WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 512, October 19, 2007 VOTING SYSTEM STILL FLAWED AS KYRGYZ HEAD FOR REFERENDUM The system by which voters will decide the fate of a new constitution is obsolete and open to abuse, analysts say. By Jipara Abdrakhmanova in Bishkek
KAZAKSTAN: ONE LAW FOR THE RICH People offered nothing when they were evicted from their homes last year are angry that wealthier home-owners are to be recompensed. By Yaroslav Razumov in Almaty SPECIAL REPORT CHINAS ROAD INTO KYRGYZSTAN The Kyrgyz truck drivers and market traders who have benefited from trade routes to their eastern neighbour are less enthusiastic about the growing Chinese role in the local economy. By Ulugbek Babakulov in Kyrgyzstan **** IWPR RESOURCES ****************************************************************** WINNERS OF 2007 KURT SCHORK AWARDS ANNOUNCED Please go to http://www.iwpr.net/kurtschork.html to find out more. CROSS CAUCASUS JOURNALISM NETWORK. IWPR has launched the website of a unique Caucasus-wide programme, funded by the EU and the Finnish government, forming a network of more than 50 journalists from across the North and South Caucasus. 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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 ******************************************************************** VOTING SYSTEM STILL FLAWED AS KYRGYZ HEAD FOR REFERENDUM The system by which voters will decide the fate of a new constitution is obsolete and open to abuse, analysts say. By Jipara Abdrakhmanova in Bishkek As voters in Kyrgyzstan prepare to go to the polls to approve or reject a new constitution, analysts say the system used for compiling the electoral roll remains deeply flawed. While there is no suggestion that the current authorities plan to fix the October 21 referendum, most analysts interviewed by IWPR agreed there was plenty of scope for anyone with an interest in skewing the result to do so. Kyrgyzstans past record is not encouraging notably, two rounds of parliamentary elections in early 2005 produced so many allegations of irregularities and wrongdoing that they sparked a mass protest movement which culminated in the ousting of President Askar Akaev in March that year. Two areas, in particular, worry analysts to whom IWPR has spoken an outmoded electoral registration system based on residence records, and the likelihood that many of the hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz nationals working abroad will miss out on a chance to vote. Because the constitution contains new provisions for parliamentary elections, voters in the referendum will be asked in addition to approve a new electoral law to implement the shift from a constituency-based system to proportional representation, where seats will be filled from candidate lists according to how a given party has performed nationally. The referendum was announced by President Kurmanbek Bakiev only a month in advance, on September 19, when he also revealed the version of the constitution he would like to go through. This followed a Constitutional Court ruling five days earlier that the current constitution dating from December 2006, as well another version from the month before, were null and void. This forced the country to revert to the 2003 constitution introduced in 2003 under President Akaev. Constitutional reform was one of the main demands put forward in a series of protests since March 2005, when a Bakiev came to power. In November 2006, after coming under pressure from opposition demonstrations, the Kyrgyz parliament changed the constitution to strengthen the role of parliament and limit the presidents authority. However, a month later, parliament passed another version of the constitution which restored the presidents powers, causing an outcry amongst civil society activists who argued that it gave the head of state too much power. In their ruling, Constitutional Court judges found that changes to the rules of parliament - introduced expressly so that legislators could pass constitutional amendments without referring them to the court - were not legally valid. Critics of Bakiev say the constitution he is now proposing leaves him and his successors with excessive powers, and is not conducive to creating a more democratic society. Experts on the electoral system warn that the validity of the referendum which will decide this crucial issue could be marred by abuses such as multiple voting. In Kyrgyzstan, people are registered to vote in the administrative district where they have a propiska, a record showing their place of residence. In Soviet times, the system was used to control population movement. These day, large numbers of people move around the country or go off to work abroad. The complexities involved in shifting ones propiska means that many migrants do not bother to do so. Voting stations will therefore be left with many ballot papers in the name of long-absent voters. Yelena Voronina of the non-government group Interbilim said that since her organisation began monitoring elections in 1998, it has identified cases where unclaimed blank ballots assigned to either absentees or dead people - have been filled out by unscrupulous officials to help the incumbent authorities win. There were dead souls and discrepancies on the electoral roll, she said. Voronina said similar problems could reappear in the forthcoming referendum. It seems the current authorities are blindly repeating these practices without learning the lessons from unpleasant experiences of the past, she said. She believes that basing voter registration on residence criteria in a country with such high levels of internal and external migration is wrong. I am against voting with the propiska system; we should move away from this legacy of the Soviet Union, she said. By some counts, there are up to a million expatriates a fifth of the countrys population mostly in Russia and Kazakstan either as seasonal workers or more permanent residents. The sheer numbers of potential voters and the short advance notice given for this referendum mean that even those who have the right papers could find they are denied the right to vote abroad. In Russia, where the largest number of expatriate Kyrgyz nationals are based, polling stations will open in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk, while in Kazakstan, it will be possible to vote in the capital Astana and Almaty, the largest urban centre. Kyrgyz nationals living far from these major cities will be effectively excluded. Alikbek Jekshenkulov, a former foreign minister, doubts Kyrgyzstans small diplomatic missions will have the capacity to cope. There are usually about five to six diplomats working in our missions abroad, although the embassy in Russia is an exception. So it is unrealistic to expect the staff of these diplomatic missions to manage such a flow of people, he said. The deputy speaker of parliament, Erkin Alymbekov, warns that the entire labour migrant vote represents an opportunity for abuse by the administration, especially since there isnt a mechanism to guarantee fair voting or to observe the process abroad. Another factor that will reduce the expatriate vote is that many migrants are living and working illegally, so they will be reluctant to reveal themselves for fear the Russian or Kazak authorities will take note and deport them. Emil Imakeev, head of the external labour migration department of the Kyrgyz state committee for migration and employment, said only 10 per cent of the Kyrgyz citizens in Russia enjoy full status, whereas the figure for illegal immigrants is beyond all calculation. Some argue that despite its flaws, the residence-based system is the only workable way of registering voters at the moment. Nina Mukhina, head of information at the Central Election Committee, CEC, said the propiska system was the only effective way of preventing multiple voting on a massive scale. If we were to get rid of the propiska [system], mechanisms would have to be introduced to replace it. Otherwise, instead of two-and-a-half million voters, we could end up with a list twice as long, since many voters have a propiska in one place but live somewhere else, said Mukhina. In any case, Mukhina said, there was already provision to people to cast an absentee ballot. All they have to do is go back to the place where they are recorded as living and pick up the papers. But critics say it is difficult and expensive for people who are by definition economic migrants to make such a trip. Juma Abdullaev, whose Zamandash group helps labour migrant and other diaspora members, said his organisation had offered to help set up mobile polling stations, as employed in the 2005 election in which Bakiev became president, but the CEC had rejected the idea. The Central Election Commission told us that a decision had been taken not to deploy mobile polling stations this year, he said. Political analyst Svetlana Moldogazieva, of the CFG legal consultancy, says that despite the criticism of the current system, no viable alternative has been put forward. She also believes pressure groups are making a fuss about potential hitches for their own ends. I believe certain NGOs are exaggerating this issue - criticising the principle of voting by residence registration and thereby alarming the public merely to draw attention to themselves, she said. Nevertheless, some election officials admit that current voter registration practices are in need of improvement. CEC member Jyldyz Joldosheva told the AKIpress news agency on October 12 that she had noticed irregularities on electoral lists earlier this month when she visited the southern Osh region. Eligible voters were omitted, while deceased people were still listed. On October 7, there was a local election for Osh city council, and large numbers of voters did not get on to the main electoral roll. Additional lists of up to 300 people at a time had to be compiled in most constituencies, she said. Moreover, in nearly every constituency the names of deceased people had been included. This is wrong, not only because its in breach of the law but also because its highly unethical. Joldosheva blamed the local mayors office for the mix-up, and warned that it would have to do better when it came to the referendum. In a recent television interview, another CEC member, Akylbek Sariev said, Problems with the voting lists certainly exist. Sometimes there are dead souls. It cant be rule out that it will happen again. I agree that there are deficiencies in our work. But if everyone [in the CEC] approached their duties responsibly, we could avoid this problem. Unfortunately, there are individuals on the local election committees who do not carry out their obligations honestly. Jipara Abdrakhmanova is an IWPR contributor in Bishkek. KAZAKSTAN: ONE LAW FOR THE RICH People offered nothing when they were evicted from their homes last year are angry that wealthier home-owners are to be recompensed. By Yaroslav Razumov in Almaty A decision to compensate well-off residents of Almaty, Kazakstans largest city, when their properties are demolished has provoked accusations of preferential treatment. People living in run-down areas of the city received nothing when their houses were knocked down last year. Some 2,000 buildings on the slopes of the mountains that form the citys backdrop are likely be demolished, including luxury homes that dot the Butakovka, Chimbulak, Medeu, and Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinka gorges. City authorities say the majority of owners are likely to receive compensation. The Kazak government established a commission last month to look into demolishing buildings located in nature conservation zones on the outskirts of the city. The commission - set up to address concerns that the buildings could be causing environmental damage - will determine whether they were built before or after the area was given national park status, and will then decide who receives compensation. Owners who built their homes after the cut-off date will not qualify. Prime Minister Karim Masimov told a meeting of the commission on September 21 that it was time to take decisive but fair action on buildings that flouted nature conservation legislation. We will insist that the law is equal for everyone - there are no big or little people here, said the prime minister, according to the Khabar news agency. Almatys mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov told a September 28 press conference that up to four billion US dollars could be set aside to compensate people who lost their homes. He insisted, however, that there would be no dealing with those who put up homes once the conservation zones were created. But when the prosecutor generals office confirmed on October 9 that compensation would indeed be paid to those who bought land plots and real estate in the designated zone prior to its special status, it made it clear this would account for 90 per cent of the properties which will be subject to demolition orders. The generous and comprehensive deal that seems to be on offer contrasts sharply with how people in less affluent parts of the city have been treated when they have been told to leave their homes. Critics of the offer say it is manifestly unfair for taxpayers money to be used to compensate wealthy home-owners when the residents of Shanyrak and Bakay got nothing for their demolished homes. These settlements appeared on the fringes of the city in the Nineties, as people arrived from other regions as well as from the Kazak diaspora seeking work in the countrys commercial centre. At the time, the areas they settled were administratively part of the rural region surrounding Almaty, but in 1999 the city government acquired these areas, and residents of Bakay and Shanyrak found themselves dealing with officials who wanted the land for redevelopment and refused to admit that they had any right to live there. Demolition orders followed for homes in Bakay and Shanyrak, and by last year the dispute had escalated into a stand-off, with sporadic battles between locals and the police who were drafted in to protect demolition squads. More than 100 homes were torn down, and there was no talk of compensation. A former resident of Shanyrak told IWPR how angry he was at the stark difference between the deal the mountain villa owners are getting and the way people like him were treated. We were literally chucked out into the street and they demolished our home and other structures, said the man, who did not want to be named. Nobody even mentioned compensation. We wouldnt have said no to it, even a small amount. And now you have billions of dollars going to a few hundred, maybe a thousand families. How is that fair? This man said some of his former neighbours were homeless, while he had found shelter with relatives outside Almaty. Some of the former residents are completely homeless. We dont know what to do its impossible to get either a residence permit or a stable job, he said. Seytkazy Mataev, chairman of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan, said there should be no double standards if the people of Shanyrak and Bakay received no compensation, then neither should the owners of the elite housing conveniently close to the Chimbulak ski centre and the Medeo ice rink. I think its wrong to pay such sums out of the taxpayers pocket, said Mataev. Why should we be paying for them to break the law? Its forbidden to build in that special protection zone. Thats not what happened in Bakay and Shanyrak there it was demolition and no compensation. Political scientist Mikhail Sytnik advances the theory that some of the luxury home owners may themselves have lobbied for the environmental review, with the idea of obtaining compensation to cushion an expected crash in property prices. He believes that the government commission will conclude that the houses did breach environmental regulations, but that it isnt the villa owners who are to blame but the officials who issued the permits ten or 15 years ago. Whatever the politics behind the compensation offer, the environmental concerns seem real enough. Local environmentalists say Almaty is at risk from mudslides as the mountain slopes are disturbed. They also argue that annual average temperatures have risen, citing unusually mild weather that lasted through January in these normally snowbound mountain areas. The warming will, if it persists, lead to flooding and landslides, they say. Almaty is a city at bursting point, with a population of at least 1.5 million living in an area with infrastructure designed for 400,000. A construction boom in recent years has seen property prices soar and spare land gobbled up. In April this year, President Nursultan Nazarbaev suggested that pressure on the city centre could be alleviated by prohibiting further construction there and instead creating satellite towns around the city. However, such urban planning schemes are likely to bring problems of their own the evictions in Bakay and Shanyrak were prompted by similar visions of a decentralised city in which high-quality housing schemes will replace older residential areas. Yaroslav Razumov is an IWPR contributor in Almaty. SPECIAL REPORT CHINAS ROAD INTO KYRGYZSTAN The Kyrgyz truck drivers and market traders who have benefited from trade routes to their eastern neighbour are less enthusiastic about the growing Chinese role in the local economy. By Ulugbek Babakulov in Kyrgyzstan As China's commercial presence extends into Central Asia, the caravan routes which once formed the Silk Road are again bustling with traffic. Only the methods for delivering goods have changed on the dilapidated 300-kilometre road leading from Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan to the Irkeshtam border crossing, and on into western China. Caravans of camels carrying silk, spices and precious stones have been replaced by convoys of trucks loaded up with Chinese fridges, televisions and clothes all destined for south Kyrgyzstans bustling markets. Some of the goods will find their way into nearby Uzbekistan, where the authorities have clamped down on Chinese exports to try to protect local industry. Here the demand for cheap consumer goods has created a thriving smuggling trade to circumvent official restrictions. With the imports have come economic and social change, as China sealed off from Central Asia in the Soviet period has become a regional player, and its merchants a common sight at Kyrgyz markets. I traced the journey made by people and goods all the way from Irkeshtam, past snow-capped mountains and desolate steppes, to the giant wholesale market at Karasuu, where I also took a look at trade across the closely-guarded Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. NEW RULES LEAVE LOCAL WORKERS OUT IN THE COLD The border post at Irkeshtam lies at high altitude in the shadow of towering peaks of up to 7,000 meters. Not even the hardiest shrubs can take root in the bare, weather-beaten ground here. Only a few years ago, the border was closed for 20 days each month because conditions are so harsh. Back then, the only accommodation available was the numbered trailers scattered around the settlement and occupied by drivers and porters awaiting deliveries. Now, the transient population of Irkeshtam has swelled to some 2,000 porters, drivers and officials. Several mud-built hostels sit along the road, with ten dormitories of five or six beds and a café in each. Its hard to find a vacancy in these places, and I was offered a bed for the night in a storeroom which a chambermaid hastily cleared of bread. Most drivers still prefer the basic conditions of the trailers, and many of these have also been turned into makeshift shops, selling soap, washing powder, cigarettes and alcohol. Until recently, the steady flow of Chinese exports along the Irkeshtam-Osh road brought work to thousands of locals as loaders, long-distance truck drivers, company representatives and catering staff. The Chinese drivers would unload their 60 or 70 ton cargo at the terminal and reload it onto several ten-ton Kyrgyz trucks to carry it to the markets in Osh and Karasuu. But since the Kyrgyz authorities granted permission to the Chinese trucks to drive straight into the country just over a year ago, many of them now deliver goods direct from the factory to the marketplace. Meanwhile, trucks with Kyrgyz number plates cannot compete as they are still not allowed into China. While this may be more efficient for the Chinese traders, Kyrgyz delivery drivers complain there is no longer enough work for them. Nor is there any need for the hundreds of people who used to come to Irkeshtam to help load the trucks. I was invited into a blue trailer with the number 86 daubed on its side to talk to drivers from Osh. One driver, Alibek, told me that his colleagues no longer look forward to the arrival of 40 to 50 Chinese trucks each day. This [change to the rules] means that every day, around 200 to 230 of our drivers are no longer wanted, he said. Demand for loaders at the Irkeshtam terminal has also dropped there are now just two squads of 30 people each, where there were once 30 teams. The sudden drop in employment in the area has caused anger among locals, many of whom blame Chinese drivers for depriving them of opportunities to work and support their families. An association of over 500 truck drivers, called Aidoochu or Driver, has written to Osh governor Jantoro Satybaldiev calling for Chinese trucks to be banned from driving across Kyrgyzstan. Aidoochus head Nadyr Toktorov told me that drivers planned to block the road to stop Chinese lorries carrying on with their journey through the country. He warned that if the situation continues as it is, Chinese trucks will soon be the only traffic on the road - which he argued is already the case on another highway connecting the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek with the western Chinese city of Kashgar via the Torugart crossing. His colleague Alibek Jamankulov added that trucks from southern Kyrgyzstan used to drive to the Torugart crossing, where there was plenty of loading and delivery work. Now that road is serviced completely by Chinese vehicles. Soon the same thing will happen here, and then everyone who makes a living off this road will be forced to look for work in Russia, or find another job, he said. Some of the loaders have threatened to rob the Chinese trucks. If we find ourselves out of jobs, with no means of subsistence, then well rob the Chinese trucks. Well do it in the pass, in the mountains, wherever its easily done, said one. I asked Guljamal Joroeva, spokeswoman for the Osh regional government, whether the authorities were aware that some resentful locals were threatening to obstruct the Chinese traffic. She told me that at the last meeting of the regional administration, the governor instructed police to ensure that Chinese trucks had unrestricted movement. ROADWORKS AHEAD Day and night, convoys of heavy trucks bump along the serpentine Irkeshtam-Osh road, which is little more than a dust track that scales dizzying heights and plunges into deep gorges. There are no petrol stations or maintenance facilities for long stretches, and fuel is sold in canisters at the roadside. Recently, however, a number of Chinese companies have begun to rebuild the road and develop the infrastructure, and hotels and rest points are springing up along it. Some locals are suspicious of this foreign-led development. A border guards officer at the Kyzyl-Suu checkpoint, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested that China was preparing for a peaceful conquest of Kyrgyzstan. Right now he said, the highway was not the Silk Road, but a path for donkeys. But soon the Chinese will lay asphalt, and then nothing will stop them. Even now, you can see that over the last half-year the number of Chinese vehicles has increased significantly, while our Kyrgyz vehicles have greatly decreased in number. DRIVERS SUBJECT TO EXTORTION ALONG THE WAY In place of the bandits who once robbed unsuspecting merchants along the road, the modern-day drivers are hit official and unofficial levies imposed by traffic police, customs officers and transport firms. Those Kyrgyz drivers who have not been displaced by Chinese truckers who drive the whole route are hired on a casual basis. They told me they have to pay the freight firms in order to be assigned a job in the first place. They receive 18,000 soms about 490 US dollars, for transporting 15 to18 tons of cargo, but out of that they have to pay the freight company a fee of 1,000 soms, or 27 dollars. If you dont, youll sit there forever and wont get a load, Alibek laughed bitterly. Delivery company representatives at the Irkeshtam-Dorozhny customs point where 40 firms operate with four to five employees - refused to comment on these claims. Zakir Khiyazov, a representative of the firm Al Hajji Roma, said it paid drivers 480 dollars for delivering a consignment to its destination. The cargo is mainly despatched by Chinese traders. We load up to six vehicles a day with cargo, said Khiyazov. Kyrgyz drivers said they paid 50-100 soms (1.50 to three dollars) to employees of the border, customs and control services just to be allowed to reach the loading-up site, and there are more payments on top of that. In total, drivers at the terminal pay an average of 1,200-1,500 soms [up to 40 dollars] just to get as far as the terminal and take receipt of a load, said Shuhrat Jurabaev, a driver from the Karasuu area. Once on the road, more taxes await the truckers. The traffic cops find many excuses to extort money, and if you dont pay them, they wont leave you alone. So its much easier to give them 50 soms and get home quickly, said local driver Alisher Usmanov. At Gulcha in the Alai district, which lies 150 km from the city of Osh, I saw two policemen hanging around outside the settlements main shop, flagging down passing traffic. One of the officers stopped a Chinese truck and asked the co-driver for identification and the freight documents. The man explained that their documents had been withheld from them at an earlier checkpoint and offered to pay 50 soms to be allowed to pass. The policeman at this improvised checkpoint agreed to let them go, but demanded four times as much. The drivers had no option but to pay up after the officers threatened to hold them up indefinitely. When I remarked to the policemen that I understood they didnt stop foreigners on the roads, one of them replied, Of course we stop them, and we demand more from them than from the locals. Bribery on the road has become so commonplace that officials no longer even have to ask for the money. On the approaches to Osh city, I saw one Kyrgyz driver drive up to a police checkpoint. Instead of stopping, he simply slowed down, rolled down his window and tossed 50 soms at the policemen waiting by at the side of the road. KARASUUS GIANT BAZAAR After a long, uncomfortable and expensive journey, drivers arrive at the markets in Karasuu or in Osh itself, where they unload their cargo. Karasuu is Central Asias largest market, where goods are sold wholesale to traders who will take them to shops and local bazaars in the region. Buyers from all over Uzbekistan and Tajikistan come to stock up on goods from row upon row of stalls which stretch as far the eye can see. Lying just three kilometres from the Uzbek border, the Karasuu market sprawls over 15 hectares, and has an estimated daily turnover of half a million dollars. The busiest days are Tuesday and Saturday, when up to 60,000 people come from neighbouring countries to buy and sell at this bustling hub. Locals serve them hot food, tea and coffee, and many turn their homes into bed-and-breakfasts. In recent months, the growing community of Chinese expatriates has meant that they have started to sell their goods themselves, rather than hiring locals to do it. One local policeman told me that around 5,000 Chinese salespeople now worked at the market - an increase of almost 20 per cent on last year. Some locals welcome this new, expanding community, including the many Kyrgyz students who take jobs on stalls to earn some cash and also to practice their spoken Chinese now commonly spoken at the market, alongside Russian, Uzbek, Tajik, Kyrgyz. Third-year student Uulkan spends her mornings studying at Osh State University and her afternoons selling goods on a market stall run by a Chinese trader. Working with the Chinese is a wonderful chance to marry a respectable and wealthy man, she confided. Chinese traders at the Karasuu market now have their own security agency. Zamir Rahimov, a guard for the company, insists that Chinese traders have created more work for the locals. Lets put it bluntly, a lot of the local population live at the expense of the Chinese salespeople, he said. For example, one Chinese person at the market feeds three locals - the seller, as well as the loader and the handcart porter. But others believe the influx of Chinese traders has harmed the local economy. Businesswoman Leila Japarova, who brings wholesale goods from the Chinese city of Urumqi to sell at Karasuu, said the number of Kyrgyz traders there has dropped as a result of competition from the Chinese. This is because the Chinese bring their products and sell them themselves. Naturally, they sell much cheaper than our businessmen, because its easier for Chinese people to get goods from their own country, she said. I met a young Chinese merchant who has been coming to Karasuu for many years now. He said the government in Beijing encouraged entrepreneurs and helped them promote their businesses. It is prestigious to be rich, and poor people are not liked [in China], although the government tries to help them as well. But theres a lot more chance of being respected if youre rich, he said. The government issues loans on soft terms to Chinese people engaged in commerce abroad, at very low interest rates. I asked Chinese merchants to respond to claims by some locals that they are stealing their jobs. A fish seeks deeper water, while a man seeks a better place, was one of the more cryptic responses. A Chinese merchant from the Artush, a town in the Xinjiang-Uighur region in China's west, said he and his compatriots were not pushing anybody out of the way. We even make their trade easier, he said. The local Kyrgyz people buy goods from us much cheaper than from Kyrgyz intermediary purchasers, and their merchants dont even need to travel to China. They get the goods right here and take them off to Russia. So our presence here benefits them, said the merchant, who spoke Kyrgyz. Ernis and Gulmira Jainakov, a Kyrgyz couple who hold Russian citizenship, are an example of the so-called new Kyrgyz. They belong to the relatively wealthy 20 per cent out of the 600,000 to one million migrants who have gone to Russia and Kazakstan in search of a better life. The Jainakovs return to their home city, Bishkek, from time to time to visit their teenage children and stock up on wholesale goods from Chinese traders at the Dordoi market, which they then sell in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. A Kyrgyz government decree to ban foreigners from working as market traders was interpreted by many as an attempt to attract this class of successful expatriate entrepreneurs back home. However, at the last moment, the authorities postponed the measure until January next year. Ernis Jainakov laughed and looked bemused when I asked him what he thought of the abortive attempt to ban foreign traders from Kyrgyzstan. Firstly, its unlikely that Kyrgyz traders will return home, as there are no conditions for finding decent work. Secondly, our places here are occupied by the Chinese. Whats the difference if they go on to trade in another country? Well still lose out. Thirdly, its unlikely that the Kyrgyz authorities will give up this chance to levy fees from foreign traders, he said, adding, And were already quite well-established in Russia. LIVELY SMUGGLING TRADE TO UZBEKISTAN It is believed that 80 per cent of the Chinese goods sold at Karasuu will smuggled into Uzbekistan, where there is high demand for cheap goods. An army of Uzbek traders travel thousands of kilometres to Karasuu from all over their country. Selling the goods allows them to feed their families, so they continue to defy the risks of being caught - which include having their goods confiscated or being beaten and assaulted by Uzbek police and border guards. I travelled right up to the Kyrgyz side of the frontier to investigate the smuggling trade - which the Uzbek authorities have tried to stamp out by flattening thousands of homes in the border zone through which goods could have passed. A tangled barbed-wire fence marks the boundary between the two countries. Rubble lies scattered over the dusty earth scarred with tyre-tracks. Not far away, tractors roll past a recently constructed red-brick building. One Uzbek woman wept as she told me her family home been torn down by the authorities. In exchange for our demolished home, we were given 400 square metres of land and 5.5 million sums [4,850 dollars] to build a house. But that isnt even enough to build a shed, she said. This drastic action has made little difference, for as long as corrupt border guards are happy to let traders pass in exchange for a cut, Chinese goods will continue to find their way into Uzbekistan. I actually witnessed border guards taking money from people to cross those carrying goods paid 1,000 soms, about 80 US cents, while those without baggage paid half that amount. Officially, the Kyrgyz authorities deny there is a problem. Baitik Babataev, deputy chief of police in Karasuu district, dismissed any suggestion that Chinese imports made their way into Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan. Do you really think that if we knew that there were smuggling routes somewhere, we wouldnt stop such violations? Its simply impossible in our district, at any rate, he said. RISING CHINESE BUSINESS PRESENCE While Uzbekistan tries to stem the flow of imports, Kyrgyzstan is hosting new ventures that will see Chinese goods manufactured on its own soil. In the last year, Bishkek and Bejing have established several joint ventures to build homes and factories in Osh, and four brick factories have already been constructed. The mayor of Osh, Jumadil Isakov, told me that Chinese consumer goods will be assembled at a 48,000 square metre industrial park now under development. We intend to start assembling components here, a sort of technology park for assembling Chinese furniture, fridges, irons and other goods, he said. If the quality measures up, then well sell the finished products in Russia, Turkey and other countries. The mayor welcomes such joint enterprises, which he said will mean more jobs and better infrastructure for the city. But he also noted that in many of the new factories, the skilled jobs were being filled by Chinese workers, while locals were only given more menial tasks. According to Isakov, Chinese engineers seemed reluctant to pass on their skills to Kyrgyz co-workers. For example, the brick factory has been working here for two years now, but they dont say how the equipment works, and do everything themselves, and they dont teach our workers the secrets. Im constantly asking local workers whether they can work independently, and they tell me the Chinese dont teach them anything. Some local workers expressed irritation at the perception that imported Chinese labourers were prepared to put in longer hours for less money. This meant that Kyrgyz were unlikely to be employed on the new sites, they said. Im not afraid of working, but I see Chinese workers in Osh working 12 hours a day with one day off a month. And they receive miserable wages. They live in unsuitable housing and get around 100 dollars a month, but they still put up with it, said Abakir Zairov. Zairov is a plasterer by trade who recently returned home from a stint in Yekaterinburg in Russia, where he earned around 3,000 dollars in six months. I dont think Id be able to keep pace with that [Chinese] work tempo, and theres no way Id work for that money, he said. Nevertheless, Zairov felt that the Chinese workers were filling a vital gap in the labour market left as local tradesmen continued to flock to Russia and Kazakstan. We dont have enough finishers or bricklayers of our own. Theyve all gone off to Russia or Kazakstan to work, he said, adding that Its in our interests to bring in more locals, and if we pay them well, they will of course agree to work. Ulugbek Babakulov is an independent journalist and IWPR contributor in Bishkek. **** 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. 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