S T A T E M E N T on Poverty in Uzbekistan.

Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan

S  T  A  T  E  M  E  N  T
on Poverty in Uzbekistan
That fact which follows from human nature that any capable, sane person cannot subject the members of the family to poverty at his own will. It is an axiom.
Short of wars, natural cataclysms and various epidemics which can sometimes occur in the history of this or that state, one of the dangerous social harms – poverty, is a direct consequence of the  criminal policy of the powermongering dictators. Good will of heads of state and freedom given to the people, multiplied by diligence and the initiative of people, leads to state prosperity even if it is not completely rich with natural resources. Japan is one of the best examples to acknowledge the fact.

After 18 years of acquisition of independence Uzbekistan (owing to the disintegration of the USSR) its many citizens live in penury. According to the report of the Amnesty International in 2008 the share of the population of Uzbekistan, living in extreme poverty, makes 30 % (in Kazakhstan – 14 %), and according to the Unicef report published in 2007, 15 % of the children in Uzbekistan are underfed. Here it is pertinent to cite for comparison the per capita income data for 2008 between the two neighbouring countries: in Uzbekistan – 900 (nine hundred), and in Kazakhstan – 9700 (nine thousand seven hundred) US dollars.

The authorities of Uzbekistan, to put it mildly, do not want to notice and recognise the presence of the poor population. The problem of poverty is not discussed in mass-media, let alone speaking of the necessity of working out of a government program on eradication of this social harm. In this question the position of the authorities of Uzbekistan is quite clear: they only seek their personal enrichment, instead of thinking of people’s welfare that is inherent in all authoritative political regimes. And for Islam Karimov who has been ruling the country for 20 years by means of bayonets and lie, the recognition of the given problem is equivalent to the recognition of failure of the notorious “Uzbek model» of development, propagandised by all Uzbek mass-media which is under full control of the tyrannical regime.

In comparison with the Soviet period the quality of education, health services and public utilities has worsened in times for overwhelming majority of the Uzbek population. Corruption is prospering everywhere, in all sections of the government corroding each sector of the society as cancer tumours, and first of all lower-income strata suffer from it. Before Independence and in its first years the citizens of Uzbekistan could move freely on the territory of all the former Soviet Union, but in Independent Uzbekistan they cannot visit without the exit visa even neighbouring countries as Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and visiting of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is connected with many difficulties. Even in their native country they cannot travel freely. Citizens of Uzbekistan is not devoid of initiative and diligence, it is their inherited quality. These qualities of the citizens of the country in condition of mass unemployment, corruption in power structures and state terror of the population move them in millions to leave their motherland as labour migrants to Kazakhstan, Russia, South Korea, the countries of the European Union and the Arabian countries ?omehow to survive under existing conditions.

Economic, social and political initiatives of the citizens do not find support in power structures.

Therefore, as exemplifies some of the underdeveloped countries, poverty, the arbitrariness of the authorities and absence of freedom in every sphere of  life become the source extremism, terrorism and instability of which even Uzbek authorities constantly speak. In order to “maintain stability” our authorities have increased the contingent of Office of Public Prosecutor, militia, special services tens of times in comparison with the Soviet period. You cannot call the activity of these power structures different from terror in relation to the country’s population, which leads to real instability. But the stability maintained by a “firm hand”, is unstable, as we clearly see by the example of today’s Iran.
Real, strong stability is reached by the eradication of poverty and democratisation of the society.

The Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) considers that without democratisation of the Uzbek society, without free gathering, distribution and exchanging information (mobile phones with links to the Internet, modern computer and internet devices and technologies), without access to transport and communication means (automobile and railway roads, an outlet to sea), without support by the authorities to businessmen, labour migrants (citizens of Uzbekistan) in foreign countries, human rights activists, independent journalists, active workers of political parties, it is impossible to eradicate poverty in Uzbekistan. Therefore for gradual elimination of poverty the HRSU recommends to carry out following concrete actions:

1. To improve the quality of education:
?) To forbid the practice of attraction of schoolchildren, pupils of colleges and lycees, students of higher schools for agricultural works with the termination of classes;
b) To substantially raise wages of the teachers of high schools, colleges and higher educational institutions.

2. To gradually improve the quality of health services for the population;
a) To forbid the practice of attraction of medical workers for agricultural works;
b) To meaningfully raise wages for medical workers;

3. To create conditions for free trip of the citizens of Uzbekistan to all countries of the world, having cancelled the practice of getting exit visas; it is also necessary to create conditions for free visiting of Uzbekistan by the citizens of other countries;

4. Actively participate in construction of the automobile and the railways connecting Uzbekistan with the neibouring and other foreign countries.

5. To remove any censorship from the mass-media, cancell Internet blocking.

6. To register oppositional political parties “Erk”(Freedom), “Uzbekiston Birlik khalk harakati”, (Birlik National Movement of Uzbekistan) “Ozod dehqonlar” (Free Peasants), and also the “Birdamlik” National movement and human rights organisations;

7. Really, not just on a paper to immediately begin struggle against corruption with the wide attraction of institutes of civil society and the population;

8. To allocate more budgetary funds for the development of education, science and culture with the simultaneous cutting down of the contingent of police officers and the National Security Service, workers of power and other administrative structures;
9. To carry out real, instead of imaginary, reforms in agriculture, having given to farmers true freedom, having protected them from arbitrariness of insatiable state officials;
10. To refrain from the policy of total sale of the national riches of the country (cotton, cocoon, gas, etc.); to set going raw materials processing (cotton, cocoon, gas etc.) of competitive goods in the form of  fabric, silk and plastic (etc.) products;
11. To develop science intensive technology, energy and water saving technologies in agriculture; to begin the production of small and average agricultural machinery;
12. To involve foreign investments in the construction of factories producing modern electronic devices (computers, cell-phones, TVs, air conditioners etc.);
13. To carry out cardinal reforms in the bank system.

24 June 2009

Abdujalil Boymatov, President of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan