Oct 212009
 
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????: Cotton Harvest Uzbekistan 2009: digest reports. Week four

Cotton Harvest in Uzbekistan 2009:  A Chronicle of Forced Child Labour, Week 4

(Apologies for cross-posting if any. Please let us know if you do not wish to continue to receive these reports).

Photo: In Claude Monet style: Lady with a Parasol (i.e. headmistress reporting schoolchildren’s attendance at the cotton harvest).

Courtesy of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, Le Mans, France

Context: Forced Child labour is an endemic and widespread practice in Uzbekistan ’s cotton industry. According to some experts, between 1.5 and 2 million schoolchildren from ages 10-16 are forced to pick cotton each year, a practice that has been in place since the Stalin era.  Observers claim that forced child labor is orchestrated by the state which, in turn, denies responsibility. To date, over 20 international retail, apparel, and trading companies, committed to Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical and Fair Trade have stated their intention to discontinue the use of cotton produced by forced child labour in their supply chain. The Government of Uzbekistan responds that the campaign originated from its U.S. cotton-supplying competitors. Yet, in 2008 due to international pressure, Uzbekistan was forced to ratify International Labour Organization Conventions 138 and 182 – Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and Worst Forms of Child Labour, and, in September 2008, adopted a resolution that banned the use of child labour. Just a week after this resolution, children were sent to the cotton fields to work for one and a half months. There was hope that this year the Government of Uzbekistan will begin fulfilling its international obligations and its own laws. This weekly update chronicles the 2009 cotton harvest and monitors the extent to which the government is honouring its commitments.

Week Four

1. Karakalpakstan, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya, October 19

Synopsis: Ferghana.ru reports on the cotton harvest from three regions of Uzbekistan.

In mid- October 2009, in the Karakalpakstan Republic in the north-west of Uzbekistan , the temperature ranges from +3 degrees (Celsius) at night to 25 degrees in the daytime. “Children are gathering cotton, but the money they earn isn’t even enough to purchase new clothes and shoes to replace those that they wear out working in the field – a teacher who has taught for 30 years in Karauzyak district says, sadly shaking his head. One of the parents of the schoolchildren in Khodjili district was incensed by the low value placed on the work of cotton pickers:  “In a district of about 180,000 residents , if 10 percent of the residents came out to pick cotton, then they could quickly gather the harvest. But when you pay the equivalent of two matchboxes for a kilogram of high quality cotton, it’s easier to bend the backs and wills of schoolchildren and students to go into the fields,” complains an interviewee to ferghana.ru. “It’s good that they planted less cotton this year. Nevertheless, they took 8th and 9th graders to the fields, and even younger children. From the Amudarin to Chimbai districts there are women and children in the fields. And these are not the children of farmers with 80 acres of land. These are the children of the rural poor, ages seven to 15… “

In Kashkadarya Region, everyone is forced to pick cotton – even soldiers. These days, soldiers are gathering cotton in the fields of Kasani district. In Uzbekistan , there exists the practice of one-month mobilization dues. This means that reservists are undergoing their military service in the cotton fields.

In Surkhandarya Region, according to employees of regional companies selling petroleum products and gasoline, at the personal instructions of the regional khokim (head of the local administration), they have stopped selling gas to the public, “so that people would not cruising the streets, but participate in the cotton harvest. The khokim some time ago announced in the press, that it is necessary to quickly and with quality, finish picking the cotton.” In the town of Termez , all markets are closed in the daytime, also, because of the cotton campaign. The empty markets only have guards, police.

Students of higher educational institutes, colleges, lyceums, and schools from Muzrabat, Sherabad, and Kyzaryk districts are mobilized for the cotton fields. According to local residents, if students don’t fulfill the daily quotas of cotton they are required to pick, then they must continue working after dark. These children get tired, so that upon their return home in the evening, they immediately fall asleep without any supper.

Original title: Uzbekistan: News from the Fields.

Source:   Ferghana.ru, 10/19/09, http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6340

2.   Mobilization of children for the cotton harvest is President’s directive: local khokim

Synopsis: Human rights activists in the Gallaaral District, Djizak region and Alliance activists were expecting to stage a picket on October 14 in solidarity with human rights organizations in Washington D.C. demonstrating against the exploitation of children and teachers in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan .

But the action never took place as the activists Nuriya Imamkulova, Gavkhar Berdieva-Yuldashev, Mukhabbat Khasanova, and Elena Urlaeva were detained by security police. Police charged Urlaeva with violation of the law on demonstrations and sent her case to criminal court. Imamkulova and Urlaeva were brought for talks to the deputy khokim on economic issues. In response to the picketers’ demands to end the forced labor of children and teachers, he replied that the khokimiyat (local administration) was fulfilling a directive of the President of Uzbekistan.

Sanjar Arifjanov of the Djizak region Interior Ministry Department threatened Gavkhar Berdieva-Yuldashev that she and her relatives would be killed by bricks. Urlaeva’s husband, Mansur Mashurov was surrounded by police on October 14 as he left his home and told to expel Urlaeva from his home, and was threatened with dismissal from his job if Urlaeva continued to organize pickets before the [forthcoming parliamentary] elections.

Original title:  Picket in Gallaaral Did Not Take Place

Source:   Alliance of Uzbekistan human Right Defenders, distributed by email via HR-Uzbekistan Yahoo Groups/10/16/09. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project

3. President Directive cited to force students to pick cotton

Synopsis: A document obtained by ferghana.ru indicates that on September 27, more than one thousand students of Bukhara State University were forcibly sent to pick cotton under threat of expulsion. A signed and sealed letter sent to students who failed to show up for the harvest stated the following:

“In accordance with the Presidential Decree of August 20, 2008, ‘On Organization and Conduct of the Cotton-Harvesting Campaign’ and in accordance with directives from local administrations, the participation of students in the cotton harvest is considered ‘practical training in the autumn fields.’ Students who do not take part in field work without valid reason will be expelled. In connection with this, I urge you to appear immediately for the cotton harvest. Otherwise, I warn you that you could

face expulsion. S.S. Raupov, Dean of the Humanities Faculty of the Bukhara State University .”

A medical commission checked those students who claimed to have medical excuses for not participating. Students whose excuses were accepted were still forced to appear for work at the university, cleaning up auditoriums or gardening.

Source:  ferghana.ru/10/16/09.  Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project.

Full version:  http://www.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=13222&mode=snews

4. Potemkin village of bumper cotton crops for President’s visit: Ferghana region

Synopsis: On October 16, during President Karimov’s trip to the Ferghana Valley , local authorities ordered the decoration of fields with already-harvested cotton to create the illusion of fields overflowing with cotton, Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Whenever the Uzbek leader visits the provinces, careful preparations are made to demonstrate “the achievements of rural farms.” So in order to please the president, Ferghana officials ordered cotton to be laid out in boxes on an already-harvested field alongside the president’s route. Numerous workers in the Ferghana and Akhunbabaev districts then had to re-box the already picked cotton.

An eyewitness told journalists that he rode his bicycle to check out the story, and found students laying out the cotton in boxes to make it appear as if a healthy harvest had just been made.

Another witness, a resident of Khadarali, said that along the president’s route, cotton blossoms were brought and placed alongside the road. He said that in Altyaryk and Akhunbabaev districts, the cotton blossoms were brought and “replanted,” and that hundreds of workers were involved in the exercise.

All stores and cafeterias were closed before the president’s visit for 10-12 days and signs were placed urging everyone to go and pick cotton. Thus local businesses lost revenue due to the leader’s visit.

Source:  “Open Microphone,” Radio Ozodlik/10/16/09.  Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project. Full version:  http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1853685.html

5.   Commercial life paralysed; children underpaid for picked cotton

Synopsis: A listener from Kashkadarya region called Radio Ozodlik to say that the police had closed the bazaars during the cotton campaign and sent merchants to pick cotton. “Besides forcing our children to work and not even paying them normal money for their work, they are preventing traders from earning a living,” the caller said.

Children were being paid 45-50 soums (or 3 US cents) per kilogram, the caller said, and the authorities are only allowing marketplaces to open after 5:00 pm. Despite promises to pay 100 soums/kg, at first, pickers were only getting 50.

Another caller from Margilan in the Ferghana Valley who works as a private bus driver told Radio Ozodlik that police were constantly stopping him and asking him to take people to the cotton fields. If drivers refused, their licenses were confiscated. None of their expenses were reimbursed, and if they had a paying passenger, he or she would be removed.

Source:   “Open Microphone,” Radio Ozodlik/10/14; 10/15. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project. Full version:  http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1851660.html

http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1852811.html

6. Learning not math, but how to pay bribes. Wealthier students bribe to avoid cotton harvest, hire labourers in their place

Synopsis: In Samarkand , some students, evidently from wealthier families, have been hiring day labourers in their place to work in the cotton fields, ferghana.ru reported.  Students told ferghana.ru that because of personal business, such as weddings or the need to help their family in their own private fields, they were sending workers in their place due to the requirement from the authorities that they help with the cotton harvest instead of attend college.

In the past, students have tried to obtain medical exemptions to work in the field, but this year, authorities have examined such documentation far more closely. False certifications have been selling for $200-300, up from a price of $100 last year, says ferghana.ru.

Source:  ferghana.ru/10/16/09.  Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project.

Full version:  http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6337

7.  International Cotton Fair Opens in Tashkent

Synopsis: The 5th International Cotton Fair opened in Tashkent October 14 with more than 400 foreign partners from 34 countries, organized by the Ministry of External Economic Relations, Investments and Trade and the sponsorship of the magazine Cotton Outlook Ltd. and the Uzbek associations Uzpakhtasanoat and Sifat, ferghana.ru reported. More than a thousand types of Uzbek cotton are displayed at the fair.

Many Western retailers, particularly from the U.S. , have announced their boycott of Uzbek cotton in connection with evidence of forced child labor in Uzbekistan . Russia is historically one of the largest buyers of Uzbek cotton, purchasing more than a third of the crop. Unlike the U.S. and others, Russia is not concerned about the use of children in the Uzbek fields and in fact many had not even heard about the boycott, ferghana.ru reporters discovered. Russia ’s demand for cotton to use in its garment industry would be supplied by up to 40 percent through purchase of Uzbek cotton, which is valued for its quality versus price and ease of delivery in contrast with other regions of the world.

Source:  ferghana.ru/10/14/09. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Asia Project.

Full version:  http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=5907

8. Uzbekistan Sells “One Million Tons of Cotton”:  Uzbek Government

Synopsis: Uzbekistan concluded a contract at the 5th International Cotton Fair in Tashkent for 1 million tons of cotton from the 2009-2010 harvest, the state-controlled gazeta.uz reported, citing a statement by Akmal Kamalov, deputy minister for external economic relations. The chief buyers are from Bangladesh , Iran , China , South Korea , Moldova , the United Arab Emirates , Pakistan , Russia , Turkey and Japan .

The fair is organized by the government of Uzbekistan and the International Consultative Committee for Cotton (ICAC), and involved 276 companies from 34 countries. The first fair was run in 2005, and since then, both direct and future contracts have been signed for about 5 million tons of cotton. About 75 percent of Uzbekistan ‘s harvest is exported.

Original title:  Very Valuable Million.

Source:  gazeta.uz/10/16/09. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project.

Full version:  http://www.gazeta.uz/2009/10/15/fair/

9.  Tashkent Cotton Fair: some Uzbek cotton buyers named

Synopsis: Lee Ku Chang, president of the J&H White Gold of South Korea told UzA.uz that Uzbekistan occupies a leading place in the world cotton market. He said his company had cooperated with Uzbek partners for many years, had purchased 30,000 tons of Uzbek cotton in 2008 and planned to purchase 50,000 tons this year.

Representatives from Qingdao Cotton (South Korea), Yang Ming Line (Iran), ANB Cotton (Bangledesh), Erdem Tekstil (Turkey), and others said they value not only the quality and price of the cotton but the service in payment and delivery arrangements. The international fair has enabled companies that used to rely on middlemen to come and buy directly from state firms in Uzbekistan , to meet the rising world demand for refined cotton in the garment industry.

Uzbek cotton is exported to China, Russia, Iran, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and many other countries, with particular demand coming from Southeast Asia’s burgeoning textile industry. New technology is being developed for sorting and transport.

Original titles:  Weighty Results of the Cotton Fair; A Word from Fair Participants

Source:  UzA.uz/10/15/09; 10/14/09. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Asia Project. Full version:  http://uza.uz/ru/business/8085/ ; http://uza.uz/ru/business/8075/

10.  American protesters target labor abuses in Uzbekistan

Synopsis:  Three dozen protestors from schools, labor unions, universities and churches marched in front of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington D.C. on October 14 to protest the alleged use of child labor in the cotton industry, the fashion industry trade paper Women’s Wear Daily reported. A September U.S. Labor Department report included Uzbekistan in a list of countries alleged to exploit forced child labor in violation of international standards. The Uzbekistan embassy did not return calls seeking comment.

The coalition of unions and human rights groups, including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, Child Labor Coalition, and International Labor Rights Forum came to protest the fact that students as young as 10 — and their teachers — are pulled out of school and conscripted by the Uzbekistan government to pick cotton. The rally was timed to the cotton harvest and the opening of the annual cotton fair in Tashkent where many contracts will be signed.

The protestors delivered more than 1,000 postcards to the embassy, urging the government to stop the use of forced labor of adults and children in the cotton industry, implement its obligations under the International Labor Organization conventions, and give journalists and human rights activists access to investigate harvest practices.

Several major apparel brands and retailers have committed to working with labor and human rights groups to remove Uzbek cotton from their supply chains in recent years.

Source:  Women’s World Daily/10/15/2009

Full version: http://www.wwd.com/wwd-publications/wwd/2009-10-15/#/article/business-news/protesters-target-labor-abuses-in-uzbekistan-2343188?navSection=issues&navId=2343044

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Previous selected reports

Week three

Local administration creates a division charged with mobilizing schoolchildren to participate in the cotton harvest and forces schoolteachers to pick cotton as well.

Synopsis: Human rights activist Dimitri Tikhonov reports that in the Angren city khokimiyat, namely its the department of education, is the headquarters for the campaign to mobilize schoolchildren and university students to participate in the cotton harvest. The division is headed by a Makhmud Turgunbayev, formerly director of High School No. 18, and who was  convicted under several articles of the Criminal Code in 2000. As chief of the campaign, Turgunbayev issued the decree for each school to sent 30 percent of its teachers to the cotton fields to pick cotton until the end of the harvest. Turgunbayev has threatened those teachers who refuse to participate with dismissal.

The Alliance of Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan calls upon participants of the picket on October 14, 2009 in Washington DC to stand up for the teachers of Angren and all of Uzbekistan .

Source: Alliance of Uzbekistan Human Rights Defenders, distributed on 12/09/09 via HR-Uzbekistan Yahoo Group listserv

Alliance of Uzbekistan Human Rights Defenders reports from Jizzak, Tashkent, Ferghana and Navoii regions, October 9

Synopsis:

· According to a report from human rights activist Gavhar Berdiyeva, in Galloralski district, Jizzak region, schoolchildren from eighth and ninth grades of Secondary Schools 16, 26, 25, 44, 42, 56, 27, 78, have not attended school since September 20, 2009 and are working in the cotton fields from 8am until 6pm seven days a week.

· According to a report from human rights activist of Yangiyulski district, Tashkent region, Akromkhodji Mukhiditinov, schoolchildren from the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades from Secondary School Nos. 4 and 5 are forced to pick cotton at the farm and at the “Agrotekhnika” and “Agronom” plots, and do not attend school. Schoolchildren from the first through sixth grade are picking cotton under the auspices of “helping their parents.”

· According to reports from human rights activist Salomat Boimatova of Ferghana region, in Besharyk district, schoolchildren from eighth and ninth grades have stopped attending school and have been picking cotton since October 8, 2009. Likewise, students from technical colleges have been sent to the cotton fields. The Administration of Ferghana region has compelled women who receive state childcare support to go to the fields to pick cotton.

· According to reports from human rights activist Elena Urlayeva and Oleg Sarapulov, schoolchildren from fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth  grades of secondary schools in the rural areas of Jizzak region are involved in the cotton harvest. For example, schoolchildren from Schools Nos. 3 and 11 and students from Ikhsot College , Pakhtakor district have been picking cotton at the Akmal Ikromov Farm since the end of September 2009. Similarly, ninth graders from School No. 1 in Jizzak city go daily at 8am to pick cotton. Children do not attend school and are forced to pick cotton every day without any days off.

· According to a report from human rights activist Vladimir Husanov, since the end of September 2009, eighth and ninth graders from Navoii region have been forced to pick cotton.

Source: ??? ????????, ?????-????? ???????, distributed on 10/09/09 via HR-Uzbekistan Yahoo Group listserv.

Parents Protest Against Forced Labor of Children in Uzbekistan , October 10

Synopsis: Parents have been protesting to the authorities over the forced exploitation of their children to pick cotton, the Ezgulik Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan reported in a press release distributed October 10 via email. A group of about 10 parents from the Nishan district of the Kashkadarya region appealed to the khokimiyat (local administration) not to send their children to the cotton harvest. The group was subject to pressure from prosecutor’s office.

Source:   Ezgulik Human Rights Society. Distributed on 10/09/09 via HR-Uzbekistan Yahoo Group listserv. Synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project.. Synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project

Schools in Karshi Closed for Cotton Harvest, October 9

Synopsis: The Human Rights society of Uzbekistan reported on October 9 that all of the schools in Karshi City , the Kashkadarya regional center, were closed and students from eighth and ninth grades were sent to pick cotton, according to a report distributed on the Yahoo group HR-Uzbekistan. On October 8, regional state TV broadcast an appeal to the public that due to rainy and cold weather, the cotton crop had to be brought in faster.

Source:   Kashkadarya branch of the Uzbekistan Human Rights Society, distributed on 10/09/09 via HR-Uzbekistan Yahoo Group listserv. Synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project.

President Karimova’s Daughter Displaying Uzbek Fashions Made from Forced Child Labor, October 5

Synopsis: While children in Uzbekistan are working in the cotton fields, Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan ‘s President Karimov is showing off Uzbek clothing and jewellery during Milan ’s fashion week.

A reporter noted that in the brochures about the Uzbek fashion shows, it was emphasized that the clothing was made of silk. The fabric is called “Adras” and is produced at textile factories in the Ferghana region. In an interview with Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an unidentified worker at one of the factories said that Adras consists half of silk and half of cotton. The cotton is produced domestically.

Original title: Children in the Fields, Cotton in Milan

Source: Radio Ozodlik/10/05/09. Translation and synopsis by OSI Central Eurasia Project

Full version:  http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1844074.html

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Aggregated statistics of reports on forced child labor, cotton harvest 2009

Reports, at least, from the following regions of Uzbekistan suggest that school and college students are sent to pick cotton:

1) Andijan

2) Bukhara

3) Djizak

4) Ferghana

5) Kashkadarya

6) Khoresm

7) Navoi

8) Samarkand

9) Syrdarya

10) Surkhandarya

11) Tashkent Region

There are 13 regions in Uzbekistan in total.

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Week two

Tashkent Region, October 4

Students at high schools and colleges in Yangiyul District of Tashkent Region have been forcibly sent to the cotton fields to work, reports ferghana.ru. According to local residents, school children in some remote villages were sent to pick cotton at the beginning of the season.

In the city of Yangiyul , 30 kilometers to the southwest of Tashkent , there are several Russian-language schools much sought after because they have been exempted from forced labor during the harvest. Desperate parents pay bribes to the local administration to get their children into these schools. Residents say that this year, education officials also solicited bribes of one dollar per student in order to persuade the local khakim (head of administration) not to send the children to pick cotton.

Ferghana.ru correspondents visited two schools in the village of Gulbakhor , School no. 45 and School no. 1, near the local administration offices, where they found the doors locked and the schoolyard empty. Villagers told them that the children had been sent to pick cotton. The reporters found children as young as age 12 and photographed them, despite efforts by both the students and teachers to discourage them and threatening to call the police.

Students from the 6th and 7th grades along with a group of teachers, were given a quota, and told that if they did not meet it, they would not get paid. Supervisors said that the children had “volunteered for the good of the state,” ferghana.ru reported.

Source:   Ferghana.ru/10/04/09.

Full version: http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6321

Syrdarya region, September 29

School children from Syrdarya Region have been sent to the cotton fields, ferghana.ru reports. Although officials say that they have restricted labor in the cotton fields to students age 14 and older, the reporters found children ages 12 and 13 in the fields.

Syrdarya, formerly a manufacturing center in the Soviet era, is a small town with about 30,000 residents. Many people have left the area in search of work abroad. Without jobs, the remaining adults and children are compelled to work in the cotton fields. Local officials close government offices and even marketplaces during the day, and for some unknown reason, have stopped automobile traffic on the main highways in the area, apparently in a bid to compel people to work in the fields.

One man who worked as a taxi driver told ferghana.ru correspondents that he sent his 14 year old into the fields where he worked from 8:00 am to 5-6:00 pm. When it was rainy and cold, he kept his son at home, but local officials would pressure him to work. For one kilogram of cotton, his son was paid 85 soums or about five cents, and could pick about 15-20 kilograms a day, making about 1500 soums, some of which had to be used for food.

A 14-year-old girl told ferghana.ru that almost all the students in her class were in the fields except for those who managed to get a note from a doctor, and walked to the fields to work from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. A woman and her 12-year-old son said they were volunteering to work, because they needed the money. Another boy age 14 said that he and his class were also working voluntarily for a month, and that they had to bring their own food from home. A teacher whispered to the journalists that in fact, they were all forced to pick cotton and did not want to suffer reprisals for publicizing this fact.

The reporters saw many fields along the road to Tashkent where children were working. When interviewed, they expressed a sense of resignation to their fate.

Source: Ferghana.ru/09/29/09.

Full version:   http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6316

Bukhara region: Lyceum teachers are mobilized for picking cotton

Faculty of Bukhara ’s Academic Lyceum at Bukhara State University received a gift in honor of their professional holiday – Teacher’s Day – to go to pick cotton. 30 teachers of the Bukhara Academic Lyceum were sent on September 30 in the morning to the cotton fields in Bukhara ’s Jondor district. On their professional holiday – Teacher’s day – celebrated in Uzbekistan on October 1, as well as for the next five days and nights, they will spend on a farm, where they have been given a place to stay with a minimum of amenities.

“After five days we will be replaced by another group of 30 teachers; in the Lyceum, we have 60 teachers in total. After that, it will be our turn again, and so this will continue until the end of October,” explained one of the teachers of the Academic Lyceum.

“And cotton – is politics. To be against cotton – means to be against the state, ” – explained the teacher.

The only possibility that Bukhara teachers not wishing to participate in the cotton harvest have to get out of it, is to buy their way out. This means that they have to hire someone else in their place. The approximate cost to hire a cotton picker is between 50,000 – 200,000 soums per month. It is also the fourth day of work a few thousand students of the Bukhara State University in the cotton fields of Bukhara region. For young people unwilling to participate in the cotton campaign, it is much harder to buy your way out and miss the harvest of “white gold.” The price for exemption from cotton picking for students can reach up to U.S. $ 200.

Source: Uznews.net/ 10/01/09

Full version: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=ru&sub=hot&cid=2&nid=11414

Week one

1. Andijan Region, September 17

From September 17, all students from schools in the Andijan region have been recruited to participate in the cotton harvest, Central Asian News reported, citing an unnamed official who spoke to Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. College students had already begun picking cotton two days earlier, a source in the local education ministry confirmed. According to anonymous official sources, students in grades 8-11 throughout the region are now being sent to pick cotton. Due to weather conditions, the harvest is late in other regions, and thus child labour has not been as visible elsewhere.

In Andijan region, parents are also being instructed by the authorities to write and sign a formal statement of consent that their children will work “voluntarily” in the cotton fields “to help farmers and parents” pick cotton. Thus, the responsibility for the children’s safety and well-being is placed entirely on the parents. The government therefore not only secures a supply of child labour, but extricates itself from responsibility for all anticipated illnesses and injuries (and even deaths) which had been reported in large numbers in previous years.

Source: Radio Ozodlik/Central Asian News/ca-news.org/09/19/09.

Version:   http://ca-news.org/news/220861; http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1826701.html

2. Surkhandarya Region, September 19

The Ezgulik human rights group reports that the schoolchildren are being mobilized to pick cotton in Surkhandarya region in southern Uzbekistan .

Source: Press-release of Ezgulik, Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, 09/19/09, No. 38 (distributed by email).

3.  Khorezm region, September 22

According to the ferghana.ru website, all colleges in the Khorezm Region have been shut down and students are being mobilized for the cotton harvest. Buses packed with students and their bed wraps were escorted by the traffic police and first-aid services. The region has recently been affected by an epidemic of hemorrhagic fever.

Source: Ferghana.ru, 09/22/09

http://www.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=13035&mode=snews

4. Djizak and Bukhara regions, September 23

Ninth-form schoolchildren, mainly from rural areas, and college students from the Djizak and Bukhara Regions have already been sent to the cotton fields to pick cotton.

Source: our own local correspondents.

5. Central government orchestrates the forced labour campaign

On September 22, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev held a conference call (selectornoye soveshanie) with all regions of Uzbekistan in which local officials, offices of the prosecutor, police chiefs, and farmers were obliged to take part.  The Prime Minister instructed local governors to arrange a so called “khashar,” which is a form of forced labour, the practice of which has been known since Soviet times.

The term “khashar” means voluntary, collective work done for the sake of the common good or to help out one’s neighbors, a practice that is in keeping with Uzbek tradition. However, the Uzbek regime exploits the concept to put a positive spin on its policy of forced labor, which contravenes international conventions to which it is a signatory, as well as its own constitution.

This year, the cotton harvest “khashar” is expected to last at least until October 12, but may be extended. In practical terms, this means that all schoolchildren, college students, and local civil servants are subject to ‘conscription.’

Such conference calls are being convened every 15 days by the Prime Minister, who has been charged with responsibility for Uzbekistan ’s agricultural sector. During these conference calls, Mirziyaev instructs local governments and farmers when to begin certain agricultural tasks such as seeding, weeding, using pesticides and defoliants, harvesting, etc.. This year, he gave instructions to begin defoliation even though the cotton had not yet ripened and farmers were reluctant to waste expensive agro-chemicals.  This style of governance suggests that little has changed since the times of the Soviet kolkhozes and sovkhozes.

Source: Uznews.net/09/24/09

Full version: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=ru&sub=hot&cid=2&nid=11338.

6.  Who benefit from the cotton export revenue

(i)  According to Italy ’s Corriere dello Sport newspaper, Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian coach of the Uzbek soccer club Bunyodkor, is receiving an annual salary of 13 million euro, ranking him the highest paid soccer coach in the world. In com paris on, Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho is paid 11 million euro a year. The Bunyodkor club is sponsored, evidently on the order from President milieu and family, by state-controlled oil, gas, cotton and textile manufacturing companies, among which is Zeromax Gmbh.

Source:   sports-planet.ru/09/08/09.

Full version:  http://sports-planet.ru/index.php?option=com_weblinks&task=view&id=33809&Itemid=1

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/Notizie/Calcio/80001/Mourinho%3F+No%2C+guadagna+di+pi%C3%B9+Scolari%3A+13+milioni!

(ii)  When the school year began on September 1, students found textbooks in short supply, reports ferghana.ru. According to teachers in Tashkent , the Ministry of Education has provided textbooks for only five of every 35-40 students, and parents are expected to find as well as pay for the rest. Due to the book shortage, school libraries are renting out textbooks for 6,000 Uzbek soums (about US $3.00) for elementary school textbooks and 15,000 soums ($10.00) for high-school texts [local salaries are not exceeding $50/month – A.I.].

Students are also expected to donate literature to school libraries, which were emptied of Soviet-era literature some years ago. Since Uzbekistan ’s independence, Uzbek authorities removed not only Soviet authors, but other books that appeared to be Moscow-centric. District libraries have also been closed in Uzbekistan , replaced with poorly equipped “educational centers.”

Although the Ministry of Education claimed that book fairs were opened in 754 schools, including in Karakalpakstan, Kashkadaryo and Samarkand regions, ferghana.ru reporters did not find a single book fair in Tashkent , Samarkand or Djizak regions, and local residents reported that textbooks were only available for rent at the school library.  Students are taking turns using the scarce books.

Source:    Ferghana.ru/09/01/09.

Full version:    http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6285


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