DISARRAY IN EGULIK'S JIZZAK BRANCH LEADS TO CLOSURE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TASHKENT 000247 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CACEN, SA, AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/16 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL UZ SUBJECT: DISARRAY IN EGULIK'S JIZZAK BRANCH LEADS TO CLOSURE REF: TASHKENT 103 CLASSIFIED BY AMB. JON R. PURNELL, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D). ¶1. (C) Summary: In December 2005, the head of the Ezgulik Human Rights Society, Vasila Inoyatova, filed a request with Jizzak Province registration authorities to dissolve Ezgulik's Jizzak regional branch. As she explained to poloff, the decision was the result of more than two years of internal conflict, which culminated in the defection of the Jizzak branch to a rival political party. Ezgulik's problems are symptomatic of the larger issue of destructive rivalry in Uzbekistan's small and dwindling human rights community. End summary. ¶2. (C) On January 23, Vasila Inoyatova, director of the Ezgulik Human Rights Society, told poloff about the disarray within Ezgulik's Jizzak regional branch that recently led her to ask Jizzak authorities to dissolve the branch. In 2003, Ezgulik was the second independent human rights organization registered by the GOU. According to Inoyatova, the original head of Ezgulik's Jizzak branch, attorney Abay Baybulatov, failed to file annual activity reports as required by Ezgulk's charter, and he began speaking out publicly against Inoyatova. (Note: Baybulatov has phoned poloff on two occasions to complain that Inoyatova is a government agent. End note.) ¶3. (C) According to Inoyatova, in August 2004, after other Jizzak activists complained to Inoyatova about Baybulatov's ineffective leadership, she authorized the members to meet and elect a new regional coordinator. After he was ousted, Baybulatov reportedly refused to relinquish the organization's corporate seal. (Note: The seal is simply a stamp used to legalize documents. In Uzbekistan, as in other former Soviet countries, an organization's documents must be stamped with its seal in order to have legal validity. End note.) The new coordinator, Jamshid Mukhtarov, also failed to submit regular reports, and reportedly complained to Inoyatova that financing from the Tashkent headquarters was insufficient to provide him a living income. In May 2005, according to Inoyatova, Mukhtarov went to Russia to work and earn money for six months. With Mukhtarov absent, and Baybulatov holding the seal, Inoyatova said, "there was no one to defend human rights." Mukhtarov returned to Uzbekistan in October, and reportedly refused to apply to local registration authorities for a new corporate seal. Finally, in December, Mukhtarov and other Ezgulik activists decided to break relations with Inoyatova and allied with the Free Farmers Party (reftel). (Note: Ezgulik is affiliated with the rival opposition party Birlik.) ¶4. (C) Inoyatova characterized the ideological difference between Birlik and the Free Farmers Party. She said that the Free Farmers calls for a revolution in Uzbek society - for nothing less than regime change - while Birlik calls for a more gradual evolution in public attitudes toward civil society. According to Inoyatova, the Free Farmers Party seeks to call Uzbek citizens onto the streets in protest. Birlik, in contrast, recognizes that opposition political forces cannot mobilize enough activists to force change in the government, and the population as a whole is not sufficiently politically aware to recognize and act for change. Jamshid Mukhtarov believes Inoyatova is too reluctant to mount open demonstrations and protest publicly against the government, and says that his politics are more consistent with those of the Free Farmers (reftel). ¶5. (C) Inoyatova said that, with Mukhtarov's rebellion, she realized that she had irretrievably lost control over the Jizzak branch, and she filed a request with Jizzak authorities to formally close it. She said that Ezgulik veteran Mamarajab Nazarov has already joined with Bakhtiyor Hamroyev, Jizzak regional coordinator of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and eight others to form an initiative group, which will soon apply for registration as Ezgulik's new regional affiliate. (Note: Hamroyev informed us of this group in December, as reported reftel, but did not mention that they were seeking Ezgulik affiliation. End note.) Inoyatova said that she has proposed changes to the Ezgulik charter, which, in the future, will centralize authority and prevent renegade local members from using the Ezgulik name for their own aims. As a postscript to Ezgulik's troubles in Jizzak, Free Farmers Party contacts phoned the embassy on January 27 to report that Jamshid Mukhtarov has fled Uzbekistan, presumably to apply for asylum in a neighboring country. ¶6. (C) Comment: The conflict within Ezgulik is symptomatic of a larger problem in Uzbekistan's small community of human rights and political activists. As funding and technical support for human rights work dwindle and government pressure on activists TASHKENT 00000247 002 OF 002 mounts, activists have become their own worst enemy, bickering among themselves and vying for scarce grant money. In the case of Ezgulik, there is the additional fact that the organization is only one of two independent human rights groups registered with the government, and therefore able to operate legally. Those who can claim to work on behalf of Ezgulik have at least a modicum of legal cover for their human rights activity. This is one explanation for the competition over the right to represent Ezgulik in Jizzak. PURNELL