TANLOV: What did Independence give to Uzbekistan?
17:29 03.05. 2003 [5:29 pm Moscow time on May 3, 2003]
Translated from Russian by Tanlov members in refuge in Turkey and the United States

The independence, to which the people of Uzbekistan strived, which was supposed to become the foundation for the creation of a progressive lawful society, which was called to serve as a pass to a happy life for every one of us, on verification, turned out to be a cheap lottery, where the winning tickets have been played out a long time ago. And the winners [incumbent administration of Uzbekistan] of this rough lottery made from this notorious independence a weapon for the creation into life of their villainous plans. The country [Uzbekistan] became engulfed in unexplainable lunacy from the very beginning of the reign of greedy flippers [incumbent administration of Uzbekistan]. Human life became a change coin in their dirty political intrigues. Due to them [incumbent administration], the body of the state is shaking in painful convulsions because the head is struck by insane passion for enrichment and absolutely does not take care of the main moving force of any body - hands and legs. While the latter [hands and legs] are now in such a collapse that to reach the nearest station of progress seems impossible. The only fruit of Independence which was possible to taste from the bottom is reflected in the popular aphorism which became commonly used - “Independence is when nothing depends from us [the people of Uzbekistan].

Deplorable truth is managing us [the people of Uzbekistan] for already twelve long years. During that time [twelve years of Independence] the poor Uzbek people lived through the fever of repressions and humiliation, unjustified arbitrariness of the incumbent authorities and also numerous oppressions in different spheres. This situation forces freedom-loving people of our country to leave the native land, taking with them the warm light of Uzbek soul and originality of Eastern intellect. The national genetic fund is undergoing a catastrophic impoverishment. Only educated and committed to the motherland hand [administration] at the helm of the state, which would correctly distribute the wealth of our region for the benefit of all people, can stop it [catastrophe]. Currently, everything happens vice versa. The greedy hands of the authorities get into the pockets of ordinary people already desperate from unreasonable laws and excessive taxes.

The legislative policy pours water on the mill of the outer layer, absolutely not caring about ordinary citizens bogged down in silent tolerance. Attempts of protests against existing rules are crossed without connivance, the words of truth, which freedom of speech promised to us, get struck in the throat, without forming into personal opinion. In other words, the freedom is stifled by a tie of despotism, unquestionable dictatorship. The criminal clique of insatiable beasts divides Uzbekistan among itself, while the people are in a position of a passenger without a ticket on a train, which is going to a complete collapse.

Decide for yourself, how can a country develop, when production and middle size entrepreneurship, called to glue the whole tissue of state welfare by pieces, is on the meager ration. Many private enterprises are choking in the atmosphere of suffocating economic conservatism, established by supporters of importing for the purposes of making multi million fortunes. In high places, it seems everyone thinks that the mentality of the Uzbek people has not yet reached the level of beginning of modern capitalism and therefore created a perfected structure of modernized model of a medieval trading state, and unashamedly pushed it into measures copied from recent totalitarian past. They [Karimov's clique] are just short of forcing [people] to conduct crossings of the Great Silk Road on foot.

Although, while taking into account the unjustifiable absurdity of some judicial innovations, while there are conflicts between points laying on the same judicial plane, even that is possible. Sometimes there is an impression that the new acts and decrees, ratified by refined minds of the authority, are adopted not in the palaces of the state wisdom but on the friendly drinking bouts of the limelight. This is the only possible explanation of this unprecedented idiocy coming from above. Only by being in the condition of mental retardation, created by random causes, can the owner abuse own aggregate to unusable condition and be smart enough to demand anything from it. The aggregate in our case are the much suffering people of Uzbekistan, who as a result of periodic robberies, joined the same rank as underdeveloped African civilization. How could we slump to this ask YOURSELVES, having rich resources of various minerals and a mass of precious resources in the arsenal?

You will be comforted that our wealth is on the deposit of unknown patron and defender [President Karimov] of commonly known enemies, attempting to seize our right of self determination, although these so called enemies have a complete right to legal opposition in democratic conditions. These tranquilizing pills are suitable only for taking before sleep. While in the morning, a person with enlivening fresh air wants to breathe the smell of truth in the conditions of existence, so as to contribute possible input into the transformation of this truth into acceptable reality. Before the people rise from their knees, and dismiss the devil president and president's clique, before the precipice, which reached the scale of Roman empire between the rich and the poor narrows to a reasonable minimum, before the end of stealing and use of national property for personal purposes of governing elite, UZBEKISTAN WILL NOT BE THE KINGDOM OF JUSTICE, IN WHICH ORDINARY PEOPLE ARE CONFIDENT IN TOMORROW, [AND] THE ELITES [ARE CONFIDENT] IN THE FIRMNESS OF THE STATE SYSTEM.

The youth movement Tanlov

A. Avkubeev

Tanlov: Youth, this is our country!

D. Usamov: Will the youth organization Tanlov become the next victim of repressions in Uzbekistan?