From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Oct 10 2000 - 10:11:11 EDT
Discrimination in Uzbekistan driving out ethnic Kazakhs - Kazakh paper
n the latest of a series of articles on social and economic life in
neighbouring Uzbekistan, the Kazakh newspaper `Novoye Pokoleniye' on 8th
September said that Uzbekistan's "covert" policy of discrimination against
the non-titular ethnic group was driving out ethnic Kazakhs, in particular.
The author of the article, Sergey Oblomov, said that Uzbekistan was
currently attracting a great deal of foreign investment thanks to a "show
of a vigorously-reviving economy", though the investment was not working to
benefit local enterprises. The following are excerpts from the article:
[Newspaper headline] The Asian island of freedom
This is exactly how official Tashkent names itself. No more and no less than
the "island of freedom". True, bearded men are not highly thought of here,
in contrast to legendary Cuba. The following curious scene can often be
observed on Tashkent streets: warriors of the security service take the
work-worn hands of the real Uzbeks in national clothing and drive them out
of the city, bidding them farewell. And if a bearded man is from Namangan
[eastern Uzbekistan] the conversation with the watchdogs could end up in a
remand cell. One gets the impression that Tashkent lives another life
distinct from the rest of Uzbekistan, and the presence there of
"uncivilized" rural inhabitants there is not welcomed at all. Moreover, the
city dwellers simply shrink from rural folk.
Meanwhile, Tashkent itself is positively bristling with pillboxes and
emplacements at the approaches to the city. These were built long before
fighters crossed the Uzbek borders. The opposition asserts that the
president and his encirclement are afraid of their own people.
Talking about the explosions in Tashkent last year [on 16th February], some
local journalists are still not sure whether these were organized by
terrorists or whether the authorities themselves set off dramatized
fireworks in order to introduce total control and put in place a system of
repressions to fight those they find objectionable.
However, the whole point of domestic policy is so that your neighbours do
not poke their noses in. But statistics suggests that ethnic Uzbeks account
for 14m of the 22m population. The remaining 8m are ethnic Russians,
Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Tatars. And it is here, if you will forgive me,
that there is the call of blood. True, it is absolutely impossible to count
precisely how many real ethnic Uzbeks there are in Uzbekistan. When the new
green passports were issued to the population many ethnic Kazakhs were
forced to register themselves as ethnic Uzbeks. Some state (former ethnic
Kazakhs) officials said that they were given a quite definite choice - to
be sacked or to be registered as ethnic Uzbeks. There is even the special
definition of "the titular nation". So either you belong to the titular
nation, or - excuse me, get out of the way. True, this issue is now being
solved more easily - the majority of those prepared to change their ethnic
group in order not to be a defective people in what was once their own
country, have done so. It is much easier to work with young citizens, they
feel the prospects of life branded as a "non-titular" ethnic group from the
very beginning.
But some ethnic Kazakhs have not reconciled themselves to being a "defective
ethnic group". Every day five or six Kazakh families from Syrdarya and
Dzhizak Regions and from Karakalpakstan [northwestern Uzbekistan] go
through the Shardara customs post in South Kazakhstan Region alone. They
are going to live permanently in Kazakhstan. The migrants assert that Uzbek
nationalism has slowly moved from an overt form of nationalism into a
covert one.On the one hand, Islam Karimov makes active pronouncements in
the press, branding and shaming nationalists. On the other hand, as a rule
representatives of the "non-titular" ethnic group get the worst and least
well-paid work. And there can be no question of any top-flight state
career. This is particularly the case in the provinces. In this respect
Tashkent is a bit like a shop window and does not look too bad at the
moment. If, of course, you can believe the Uzbek press. The Uzbek press
which, you will recall form previous articles, is run by the censors, who
assert that the world ends beyond the borders of the "island of freedom".
Politicians and businessmen, however, are a bit better at geography than
censors and know that somewhere out there are the USA and [South] Korea
which can invest capital in the country not in soms [the Uzbek national
currency] but in hard currency. However, you need something to tempt your
investors with. At least with some show of a vigorously reviving economy.
[Passage omitted: joint-ventures are being set up with pomp and then often
repeat the fate of currently idle ones, putting more people out of work;
recently the Uzbek government considered bankruptcy of 116 major
enterprises]
Certainly, it is quicker and cheaper to revive old enterprises, but one must
assume that politics defines the economy in this country. In other words,
the pomp is more important. A semblance of fast industrial development
using foreign capital attracts more and more new investors to the country.
And this game for four hands (one pair to building, the other to knock
down), most likely, is set to continue for a long time yet. Because
privatization has practically not taken place in Uzbekistan yet, and the
state owns lots of enterprises which can be bankrupted for the benefit of a
foreign "uncle".
Certainly, any country earns [hard] currency in its own way. However, at
present Uzbekistan, which is currently making advances to foreign
investors, has become more attractive than Kazakhstan which is not burdened
by [Islamic] opposition and militants. And this only because Kazakhstan is
currently trying to set up equal conditions for domestic and foreign
enterpreneurs.
[Passage to end omitted: Uzbek businessmen are doing very profitable
business in southern Kazakhstan, speculating on the differences in exchange
rates; the official exchange rate of the Uzbek national currency is 240
sums to one dollar, the black market rate is 800 to the dollar; average
salary is from 4,000 to 5,000 soms a month; 50 kg of wheat flour costs
6,000 soms there] [pp1,2]
Source: 'Novoye Pokoleniye', Almaty, in Russian 08 Sep 00 pp1,2
BBC Mon CAU 091000/** va/nb/uu
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