Global Voices » Uzbek

Uzbekistan: Playing Politics on Facebook

Ekaterina — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:57:05 +0000

Facebook seems to have started playing an important role in Uzbek politics. However, so far it is more a tool for playing games with fake accounts, rather than an instrument of civil protests.

Planted suicide story?

On 6 December, 2011, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on a suicide committed by a young woman in the western Uzbek city of Andijan. After coming home on vacation, Gulsumoi Abdujalilova, a 32-year-old university student in Germany, was allegedly interrogated by police for four days.

According to the Uzbek NGO Human Rights Alliance, Abdujalilova was beaten at the police station and forced to write statements against Muhammad Salih, the self-exiled leader of the opposition People's Movement of Uzbekistan (PMU). The movement was formed in May 2011 from a number of foreign-based Uzbek opposition movements and rights organizations and stated its goal as being the downfall of President Islam Karimov's regime.

Facebook profile picture of Gulsumoy Abdujalilova, which is actually a photo of turkish model Armine Eşarpları

According to her Facebook account, Abdujalilova was a supporter of this movement, and a person with the name Muhammad Salih was among her Facebook friends. That was the reason, some netizens believe, that the young woman came to attention of the Uzbek authorities. However, the PMU website has stated [uz] that Abdujalilova was never a member of the opposition movement.

It’s worth mentioning that Interior Ministry officials in Andijan gave no comment. Abdujalilova’s relatives (according to her Facebook profile she is married, and Human Rights Alliance mentioned Abdujalilova’s sister who allegedly found her suicide note) have also kept silent.

The story became more perplexing when two days later, on 8 December, the opposition site Uzmetronom.com published [ru] an article with the results of a journalistic investigation, carried out by the website. The author of the article, who remained anonymous, concluded that the entire story is provocation prepared by Muhammad Salih to destabilize Uzbek society and gain international attention.

The story has attracted the attention of netizens. One of them comments on the idea that it may have been planted by members of the Uzbek opposition in order to smear the Uzbek government. Other suggest that it was made up by the national security services to show people the dangers of supporting the opposition movement.

It still remains unclear who could benefit from the made-up story and probably this will not be known. Sarah Kendzior from Registan.net sums up:

[…] it reveals a great deal of how rumor operates on the Uzbek political internet. The assumption that all information is unreliable, and all sources biased, has had the perverse effect of ensuring that all rumor is taken seriously.

Prime Minister’s fake Facebook account

Another topic that has sparked controversy among Uzbek bloggers was the Facebook account of Uzbekistan’s Prime-Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev. His Facebook page, created early in May this year, has about 2,000 friends and identifies him as a 100% Muslim with conservative political views, interested in women and married.

Catherine A. Fitzpatrick from Eurasianet.org comments:

[…] you can see that Mirziyoyev is inspired by Nicolas Sarkozy, Lee Myung-bak, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and […] Islam Karimov.

His gmail address is provided, so write and ask any questions! Don't expect any cat or dog photos, however.

Others wonder why the Prime Minister doesn’t have a personal page on Uzbekistan’s local social network Muloqot.uz and speculate that the main goal of his Facebook page is to attract a Western audience.

However, after a semi-official statement from the Prime Minister's “offline office” about contacting the Facebook administration with a request to delete the page, it became clear that the account is not authentic.

Dangers of being too public

This is not the first time that high-ranking Uzbek public figures’ names have been used for suspicious accounts in social networks. Early this May the blogosphere discussed two Twitter accounts which were affiliated with President Karimov’s daughter Gulnara Karimova. The first one, @GuliKarimova, does not exist anymore. However the second one, @GulnaraKarimova [ru], is active and has over 1,800 followers

As we see, social networks in Uzbekistan are getting used in some games with political background. Therefore Hugh Raiser from Eurasianet.org warns:

[…] arguments about the dangers of being too public with one's affiliations on public social networking sites remain in force.

Uzbekistan: Fighting internet censorship

Tolkun — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:41:32 +0000

Today, Uzbekistan is remaining one of the repressive countries in the region that maintains a tight grip on mass media. Despite it has all the nominal guarantees of the freedom of speech, the media is being systematically attacked by the government. The article 5 in the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on mass media [ru] states that mass media in the country are free and can act freely according the laws of the country. In the same law, the article 7 states that there is no censorship in the country and “no one has a right to demand the preliminary approval of the publishing materials, and change or take them off from publication (broadcasting).” However, we witness de facto contradicting de jure in Uzbekistan.

The blogosphere of Uzbekistan today is discussing the action to fight with internet censorship in Uzbekistan. The open-ended action was organized by the Information Agency Fergana.ru, Uznews.net and a blog Civil Society in Uzbekistan. The organizers state that the ban on independent and unbiased information became total following the Andijon events in 2005, and today several hundreds of websites are made not accessible via state controlled internet providers. Blog “Civic Society in Uzbekistan” urges all blocked websites to join the action. “As part of the campaign,” they write, “websites that cannot be accessed in Uzbekistan are encouraged to post, on their main pages, an emblem stating they have been banned, fully or partially, in Uzbekistan” [ru].

BBC Uzbek Service cites the organizers stating that the open-ended action will last until the government of Uzbekistan takes positive steps in improving the state of media and abolishing the censorship in the country [uz].

A blog Though the Eyes of Uzbekistani writes that one of the reasons for them to join the action against censorship is that they are blocked in Uzbekistan, and the blog’s authors cannot directly update the blog.

Unfortunately, the blocking of websites and Information resources is continuing in Uzbekistan. Our blog is also blocked in the country. For us, authors, it is really difficult to update the blog in Uzbekistan. Our friends outside of Uzbekistan are helping in overcoming this problem, as today, even proxy servers are not of use, especially when it comes to posting different attachments and photographs.

I had a chance to interview one of the authors of the blog Though the Eyes of Uzbekistani about the action to fight internet censorship. He seems to be pessimistic about the goals of the action, as he believes that they are not going to change the situation a lot, if at all. “The action will fail, as the main target group – Uzbekistani population – does not have access to it. It will become another try to draw international community's attention to the problems in Uzbekistan, and nothing more. However, we must try,” he says.

However there not many websites joined the action, the organizers are optimistic saying that it will attract more attention soon, as the action has just begun. The other popular blogs that are blocked in Uzbekistan are neweurasia (blocked in June 2006), Registan (blocked in March 2007), Global Voices Online, and opposition blogs Turonzamin and Yangidunyo.

Also posted on neweurasia.net

Uzbekistan: Yusuf Juma, a Martyr Poet

Tolkun — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:53:36 +0000

Today, in Uzbekistan, where free voices are being severely silenced, practically no one dares not even to promote, but just to express anti-governmental ideas. But this is not the case of dissident poet Yusuf Juma, as his poems are full of passion and concern about his country and martyr nation, interlaced with the calls for democracy and rule of law.

Yusuf Juma (Jumaev) was born in 1958 in Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. He started writing poems from his early ages at high school. His poetry was mainly focused on the vital problems of his community, like dismantling the aerodrome, which had been host for planes that sprayed fields with pesticides that harmed people’s health. Already at that time, Juma was pressurized by the Soviet government, and when it collapsed, Juma openly criticized the new authortires too, because former soviet-communist officials — apparatchiks — still remained in power.

The Andijon events made Yusuf Juma write a series of poems entitled “Andijon turkumidan” [From the Andijon collection - Uzbek]. Together with his sons and companions, Juma organized several rallies urging the government to release dissident poets and human rights activists from jail. From this time, Yusuf Juma and his family became a target for the National Security Agency (SNB).

He and his family members were several times accused of fabricated crimes. In July 25, 2007, his son Mashrab was imprisoned, and one month later he was released as his guilt was not proven. December 10, 2007, was the worst day in the Jumaevs’ life. Late at night, a group of Special Forces of Uzbekistan attacked Juma’s house. Although Juma and his family managed to escape then, a week later they were arrested by SNB and are reportedly tortured in custody.

As the state controlled media in Uzbekistan are certainly staying away from such topics, the critically-minded blogs in Uzbekistan often publish works of Yusuf Juma and articles about him. Blog Rizobek writes that Yusuf Juma is not a criminal, but a national hero. Therefore, it is not him that has to be brought to trial, but those who have put him in jail:

Not Yusuf Juma, but those who attacked him must be brought to trial. Not Yusuf Juma, but those who legitimized this persecution must be brought to trial. Not Yusuf Juma, but those who could not stand his free voice must be brought to trial. Not Yusuf Juma, but those, who mock democracy and back and benefit from autocracy must be brought to trial! [uzb]

News Agency UzNews.net is calling on its readers to support imprisoned Y.Juma by sending the letters of support to the presidential administration's press service:

Yusuf Juma’s courage does not surprise, but strikes us. Notwithstanding cruelty and treachery of the current regime — that bristled up with its police forces and armored troop-carriers against the whole world and its own nation — Yusuf Juma, who is originally from a remote area of Bukhara, is declaring his disagreement with it… [ru]

Muhiddin at neweurasia, who closely knows Yusuf Juma, published the poet's letter, where he wrote about the armed attack at his house and how his family escaped:

We ran barefoot. Only three of us could escape – my wife, me and my youngest son. Other two sons could not escape and stayed in the house surrounded by armed men. We hid behind the water cistern. Special squad soldiers went to my room and shooting there… We couldn't stand this sound anymore and we were really scared. We ran away through our neighbor’s ditch in the backyard…[uzb]

Opposition blog Turonzamin, which frequently publishes Yusuf Jumas works, recently declared that opposition parties and Uzbek dissidents abroad are promoting Juma for a Nobel Prize in Literature:

We are promoting Yusuf Juma as a candidate for the Nobel Prize with the help of Dr. Botir Norboi. He has sent a letter to the Nobel Prize committee, stating that Yusuf Juma is the best nominee. Juma is now in prison and faces tortures. He needs our help. The world must know about people like him [uzb].