VZCZCXRO7585
PP RUEHDBU
DE RUEHNT #0247/01 0311422
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 311422Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5111
INFO RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 2221
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2120
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ALMATY 7574
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 1704

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