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In-Depth Information
allegedly extremist Islamic movement
banned by the Uzbek government. A group
of their allies stormed the prison where
they were being held, touching off a mas-
sive but largely peaceful demonstration
in Andijon's main square. The authorities
responded; over the next few hours, some-
where between 155 and 1000 civilians were
killed by government troops.
International condemnation of Andijon
was swift in coming. When Uzbekistan re-
fused to allow an independent international
investigation, the US withdrew most of its
aid and the EU enforced sanctions and an
arms embargo. Karimov evicted American
forces from the strategically important
Karshi-Khanabad (K2) airbase near Karshi
(the less-critical Germans remained at their
base in Termiz). The US Peace Corps and
high-profile NGOs such as Freedom House,
the Open Society Institute and UNHCR
were forced to leave in the face of registra-
tion problems or similar technicalities.
Domestically, Karimov used the Andi-
jon events to launch what Human Rights
Watch called an 'unprecedented' crack-
down against opposition political activists
and independent journalists. International
journalists were not immune, with most
news agencies being forced out of the coun-
try in the years following the massacre,
although there has been a gradual return
in recent years. Today it remains extremely
difficult for a Western journalist to get a
visa to Uzbekistan.
Yet it appears that time heals old wounds,
and relations with the West have gradu-
ally improved. The EU eased its sanctions in
2008 and lifted the arms embargo in 2009.
The US has taken a more cautious ap-
proach, but all signs point to a
rapproche-
ment
. In 2009 Uzbekistan granted the US
permission to use Uzbek territory to trans-
port supplies to Afghanistan. A string of
high-profile diplomatic visits followed, lead-
ing some to speculate that the US may once
again be granted fully-fledged use of the K2
airbase.
Meanwhile, despite a constitutional two-
term limit, Karimov quietly won a third
successive term in 2007, running practi-
cally unopposed; he is expected to win his
fourth term in December 2014. Despite be-
ing in his mid-70s and rumoured to be in
very poor health, the Uzbek president shows
few signs of relinquishing his grip on power
any time soon. His glamorous pop-singer,
businesswoman and diplomat daughter,
Gulnara Karimova, has been hotly tipped
to be his successor for years. However, her
position appeared to have weakened in late
2013, when she became the focus of several
corruption investigations in what has been
interpreted as a wing-clipping exercise by
her rivals for power, most notably Rustam
Inoyatov, the head of Uzbekistan's National
Security Service.
Many locals worry that after 25 years of
rule, with no other nationally prominent
politician being allowed to develop a sig-
nificant power base, the country could be
COTTON¨PICKIN'¨MAD
For better or for worse, the Uzbek economy hums to the tune of the 'White Gold'. Truth
be told, cotton is - and always was - a poor match for much of Uzbekitan; it's a thirty
crop in a parched land. Decades of monoculture and the drying up of the Aral Sea, which
has saturated the land with salt, has done little to help the fecundity of the soil. Poor
yields and low government-controlled prices leave farmers too poor to pay for machin-
ery or labour. Yet the government won't let them rotate their crops or convert to fruit.
It's all cotton, all the time.
The whole sytem would collapse entirely but for the country's policy of sending
school children, tudents and adults into the ields every autumn to harvet cotton. The
practice has drawn international condemnation and boycotts of products made with
Uzbek cotton by Wal-Mart and other juggernauts of the Wetern apparel indutry.
The Uzbek government, which has always denied all accusations, inally passed a law
in 2009 banning the forced labour of kids under 16 (it paid little attention to forced adult
labour, but then again neither do the critics). Did it curb the practice? Not one bit, ac-
cording to the Environmental Jutice Foundation and Anti-Slavery International, which
found evidence of continued widespread 'slave labour' in 2012, when several workers
even died during the harvet.
