Jan 052012
 

Davronbek Hasanov

While citizens of the Russian Federation are not happy about Mr. Putin as a candidate for presidency,Uzbekistan seems a very quiet place in terms of political situation despite the fact that current president Islam Karimov has been elected as a president for more than three times already,and has been serving the nation for 21 years by now. No wonder why:Uzbekistan is the state where business investment is under a big question;it is the place where you will not find many factories;it is the place where constitution is considered as insignificant written text;it is the place where its “elected president” has been serving since 1991 although,according to the constitution,president is elected for 4 years and serves two terms. Without doubt,the opposition is suppressed and almost destroyed;otherwise,how one can rule the country for more than two decade? Is it considered democratic? What do you think?

 

Meanwhile,very strange things are happening in one of the rural areas of Uzbekistan. Khasan Choriev,a successful businessman and an active leader of the “Birdamlik” opposition movement,on December 29,2011 lost his 750 sheep and 150 cows in one day. On New Year Eve,twenty police officers came to his farm called “Ikhtiyor”,which he has been running successfully since 2004,in order to confiscate his property due to unpaid electric bill. They took total of 900 sheep and cows without showing any documents or court order to the farm owner.

 

What is more upsetting,police also took the cows and sheep that belonged to farm employees. As it was harsh winter season and most people did not have proper condition to keep the sheep and cows at small home backyard,with the permission of the farm owner,every winter season they brought their cows and sheep to the farm. Although the police was informed about this fact,they ignored it and confiscated all 900 animal found in the farm.

 

The daughter of the farm owner Zulayho Chorieva,who was present at the time of confiscation,recorded all events on a camera;however,her camera was taken away and destroyed by police. When she attempted to keep her camera,Ms. Chorieva was beaten up severely by several police officers. Bruise all over her body and with bloody face,Zulayho sought for medical aid,however,she was not welcomed at local hospital and got rejected to receive basic medical aid,eventually,she found a private clinic where she stayed for couple of days,but she could not fully recover afterwards.

 

Few days later,in January 2012,after the confiscation of 750 sheep and 150 cows,the farmer Khasan Choriev was informed that the governor of the Kashkadarya region,Uzbekistan ordered to take out his real estate too. Isn’t it too much to take for a so called 23 million soums ($9,000) “unpaid electric bill”?

 

Most villages in rural areas receive electricity for 2-3 hours a day at midnight while people are asleep. Therefore,according to Khasan Choriev,when the farm “Ikhtiyor” was established,he signed a contract with the Electro-Power company and made a full payment to build several electric towers along his farm and set up electric counters. Employees of the Electro-Power company partially fulfilled the agreed tasks. Since then,Mr. Choriev has neither heard of company employees,nor received any electric bills or warnings from the Electro-Power company of the region. Today the Electro-Power company denies that they had an agreement,and claims that Mr. Choriev has fake contract.

 

Having lost all his property in one day without any warning and court proceedings,the owner and the farm employees are ready to pay the so called “electric bill” debt,and desperately trying to win their property back;however,as the owner is considered as one of the activists of opposition movement “Birdamlik”,by all means,he is being suppressed financially and emotionally by the current government.

 

In an attempt to keep the crowd under a strict control,and by taking the property of a successful farmer who is well-known for his oppositional views,the government has demonstrated to common people of what happens to those who are not in favor of the current political powers. Perhaps,they assume that after seeing what had happened to a wealthy farmer who happened to be the opposition activist,common people would not dare to say anything against the rule of president Karimov. For the leader of Uzbekistan,it is a crucial moment now. It is his 21st year of service as a president. Besides,the leaders of many other countries as Egypt,Libya,Kyrgyzstan,have already been removed from the government after the national revolts,and today’s very intense political situation in neighboring Kazakhstan and Russian Federation makes Mr. Karimov take some actions to avoid similar situation happening in Uzbekistan. Apparently,Mr. President and the current ruling powers in Uzbek government decided to take immediate actions by suppressing the oppositional activists and taking out all their property. Do you think these actions are enough in order to prevent national revolts and to keep the presidency position for few more years?

Davronbek Hasanov

http://www.birdamlik.info/?p=20223#more-20223

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.