofthe life-saving work of the Mid-South Chapter of the Red Cross.
It is your gifts that helped us to ensure thatprisoners like Dr. Sanjar Umarov are fairly and humanely treated. We are very happy that he is back home forwhat may be the happiest holidays he will ever know. May your holidays be brighter in theknowledge your support contributed to this Mid-South miracle.
Learn more about Dr. Umarov: http://sanjarumarov.com
