12-28-2017, 11:16 PM
*** 29-Dec-17 World View -- Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
****
![[Image: g171228b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g171228b.jpg)
Women working as forced laborers pick cotton in Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley (EurasiaNet)
Uzbekistan's new leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev is sacking senior security
officials in the corrupt and bloody National Security Service (NSS),
the local successor to the Soviet KGB, and has promised to reform
economic reporting, saying that reported figures for economic growth
and employment had been "fiction" for years.
Mirziyoyev's predecessor was Islam Karimov, a vicious, corrupt
dictator who had been in power since 1991, and who died a year ago at
age 78 after suffering a stroke.
Karimov ruled over a deeply corrupt system of wealth distribution
among powerful clans, involving nepotism and cronyism. The population
was kept in line by forced labor, mass arrests, torture and
repression.
Mirziyoyev has been in office for 15 months, and has promised hope and
change in several areas, including liberalizing the economy and
ensuring security, interethnic harmony and religious tolerance.
However, he's said nothing about strengthening the public's role in
the political process, or of improvement in human rights or allowing
independent media. Reuters and RFE/RL and Reuters and RFE/RL
****
**** Rise of Islamic radicalism and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
****
Under Karimov, the region has seen Islamic radicalism in the form of
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in the densely populated and
restive Fergana (Ferghana) Valley. The Fergana Valley lies in three
separate countries. It consists of eastern Uzbekistan, part of
northern Tajikistan and part of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. It's the most
densely populated region of Central Asia, and has been plagued by
frequent ethnic and religious conflict since the Soviet
breakup.
Following a wave of jihadist terror attacks in March 2004, 23 Muslims
were put on trial on terrorism charges. In May 2005, Some 10,000
Muslims in Andijon (Andizhan) in the heart of the Fergana Valley began
protesting the trial peacefully. However, the demonstrations turned
violent when armed protesters attacked the prison, freeing dozens of
prisoners, including the 23 Muslims on trial. Government soldiers
moved in and fired on thousands of protestors, killing 500 people and
causing thousands of refugees to flee Andijon and cross the border
into Kyrgyzstan.
Since then, the IMU has become increasingly radicalized. Its initial
goal was to turn the entire Fergana valley into a caliphate, but it
was drawn into the Afghanistan war by the American intervention, and
has cooperated to some extent with the Taliban in executing terrorist
attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although originally allied
with al-Qaeda, the IMU has changed allegiance to the so-called Islamic
State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).
The current objectives of the IMU are currently unclear, but using the
IMU as a reason, Karimov has fueled resentment towards the government
through mass arrests. Protest has been unheard of because the
National Security Service (NSS) is so feared, but now the new leader
Shavkat Mirziyoyev is vowing to bring the NSS under control.
Mirziyoyev is starting by firing some senior level officers,
but whether anything will really change remains to be seen.
It's believed that hundreds of Uzbeks are in Iraq and Syria fighting
with ISIS and other jihadist groups. With the continuing demise of
ISIS in Iraq and Syria, it's possible that some of these will return
to Uzbekistan and join with local insurgents to pose an internal
threat to the country.
Jihadists from Uzbekistan have occasionally perpetrated terrorist acts
in other regions.
An Uzbek citizen was arrested in Sweden in April when he ran a truck
into a crowd in Stockholm and killed four people. The suspect had been
denied a request for residency in Sweden and expressed sympathy with
the ISIS. Two Uzbeks and a Kazakh were arrested in Brooklyn in 2015
and charged with conspiring to support ISIS.
Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, was arrested
immediately after killing eight people by speeding a rental truck down
a New York City on October 31. Saipov came to America in 2011, and in
2013 was married in Ohio to a 19-year old girl, Nozima Odilova, who is
also from Uzbekistan. They have two children. Saipov was apparently
radicalized while in the United States.
Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev immediately acknowledged the
violence and expressed his condolences, writing to President Trump,
"Uzbekistan is prepared to provide all measures and means to assist in
the investigation of this terrorist act."
Under Karimov, Uzbekistan has been a U.S. partner in the fight against
terrorism, and the US has also used Uzbekistan as a strategic location
to bring goods and military equipment into Afghanistan. That's
expected to continue under Mirziyoyev. Crisis Group (29-Sept) and EurasiaNet (1-Nov) and
Newsweek (31-Oct) and The Atlantic (1-Nov)
****
**** Who's going to pick the cotton in Uzbekistan?
****
Uzbekistan became a cotton-producing powerhouse in the twentieth
century for an ironic reason.
In the mid-1800s, the Russians invaded Uzbekistan. Russia had lost
its supply of cotton from the southern United States because of the
American Civil War, and the Russians wanted to establish a safe source
of cotton, and so they developed a large cotton-producing agriculture
in Uzbekistan.
As part of Stalin's Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became a cotton
powerhouse starting in the 1920s. In support of the cotton trade,
millions of ethnic Russians began pouring into the country, especially
into the fertile Fergana Valley (or Ferghana Valley), in the far
eastern portion of the country.
1991 was a pivotal year for Uzbekistan and the Fergana Valley. That
was the year that the Soviet Union collapsed, resulting in the
formation of Uzbekistan as an independent republic. It also resulted
in a great deal of financial hardship for the Russians still living in
the Fergana Valley. The result was the first signs of Islamic
fundamentalism in Uzbekistan when some unemployed young Muslims seized
the Communist Party headquarters in the city of Namangan in the
Fergana Valley, and ended up forming the Islamic Movement
of Uzbekistan (IMU).
What makes this ironic is that the cotton trade in the American south
before the Civil War depended on slavery, and the cotton trade in
Uzbekistan since independence in 1991 has also depended on slavery.
Since 1991, it has become standard practice by the government to use
forced labor to pick the cotton. Theoretically it was voluntary, but
in practice the government forced teachers, doctors and students,
including children, to leave hospitals, schools and universities and
go to the cotton fields.
The new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has vowed to end forced labor,
and has issued a decree categorically banning the use of children,
along with education and healthcare workers, in the harvest.
These people were sent home right in the middle of this year's
cotton harvest, much to their surprise.
However, as analysts point out, cotton is an existential crop
for Uzbekistan, and somebody has to pick the cotton, and now
other groups are picking cotton as part of a new wave of forced
labor.
The long-term plan is to attract voluntary cotton-pickers through
higher wages, and to mechanize the harvest through 15,000 harvesting
machines. Whether this will be done remains to be seen, but in the
meantime, forced labor is still being used to pick the cotton.
EurasiaNet (31-Oct)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Uzbekistan, Fergana Valley, Ferghana Valley,
Islam Karimov, Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
National Security Service, NSS, KGB,
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, Andijon, Andizhan, Namangan,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Iraq, Syria, Sweden, Sayfullo Saipov, Nozima Odilova,
Josef Stalin
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
- Rise of Islamic radicalism and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
- Who's going to pick the cotton in Uzbekistan?
****
**** Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
****
Women working as forced laborers pick cotton in Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley (EurasiaNet)
Uzbekistan's new leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev is sacking senior security
officials in the corrupt and bloody National Security Service (NSS),
the local successor to the Soviet KGB, and has promised to reform
economic reporting, saying that reported figures for economic growth
and employment had been "fiction" for years.
Mirziyoyev's predecessor was Islam Karimov, a vicious, corrupt
dictator who had been in power since 1991, and who died a year ago at
age 78 after suffering a stroke.
Karimov ruled over a deeply corrupt system of wealth distribution
among powerful clans, involving nepotism and cronyism. The population
was kept in line by forced labor, mass arrests, torture and
repression.
Mirziyoyev has been in office for 15 months, and has promised hope and
change in several areas, including liberalizing the economy and
ensuring security, interethnic harmony and religious tolerance.
However, he's said nothing about strengthening the public's role in
the political process, or of improvement in human rights or allowing
independent media. Reuters and RFE/RL and Reuters and RFE/RL
****
**** Rise of Islamic radicalism and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
****
Under Karimov, the region has seen Islamic radicalism in the form of
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in the densely populated and
restive Fergana (Ferghana) Valley. The Fergana Valley lies in three
separate countries. It consists of eastern Uzbekistan, part of
northern Tajikistan and part of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. It's the most
densely populated region of Central Asia, and has been plagued by
frequent ethnic and religious conflict since the Soviet
breakup.
Following a wave of jihadist terror attacks in March 2004, 23 Muslims
were put on trial on terrorism charges. In May 2005, Some 10,000
Muslims in Andijon (Andizhan) in the heart of the Fergana Valley began
protesting the trial peacefully. However, the demonstrations turned
violent when armed protesters attacked the prison, freeing dozens of
prisoners, including the 23 Muslims on trial. Government soldiers
moved in and fired on thousands of protestors, killing 500 people and
causing thousands of refugees to flee Andijon and cross the border
into Kyrgyzstan.
Since then, the IMU has become increasingly radicalized. Its initial
goal was to turn the entire Fergana valley into a caliphate, but it
was drawn into the Afghanistan war by the American intervention, and
has cooperated to some extent with the Taliban in executing terrorist
attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although originally allied
with al-Qaeda, the IMU has changed allegiance to the so-called Islamic
State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).
The current objectives of the IMU are currently unclear, but using the
IMU as a reason, Karimov has fueled resentment towards the government
through mass arrests. Protest has been unheard of because the
National Security Service (NSS) is so feared, but now the new leader
Shavkat Mirziyoyev is vowing to bring the NSS under control.
Mirziyoyev is starting by firing some senior level officers,
but whether anything will really change remains to be seen.
It's believed that hundreds of Uzbeks are in Iraq and Syria fighting
with ISIS and other jihadist groups. With the continuing demise of
ISIS in Iraq and Syria, it's possible that some of these will return
to Uzbekistan and join with local insurgents to pose an internal
threat to the country.
Jihadists from Uzbekistan have occasionally perpetrated terrorist acts
in other regions.
An Uzbek citizen was arrested in Sweden in April when he ran a truck
into a crowd in Stockholm and killed four people. The suspect had been
denied a request for residency in Sweden and expressed sympathy with
the ISIS. Two Uzbeks and a Kazakh were arrested in Brooklyn in 2015
and charged with conspiring to support ISIS.
Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, was arrested
immediately after killing eight people by speeding a rental truck down
a New York City on October 31. Saipov came to America in 2011, and in
2013 was married in Ohio to a 19-year old girl, Nozima Odilova, who is
also from Uzbekistan. They have two children. Saipov was apparently
radicalized while in the United States.
Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev immediately acknowledged the
violence and expressed his condolences, writing to President Trump,
"Uzbekistan is prepared to provide all measures and means to assist in
the investigation of this terrorist act."
Under Karimov, Uzbekistan has been a U.S. partner in the fight against
terrorism, and the US has also used Uzbekistan as a strategic location
to bring goods and military equipment into Afghanistan. That's
expected to continue under Mirziyoyev. Crisis Group (29-Sept) and EurasiaNet (1-Nov) and
Newsweek (31-Oct) and The Atlantic (1-Nov)
****
**** Who's going to pick the cotton in Uzbekistan?
****
Uzbekistan became a cotton-producing powerhouse in the twentieth
century for an ironic reason.
In the mid-1800s, the Russians invaded Uzbekistan. Russia had lost
its supply of cotton from the southern United States because of the
American Civil War, and the Russians wanted to establish a safe source
of cotton, and so they developed a large cotton-producing agriculture
in Uzbekistan.
As part of Stalin's Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became a cotton
powerhouse starting in the 1920s. In support of the cotton trade,
millions of ethnic Russians began pouring into the country, especially
into the fertile Fergana Valley (or Ferghana Valley), in the far
eastern portion of the country.
1991 was a pivotal year for Uzbekistan and the Fergana Valley. That
was the year that the Soviet Union collapsed, resulting in the
formation of Uzbekistan as an independent republic. It also resulted
in a great deal of financial hardship for the Russians still living in
the Fergana Valley. The result was the first signs of Islamic
fundamentalism in Uzbekistan when some unemployed young Muslims seized
the Communist Party headquarters in the city of Namangan in the
Fergana Valley, and ended up forming the Islamic Movement
of Uzbekistan (IMU).
What makes this ironic is that the cotton trade in the American south
before the Civil War depended on slavery, and the cotton trade in
Uzbekistan since independence in 1991 has also depended on slavery.
Since 1991, it has become standard practice by the government to use
forced labor to pick the cotton. Theoretically it was voluntary, but
in practice the government forced teachers, doctors and students,
including children, to leave hospitals, schools and universities and
go to the cotton fields.
The new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has vowed to end forced labor,
and has issued a decree categorically banning the use of children,
along with education and healthcare workers, in the harvest.
These people were sent home right in the middle of this year's
cotton harvest, much to their surprise.
However, as analysts point out, cotton is an existential crop
for Uzbekistan, and somebody has to pick the cotton, and now
other groups are picking cotton as part of a new wave of forced
labor.
The long-term plan is to attract voluntary cotton-pickers through
higher wages, and to mechanize the harvest through 15,000 harvesting
machines. Whether this will be done remains to be seen, but in the
meantime, forced labor is still being used to pick the cotton.
EurasiaNet (31-Oct)
Related Articles
- Uzbekistan's dictator president Karimov suffers stroke, threatening Central Asia stability (31-Aug-2016)
- With rise of ISIS, violence flares in Central Asia's Fergana Valley (14-Aug-2015)
- Uzbekistan closes border to refugees from Kyrgyzstan (15-Jun-2010)
- Islamist Uzbeks lead terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan (02-Nov-2009)
- Uzbekistan - crisis and revolution (14-May-2005)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Uzbekistan, Fergana Valley, Ferghana Valley,
Islam Karimov, Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
National Security Service, NSS, KGB,
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, Andijon, Andizhan, Namangan,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Iraq, Syria, Sweden, Sayfullo Saipov, Nozima Odilova,
Josef Stalin
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
