Uzbekistan Weekly Roundup

Are Uzbek leaders hyping a terrorist threat? A EurasiaNet reporter who traveled to a remote Uzbek town in the region near the border with Tajikistan discovered that Uzbek government claims of a terrorist explosion may have been fabricated. In November, officials reported that a terrorist attack on a rail bridge was responsible for severing a southern rail connection with Tajikistan. Tashkent has already been embroiled in a prolonged dispute with Dushanbe over rail cargo evidently stalled over Uzbekistan's opposition to the Rogun hydropower station in Tajikistan. 

Officials may have believed that they could get away with claiming that a terrorist attack caused them to further hobble rail traffic to Tajikistan. The damage to the bridge in question turned out to be extensive, and may have been intentionally limited to cripple the bridge, but not make it impossible to repair. Yet despite Tajik offers to help, the repairs have not been made at this time. The bridge is not part of the Northern Distribution Network to supply NATO troops nor even to supply Rogun Dam construction, but it is important to supply food to Tajikistan, and has caused food to become unaffordable for many ordinary Tajiks. 

Central Asia’s leaders seem to have the "Arab Spring' on their minds and are cracking down on social networks to prevent any similar unrest occurring in their own countries, says analyst Stephen Blank. Uzbek authorities tightened control over cellular companies, instructing providers to report suspicious activity or massive distributions of text messages. The government seems to be playing catch-up to a major Internet boom in Uzbekistan this past year, News Briefing Central Asia reports.

The state communications agency reports that 7.9 million of Uzbekistan's 28 million people have Internet access. Many blogs have appeared, and some 100,000 people even joined Facebook; membership more than doubled in the first half of 2010. To keep it in perspective, however, the number of Facebook users is less than half a percent of the population (higher than Chad and below Guinea), and the growth rate is now reversing -- the government has launched a competing website Muloqot.uz to capture social-networkers into a state-controlled environment.

Avid speculation about whether an Arab Spring could come to Uzbekistan often hinges on an analysis of how fast or widely the Internet is growing in Uzbekistan. The web is certainly making modest inroads into the state monopoly on information, but the overwhelming majority of the population relies on state news agencies and broadcasting, with only Russian television -- which has been reduced in recent years and is itself state-controlled -- as the main alternative. Independent news sites are blocked from view, and while sometimes active Internet users can circumvent the controls or take advantage of reposting on Facebook pages, the phenomenon is not widespread enough to be credited for unrest.

In addition to blocking the Internet and monitoring social media, authorities have introduced a new code of conduct in Uzbekistan’s universities and colleges to discourage what they see as lax behavior, NBCA reports. The new 23-page moral code forbids “gaudy dress” and calls on students to combat “foreign religious and extremist influences” and to avoid rock concerts “alien to the national mentality.” Authorities are also restricting criticism of teachers and what students write about their school online. Failure to comply with the new code could lead to expulsion.

The government’s own oppressive actions continue to serve as the chief generator of discontent. Restrictive new rules for taxis passed in January sparked widespread resistance among unofficial jitney cabs. Many people especially in Andijan rely on informal taxi service to make a living. The new regulations included a requirement to paint cars a standard ivory color and install credit card machines and lights, an expense that drivers refused to undertake. In the end, the government was reportedly forced to postpone enforcement, the Human Rights Alliance reported.

Chronic electricity and gas shortages and poor utility management have combined to make a cold and difficult winter for people in Andijan and other provincial regions. Residents have been driven to gather wood and other forms of fuel to heat their homes. Uznews.net reports that the government has dismissed some officials for corruption and stealing electricity, but sales of energy abroad for hard currency also seem to have contributed to the disruptions in service at home.

UNICEF has avoided condemning the widespread use of child labor in Uzbekistan. The subject is not mentioned on UNICEF's website for Uzbekistan, and only referenced in a thrice-yearly newsletter not available on the website. The most recent newsletter notes that for a week in September 2011, six UNICEF teams of 14 staff members visited cotton fields in Fergana, Namangan, Andijan, Navoi, Bukhara, Khorezm, Karakalpakstan, Samarkand, Jizzak, Tashkent, Surkhandarya, and Kashkadarya regions. Yet their observations regarding the use of children in the cotton fields will only be shared in the form of an update and a final report with the Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As we know from alleged cables from Tashkent published by WikiLeaks, UNICEF has also shared these reports with the US government, but they are kept strictly confidential. UNICEF has taken pains to explain that its observations made over a short period are not the same thing as a full-fledged monitoring team to be deployed by the International Labor Organization. But the Uzbek government continues to refuse to admit the ILO to the country.

 

a. Eyewitness Observation of Rail Blast Site Discounts Terrorism Claim

b. Internet and Facebook Usage Surge

c. Arab Spring Unlikely -- Activists

d. Central Asia & Caucasus: Hiding Weakness with Shows of Strength

e. UNICEF Circumspect about Child Labor

f. Obama Gives Uzbekistan Free Pass to Terrorize Press – Watchdog

a. Andijan Residents Freezing, Scavenging for Firewood

b. Cabbies Unhappy with New Regulations

c. Uzbekistan to Students: Shape Up or Ship Out

d. Police Academy Graduate Dies in Detention

 

A EurasiaNet.org probe into a late-2011 rail bridge explosion in Uzbekistan has found inconsistencies in the official Uzbek assertion that terrorism was behind the mishap. An eyewitness examination of the blast site, located in a remote part Uzbekistan not far from the Uzbek-Tajik frontier, indicates that the incident likely was not the work of terrorists.

 

The mid-November explosion at a rail bridge severed southern Tajikistan's rail connection to the outside world. After a few days of silence, state-controlled Uzbek media characterized the event as a “terrorist act.” Subsequently, outside observers began casting doubt on Tashkent’s claim, with some asserting that Uzbekistan may have sabotaged its own railway in a twisted attempt to economically punish Tajikistan.

 

A EurasiaNet.org correspondent recently had an opportunity to visit the region where the blast occurred and make a visual inspection of the damaged bridge. What the correspondent saw raised doubts about the veracity of official Uzbek claims. In addition, government representatives in the region appeared to acknowledge a political motive behind the official version of the blast.

 

"It's not terrorism," said one state employee, smiling and shaking his head. "You should not ask what it is. It is our secret."

 

Bordered to the north by dozens of kilometers of desert and scrub, and flanked to the south by the swampy Amu Darya River and the Afghan border, the affected stretch of track is inaccessible to all but a few hundred local villagers—and patrolled by abundant government security personnel. The access road alongside the railway is sealed off at one end by a military barracks and a permanent police checkpoint, and at the other end by the Uzbek-Tajik frontier. Outsiders are not welcome. The only way for a foreigner to visit was to circumvent the security controls with the help of a convincing cover story.

The lack of outside access to the site, combined with the state’s tight control over Uzbekistan’s media environment, likely led Uzbek authorities to believe that they could label the blast an act of terrorism with little fear of independent scrutiny of their claims.

Source: EurasiaNet/01/05/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64795

Socialbakers, the social media analyzers, reports a surge of Facebook use in Uzbekistan.

While Facebook penetration in Uzbekistan is only a tiny 0.38% of the country's population and 2.26% of Internet users, usage grew by more than 23,480 in the last 6 months to a total number of 105,920. A particular jump is visible just in the last month. (To keep it in perspective, this figure is higher than Chad but lower than Guinea.)

 

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) has recently described a "boom" in Internet use in Uzbekistan, despite all the government's blockages.

 

The state communications agency reports that 7.9 million of Uzbekistan's 28 million people have Internet access. One in five has mobile Internet access, with 500,000 registered in the last year.

Alexander Suchkov, editor-in-chief of the Infocom web magazine based in Tashkent told IWPR, "Numerous blogs have appeared… in which young people talk about modern Uzbekistan. I know these young enthusiasts, and they obviously want to change things."

 

Some observers feared that a hoax perpetrated through social media last month involving a false claim of a young girl's suicide following police detention might dampen Internet usage.

But given the lack of penetration of the Internet and blocking of alternative sites like fergananews.com, it's not clear if many Uzbek Internet users even knew about the story.

 

There's a tendency to look at a surge in numbers like this hopefully, as perhaps an indication of the "Arab Spring" that has proved so elusive in Central Asia.

 

Perhaps, as Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, has theorized -- while acknowledging some real setbacks now in places like Egypt -- if a critical mass of people begin to share their cute cat pictures and if the government cuts off access to sharing sites like YouTube, eventually Internet users might jump the synapse to sharing reports of the regime's abuses and become active in opposing authoritarian governments.

 

Social media tools aren't catalysts by themselves, however, without other factors like pre-existing independent organizations and social solidarity. Once you have your cat picture in one window and a picture of victims of police torture in the other window, then what? Protest to the Interior Ministry, which might be savvy enough to go on Twitter with its version of events, too? Or risk getting up out of your chair to brave billy clubs on the square?

 

Source: Choihona/EurasiaNet/01/09/11

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64804 

Analysts generally agree that no Arab Spring is coming to Central Asia any time soon, despite similarly entrenched dictators and poverty. Current and former US officials; EU, American, Turkish and other experts have all weighed in with all the reasons why such upheavals are unlikely – particularly the lack of independent broadcasting, Internet, and social media.

 

But there is some evidence that the conversation about the Arab Spring is itself a bit of a catalyst and that lessons from the Middle East are being absorbed by authoritarian leaders and their subjects alike. There doesn't seem to be a way to independently and reliably poll public opinion in Uzbekistan about this now.

 

Meanwhile, the independent web site uznews.net interviewed a few prominent activists on the prospects of the Arab Spring in Central Asia.

 

Dilarom Ishakova, a Tashkent activist said she was disappointed that political prisoners were not released on the 20th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence. Massive unrest as in the Arab world was unlikely, she said; the 2005 massacre in Andijan and the suppression of a popular uprising still had an effect: “The people are very intimidated."

 

Ruhiddin Kamilov, a Tashkent lawyer, said that an Arab Spring was hardly likely in Uzbekistan.

Source: Choihona/Eurasia/01/13/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64830 

 

It may be the dead of winter in Central Asia and the Caucasus, but it seems like the leaders of such countries as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have the “Arab Spring” still very much on their minds.

 

These states continue to implement measures designed to restrict freedom of speech and association, as well as curtail religious liberty. One visible trigger for these crackdowns is a general desire on the part of regional authorities to prevent expressions of dissent from turning into political action.

Governments are paying a lot of attention to mass communications and social networks, the engines of protest in the Middle East and North Africa. Uzbek authorities, for example, have taken steps to tighten control over cellular companies, instructing providers to report on any suspicious actions by customers, and on any massive distributions of text messages via their cellular networks. Azerbaijan has just taken similar action to keep close tabs on cell and text traffic.

 

Incumbent officials are also clearly concerned about the religious dimension of politics. This means all forms of religious expression – mainly Muslim, but also Christian – that are not officially sanctioned are facing more scrutiny than ever. In Kyrgyzstan, for instance, over 170 unregistered mosques have been closed down in recent months. Conversely, Tajik authorities are proceeding with plans to build a mosque that can accommodate over 100,000 worshipers. Local experts say the massive mosque would make it easier for authorities to keep track of religious affairs in the capital Dushanbe. 

 

Source: EurasiaNet/01/12/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64828 

e. UNICEF Circumspect about Child Labor 

“Speaking Cotton," a film by Stefanie Trambow and Erik Malchow, portrays the ongoing exploitation of children in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields, with interviews of children as young as 11. The repeated scenes of large groups of children with their teachers, hunched over plucking cotton bolls for months, let us know this isn't about family farming, but a state-sanctioned program.

 

NGOs such as the Uzbek-German Forum For Human Rights and the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan published numerous reports last fall exposing the persistent practice of taking children out of school and forcing them to work long hours harvesting cotton.

 

Yet UNICEF has had a hard time publicly validating and condemning the practice, the most widespread form of child exploitation in Uzbekistan. The issue isn't mentioned on UNICEF's website for Uzbekistan, and you have to dig to the bottom of the last page of a thrice-yearly newsletter not available on the site to find a single paragraph on forced child labor in Uzbekistan:

 

During the period of 17 to 22 September 2011, six teams consisting of 14 UNICEF staff members visited cotton fields in Fergana, Namangan, Andijan, Navoi, Bukhara, Khorezm, Karakalpakstan, Samarkand, Jizzak, Tashkent, Surkhandarya, and Kashkadarya regions. UNICEF’s observations regarding the use of children in the cotton fields were shared in the form of an update and a final report with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UNICEF continues to act and advocate at all levels of governance and society for the progressive elimination of child labor in cotton production.

 

The statement is couched in cautious terms so as not to actually make a formal finding or a condemnation about forced child labor. UNICEF doesn't want to risk losing its office registration in Uzbekistan, in a climate where many international organizations have been kicked out.

 

Source: Choihona/EurasiaNet/01/11/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64822 

 

Why is the Obama administration sanctioning one post-Soviet dictator with an atrocious human rights record and not another?

 

Barack Obama has signed a new bill banning some top Belarusian officials from visiting the United States -- and requiring Washington to monitor restrictions on press freedom and human rights abuses in Belarus -- because President Alexandr Lukashenka wantonly jails political opponents and journalists.

Sound familiar?

 

Those are hallmarks of Uzbekistan strongman Islam Karimov’s regime, where journalists are regularly imprisoned and critics tortured. Says the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ): “He personally oversaw the May 2005 massacre in the city of Andijan, and his regime virtually annihilated the independent press after it spread the word about those brutalities.” But instead of censure, Karimov “has received stunningly cordial treatment from the Obama administration,” including, in the past few months, a friendly phone call from the president and a visit from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. From CPJ:

 

There are scores of examples to position the Uzbek leader as far more brutal and dictatorial than Lukashenka's regime. The human rights abuses include forced child labor; arbitrary detentions and torture of detainees; harassment of lawyers and imprisonment of rights defenders; absolute state control over the media and Internet; and eviction of the last international monitor--Human Rights Watch--from its offices in Tashkent. All of these and other issues are listed in the U.S. State Department's own 2010 Human Rights report for Uzbekistan, which brands the country as "an authoritarian state."

 

Yet, in September, Karimov received a warm phone call from Obama, and heard appraisal on his "progress" in human rights from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her October visit to Tashkent. Also last year, the U.S. Congress removed what was left of the 2004 arms embargo imposed against Uzbekistan in connection with its grave human rights record.

 

So why the double standard? The answer, as EurasiaNet readers know, is that Uzbekistan is essential to prosecuting the war in Afghanistan.

 

Source: Inside the Cocoon/EurasiaNet/01/12/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64824 

 

Chronic shortages of gas for heating their homes and cooking meals have forced the residents of Andijan to hunt for firewood, uznews.net has reported.

 

With the cold winter and frequent power outages, people are even cutting down trees in a cemetery, says the news portal.

 

Uznews.net has regularly highlighted gas and electricity shortages in Uzbekistan this season. In a January 13 report, exiled Uzbek analyst Tashpulat Yuldashev writes that service interruptions have been become common for entire districts and cities. Lines have grown long at gasoline pumps due to shortages and some factories have halted production without diesel fuel or coal.

 

Uzbeks in the provinces have been scavenging everything they can find to use for fuel -- twigs, cotton stalks, dung, and lignite, says Yuldashev. The energy shortages have led to conflicts between angry customers and besieged authorities and even to attacks on utility workers. Some persistent protesters, fed up with shortages, debts and fines, have been jailed for short terms.

 

In response, authorities have reportedly arrested dozens of managers and punished engineers and inspectors in power companies for fraud. The energy shortages expose the invalidity of the government's claims to be over-fulfilling its energy plans.

 

Source: Choihona/EurasiaNet/01/13/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64839 

Tashkent's jitney drivers are refusing to cave to government pressure to register, uznews.net reports.

Uzbekistan's Cabinet of Ministers passed new legislation calling for all taxi drivers to obtain licenses, paint their cars ivory-colored, install meters and bank card machines, and place orange lights on the roof with the sign "taxi." They must also affix the familiar chessboard insignia on the sides of the car.

The illegal cabbies, known as bombily, have refused to comply with the new regulations, despite the threat of heavy fines of $115-230 for driving without a hack license.

 

Last spring, tax inspectors pretending to be regular passengers pulled sting operations on the jitney drivers, fining many.

 

Drivers interviewed by uznews.net said they were discouraged from working for companies that keep a hefty portion of their pay. Some complained about the heavy cost of licenses, repainting and installing credit card machines.

 

The new regulations have angered drivers who said they would be left without a livelihood, particularly in Andijan and other poor regions. Their threatened protests were enough to get officials to back down from enforcement for a time, says the Human Rights Alliance in an e-mail statement January 8.

 

Source: Choihona/EurasiaNet/01/13/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64838

 

 

Conform to "the traditions of national independence ideology," Tashkent has reportedly told students, or get out.  

Concerned about the lax behavior they see as rampant in Uzbekistan’s universities and colleges, authorities have introduced a new set of moral regulations that, among other things, restrict criticism of teachers and govern what students write about their school online, reports the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). 

Failure to adhere to the new 23-page moral code could lead to expulsion.  

Unsurprisingly, students are unhappy with the “prison-style” rules targeting “gaudy dress” and calling on them to combat "foreign religious and extremist influences." On campus, “rock concerts alien to the national mentality” are also taboo.  

The code may aim to stifle mockery, as well. Recently several YouTube videos have emerged, appearing to show the impudent children of Uzbekistan’s small but highly privileged elite harassing their instructors. In one video, boys dance and wave dollar bills at their bemused teacher. In a parody of the rampant corruption in the education system, the laughing students attempt to place the money in the teacher's pockets and on his desk.  

The growth in popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook in Uzbekistan, despite severe Internet censorship and restrictions, appears to be spooking authorities who fear social networks may challenge their hold on power, à la the Arab unrest. 

Source: Inside the Cocoon/EurasiaNet/1/15/12

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64841 

 

A police academy graduate died in jail under mysterious circumstances, Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reported, citing human rights activists.

Almardon Ruzikulov, 28, was detained on suspicion of stealing a cow. His relatives say that he died from torture while interrogators were trying to extract a confession from him. Interior Ministry officials maintain, however, that Ruzikulov hanged himself in his jail cell.

 

The human rights group Ezgulik (“Goodness”) reported that Ruzikulov, a resident of the village of Korakiya in the Chirakchin district of Kashkadarya region, died on November 20. He was a graduate of the Interior Ministry Academy of Uzbekistan.

 

According to Ezgulik, when police received a statement about the theft of the cow, they made a number of detentions and interrogations. Ruzikulov was among them, and was eventually charged with theft. His 82-year-old father continues to go the Interior Ministry, seeking information about his son’s death.

Anvar Holyorov, a district detective who investigated Ruzikulov’s case, told Radio Ozodlik that he committed suicide. He further noted that torture was prohibited and “contradicted his professional and human duty.” He added that if there were no wounds on the body, and no evidence of torture, then the accusation shouldn’t be made. He said officers found the body of Ruzikulov hanging in his cell, and that officers on duty would be accountable. “An investigator doesn’t have responsibility for this,” said Holyorov.

 

Source: Choihona/EurasiaNet/01/10/11

MORE: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64808