WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 499, July 1, 2007 KYRGYZ CAPITAL GETS A MAKEOVER Residents complain that they have been told to foot the bill for sprucing up Bishkek for a major meeting of regional states. By Bek Omarov in Bishkek
UZBEK GOVERNMENT CONCERNED AT MIGRATION The authorities have political as well as economic reasons for keeping a closer eye on people travelling abroad for work. By IWPR staff in Central Asia **** NEW AT IWPR ****************************************************************** KURK SCHORK AWARDS DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES APPROACHING (June 15) The deadline for entries to the Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism is just two weeks away. Two annual prizes of $5,000 each are awarded - one to an international freelance print/internet-based reporter; and the second to a local journalist in the developing world. The deadline for receipt of emailed or posted entries is June 15th. The awards are being administered by IWPR, on behalf of the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, with the two winners celebrated at an event to be held in London in November. 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This series of photographs was awarded a 2nd place in the General News Stories category at the World Press Photo Awards in 2007. http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=henh&s=o&o=top_galleries_index.html NEWS BRIEFING CENTRAL ASIA is a new concept in regional reporting, comprising analysis and news behind the news in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Available at: www.NBCentralAsia.net **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/rca/rss.xml TURKMEN RADIO: INSIDE VIEW is an IWPR radio training and broadcast project for Turkmenistan. View at: http://www.iwpr.net/?p=trk&s=p&o=-&apc_state=henh RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** KYRGYZ CAPITAL GETS A MAKEOVER Residents complain that they have been told to foot the bill for sprucing up Bishkek for a major meeting of regional states. By Bek Omarov in Bishkek When leaders from Russia, China and Central Asia gather in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on August 16, all eyes will be on the big geopolitical stories is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation shaping up to be a serious regional defence grouping? Are its intentions towards the United States and NATO friendly or otherwise? But for Bishkeks residents, the upcoming summit has a different and more immediate significance. The authorities have decided the city looks too untidy, and are asking residents to spruce it up before the foreign presidents arrive. The Kyrgyz government has earmarked 250 million soms - around six and a half million US dollars to the Bishkek authorities to fund the refurbishment. However, Daniyar Shabdanov, a spokesman for the mayors office, said the budget had not been finalised, and it was imperative for the work to be done now rather than later. He did not make it clear whether anyone would be recompensed out of official funds once the budget was approved. Residents and businesses are complaining that they have been ordered to renovate their buildings and clean the streets, without regard for whether they are physically able do the work themselves or find the money to pay for it. Some say they are being forced to take out private loans to foot the bill. Hotel owners complain that they are now being pressured to cancel bookings in order to make way for summit participants, even though the meeting was arranged a long time ago. On arrival at Manas airport, the presidents of Russia, China, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan will be whisked into the city, passing the Prigorodnoye suburb along the way. Residents of Prigorodnoye whose houses flank the main highway say they have received an official order from the Alamuddun district planning department giving them ten days to renovate and whitewash homes and other buildings, mend and paint fences and gates, clear away rubbish and cut the grass verges. Where am I going to find the money to replace my roof, as theyre telling me to? asked local resident Lyuba Plotnikova. Like many others along the road, pensioner Yelena Kravchenko has also been told to get a new roof for her house. My roof has a sheet metal covering, which is better than slate, but I am being forced to change it. I dont have the money or the energy to do so, she complained. Kravchenko said she could not understand why she had to give her house front a makeover even though it was in good shape . Im still having to paint the shutters and window frames. I dont understand why everything is fine here. And whos going to paint them, my 72-year-old husband? she asked. Suyunbek Arabekov is not only chief architect of the Alamuddin district which includes Prigorodnoye; he is behind the entire proposal to tidy up the capital. He said it was essential to carry out the work in anticipation of the Shanghai summit. After all, if were receiving guests at home, we put our house in order, he said. But Arabekov insisted no fines would be levied if people did not carry out the orders. Shabdanov said that technically speaking, Bishkek residents were legally responsible for keeping the area around their homes clean and tidy, under an ordinance issued by the city council in 2003. Every citizen, every organisation and every company is expected to make improvements to its space. Everyone has their own area to work on. We should help the city we live in, he said. Meanwhile, private businesses say they too are being pressured to contribute to the effort. One businessman, who introduced himself as Kalmat, said he had been visited by officials had come to talk to him. They told me Id have to lay tiles on 100 metres of pavement next to my small grocery kiosk. Thats a lot of money, and Ill have to go into debt, he said. But like many business owners, Kalmat did not even consider refusing to obey the instruction, for fear that the authorities would close him down. Theyd find some excuse to close my kiosk, and its my only source of income, on which I feed my entire family, he said. Another businessman, who gave his name as Samat, also planned to paint his shopfront even though he saw no need for it. I dont understand them; it all looks fine anyway, but whether I want to or not, Ill have to paint everything again to refresh the paint and show how eager I am, he said. I dont expect the authorities to help. That would be pure fantasy. Travel agents in Kyrgyzstan are also anxious about the prospect of around 4,000 people politicians, staff and journalists from the SCO members and also those countries that have observer status in the grouping descending on the city. Vladimir Komissarov, the chairman of the Silk Road tourism association, has warned that the summit may damage the travel and hospitality business. Interviewed by the AKIpress news agency, Komissarov said hotels and travel companies were under pressure to cancel existing hotel reservations to make way for the SCO guests. Hotel reservations made by several tourist agencies have been cancelled to make space for delegations from the SCO members and observer states. Imagine what will happen if a group of tourists arrives and we cant find a place for them to stay, he said. According to Sergei Bogdanov, a journalist with the Tribuna newspaper, even if everyone knuckles under and carries out the facelift successfully, the underlying social problems in the city will not be covered over so easily. I cant believe the Kyrgyz authorities are so naive that they hope to hide the poverty and dissatisfaction of the people behind a surface gloss. Are they hoping that foreign journalists wont walk around the streets of Bishkek and talk to ordinary city dwellers? he asked. Some of Prigorodnoyes residents are already turning the tables on the authorities by using the clean-up campaign to embarrass them over the generally poor state of public services. A letter written by a group of women living in the area complained that three streets there have had no drinking water for the last six months. Despite our appeals, everyone brushes us off, saying they dont have time for us. And this is at a time when the temperature is reaching 40 degrees, said one of the women. Nevertheless, the instructions still stand and people are getting out their shovels and paintbrushes to improve the citys façade. Bek Omarov is the pseudonym used by an independent journalist in Bishkek. UZBEK GOVERNMENT CONCERNED AT MIGRATION The authorities have political as well as economic reasons for keeping a closer eye on people travelling abroad for work. By IWPR staff in Central Asia The authorities in Uzbekistan are trying to gather more information about the hundreds of thousands of people who work as migrant labour abroad. Officially, a new registration system is intended to make it easier to help migrants if they get into trouble, but many believe the government is concerned about the exodus of its adult workforce and wants to stem the flow. Other reasons for keeping tabs on Uzbek citizens abroad are to exert the same kind of political control as they are subject to at home, and also to recover some of the taxes they would have paid if they stayed in Uzbekistan. A government order dated May 15 has two stated aims to streamline the registration procedures that would-be migrant workers must go through, and to ensure they are protected once they are out of the country. A local government official who asked to remain anonymous said the authorities were merely carrying out their responsibility to care for their citizens. "Our state is still a young one, and we are gradually altering our legislation so that it is on a par with international standards," he said, insisting that "both the country and the people benefit from labour migration. Under the new rules, Uzbek nationals planning to leave the country have to fill in a form stating details of their future job and whereabouts. This is a revised version of a document already in existence, although IWPR understands that most people who went through the procedure before the change were travelling to countries outside the former Soviet Union. The vast majority who went to Russia or Kazakstan simply ignored the requirements. That, however, is likely to change with a range of official and semi-official measures designed to keep a closer eye on the migration flow. Low salaries and scant job opportunities force many in Uzbekistan to leave the country in search of work. Information from various official sources indicate that around 800,000 people work outside the country a massive 10 per cent of the total working population. Other estimates put the figure at three million, while some regime insiders say it could be up to five or six million. The discrepancy is partly attributable to the difficulty of counting migrants, not least because many are illegals, and because of seasonal variations in the numbers. Another factor is that for a government which claims economic successes year after year, it is somewhat embarrassing if a major part of the workforce is voting with its feet. To get a better idea of the figures involved, the governments statistical agency and the customs committee have been instructed to produce quarterly reports on the number of people moving abroad and their reasons for leaving. Uzbek consulates abroad are also to monitor peoples movements. Alongside these public measures, the authorities are also using more subtle, covert means of control, using the neighbourhood or mahallah committees which the government has turned into the lowest tier of local administration. These pass on information about migrants to the police and according to one mahallah official, the intelligence agency or National Security Service, SNB. Mahallah staff insist that there are no restrictions, and that the new requirement to register is for the migrants own good. By all means, go wherever you want, said one secretary of a mahallah committee, who asked not to be named. As soon as you settle down, let your family know, so that they can inform us what address you are living at. This is required by the SNB. According to one regional governor who asked not to be named, the authorities have recently launched a quiet propaganda campaign through the state-controlled newspapers and television channels to discourage migration. These articles are about the difficulties that our fellow-citizens face, and information about the modern slave trade, he said. The official contrasted the present situation with the early Nineties, when the propaganda line was all about how well Uzbekistan was doing compared with Russia. The situation has fundamentally changed, he said. Now the authorities have nothing to boast about, so the local media are full of reports about the difficulties that befall our citizens. According to former diplomat and analyst Toshpulat Yoldashev, The presence of five to six million able-bodied, economically active people abroad is the biggest slap in the face to a boastful government which says that everything is fine here when it is not the case. He added, The country has villages where there is no one left to carry the coffin when someone dies. Old men and women have to do it because there are no young men there theyve all left. Iskandar Khudoiberganov, a political analyst and former director of the Centre for Democratic Initiative, said the government had opted to conduct the anti-migration campaign through covert tactics. If the authorities conducted this campaign openly, there would be great anger among the population. So everything is being done very quietly, he said. Khudoiberganov believes the government is nervous of having so many Uzbek nationals outside the country and thus beyond its political and security influence. I think the authorities are very worried that [Uzbek] citizens are not under their control, and may bring back awkward ideas such as the fact that people live better in Russia, and questions about why we live like this in Uzbekistan, he said. Yoldashev added, Theyre gathering information about people who are dissidents and who have left the country . The government wants to have precise statistics about people who leave the country in order to know who they can put pressure on. Another, very practical motive for tracking migration is to increase tax receipts. Estimates of the contribution that migrants make to the economy range between 1.5 and three billion US dollars, but this takes the form of remittances rather than payments to the government budget. Khudoiberganov believes the authorities want to find a way of recovering the taxes the thousands of workers would have paid had they stayed at home. Six million people have left the country, in other words people who would have contributed taxes to the state treasury and thats a lot of money, he said. Like him, Yoldashev believes the registration process is a precursor to taxation. He predicts that the authorities will try to recoup the difference between the 13 per cent income tax people pay in Russia and 28 per cent in Uzbekistan. But Khudoiberganov warns that imposing taxes on people who have left the country to work will only make people leave permanently either by acquiring Russian citizenship or by applying for refugee status. This is already happening, according to one farm manager, who said life in the other former Soviet republics looked increasingly attractive compared with the repressive atmosphere in Uzbekistan. They feel themselves beyond the surveillance of the state, and naturally they ask why people cant live like this in Uzbekistan, he said. We all live next door to each other, in countries which at one time were pursuing the same path of development. Whatever the authorities do to curb the flow of emigration, Yoldashev says people will continue to go, to escape economic hardship and lack of opportunities. Its practically impossible to stop this process. Whatever the authorities do, people need to eat and you cant sew their mouths shut, he said. They say that if you cant give us a decent job with a decent wage what right have you got to keep us here? **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Central Asia Programme Manager: Saule Mukhametrakhimova; Editor in Bishkek: Kumar Bekbolotov. 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