Akh, O’zbekiston, O’zbekiston…
Uzbekistan has closed yet another NGO- it’s Counterpart, an American organization that supports local civil society. You could see it coming from a mile away, but it’s still shocking.
Uzbekistan has three tactics. For NGOs that are openly engaged in helping people to organize (organize anything), they are accused of distributing information without a license, going against their charters, etc. etc. This is a thin code for: helping reforms, democracy, and freedom, which to the Uzbekistan government means, aiding terrorists, since nobody but a terrorist could possibly object to their present fascist system.
For NGOs that are helping orphans, widows, refugees, and other poor people (such as UNHCR, which was responsible for the tiny number of Afghan refugees and slightly larger number of Tajik refugees in Uzbekistan and which has since been kicked out of the country), the government says that there is no such work to be done, and tells them to leave.
For NGOs that are/were engaged in long-term development partnerships with the EU, USAID, and the Uzbek government, and which are engaged in projects that help with most everything (microcredit, large infrastructure, centralized water supply, etc.) their registrations are never renewed. I won’t give any examples, because God forbid this hurt their chances, but the Uzbek government and they know who they are (pretty much every NGO left in the country).
Here’s a link to the article.
Don’t forget to visit the newest addition to “Blogs that Rock the Casbah”, either. Free Uzbekistan is a great site for tracking what is going on there and supports minority (Tajik, Russian, Tatar, Kyrghyz, Turkmen, and other) rights, freedom of speech, movement, and so on.
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- The CIS | Time: 04.1.05 (UTC+8)
Like Oh My Gaaawd! Not Counterpart! They are totally my favorite pop band these days! Like they so get the simulacra po-mo mediated existence we live in today! And they totally rocked! totally! the last season of Tajikistar! Oh I mean Turkmenistar! Oh wait was it Uzbekistar! Oh who cares about centra asia anyway….
Comment by Q.A. — 05.05.2006 @ 06.1.22
Tajikistar is a great idea. Unfortunately the production quality of TV in Tajikistan is about 10 times worse than in Afghanistan (don’t ask why, nobody can figure this out).
And hey… me and that dude Nathan at Registan.net care.
Comment by Administrator — 05.05.2006 @ 07.1.38