VZCZCXRO9693
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1388/01 3180828
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130828Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1138
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0286

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001388 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP HALL, DRL/ILCSR HAILEY 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM EAGR ELAB TI
SUBJECT: THE COTTON HARVEST IN SOUTHERN TAJIKISTAN 
 
REF: (A) 08 Dushanbe 1256 
 (B) 08 Tashkent 1256 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: A late October visit to Tajikistan's southern 
Khatlon province provided a more complete picture of labor 
conditions in the cotton industry. As in the northern Sughd 
province, there wasevidence of forced and child labor (reftel A). 
Reliance on such labor is a holdover from the Soviet era, but these 
practices continue in part because of endemic problems in the 
country's cotton industry.  While the international and local media 
have reported on the situation, the Tajik public does not appear to 
be outraged.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) EmbOffs met with Saidrahmon Nazriev, a reporter for the 
news organization Asia Plus, Dilbar Khalilova, head of the NGO 
Fidokor, and two university students (names withheld) in Kurgonteppa 
to discuss this year's cotton harvest.  EmbOffs also spoke to Jura 
Soliev, a cotton farmer in Yovon.  All of our interlocutors said 
practices in Khatlon were similar to those in Sughd.  Farmers in the 
south relied on university students who were compelled against their 
will to participate in the cotton campaign; high school students in 
grades 9 to 11 also participated in the cotton harvest after school; 
and working conditions are extremely poor. 
 
PREVALENCE OF FORCED LABOR UNEVEN 
 
¶3. (SBU) Authorities cancelled classes at both universities in 
Kurgonteppa during the cotton harvest season to facilitate student 
participation.  According to a second year English language student, 
on 22 September, the university organized buses that took him and 
300 of his classmates to pick cotton.  University instructors 
supervised the students in the fields, and forced some students to 
sign declarations that they were participating voluntarily. 
Conditions for the students were extremely poor; they worked from 8 
a.m. to sundown, received 25 dirams (about 7 cents) for each 
kilogram of cotton picked, and had to reimburse the farmers for food 
and lodging.  They lived in communal houses and did not have clean 
drinking water.  Each day, about five students simply left the 
fields, including our interlocutor.  He did not know if university 
officials would punish him, but he was also concerned that he would 
get into trouble for speaking to EmbOffs. 
 
¶4. (SBU) A third year law student at another university said that 
about 30 percent of his classmates participated in the cotton 
harvest, primarily first and second year students.  University 
officials were more lax with students in upper levels who had "put 
in their time"; he and most of his classmates were staying at home, 
waiting for classes to resume in November.  Students did not 
necessarily mind missing school because they did not think they were 
getting a good education.  Many attended university to postpone 
military service, and many others bribed professors to get good 
grades. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Khalilova, the NGO head, telephoned colleagues who worked 
at universities in Kulyob.  They reported their institutions had 
cancelled some classes for second and third year students. 
Khalilova asked if the World Bank helped finance the university 
system; she was concerned whether universities that facilitate 
forced labor of students received international assistance. 
Khalilova and our student interlocutors said that some secondary 
school students - grades 9 through 11 - had to help in the cotton 
fields after classes. 
 
NEWSFLASH: HARD WORK, LOW WAGES 
 
¶6. (SBU) Newspapers throughout Tajikistan, particularly in Sughd, 
have reported extensively on labor issues and the cotton harvest. 
In mid-November, at least 5 major newspapers published articles 
QIn mid-November, at least 5 major newspapers published articles 
describing poor working conditions and contradicting claims by 
government officials that students participated in the harvest 
voluntarily.  However Nazriev, the Asia Plus reporter, said he was 
very cautious about what he chose to put into print.  He lacked 
finances to investigate the issue completely; if he omitted a fact, 
or misreported something, he could face severe legal consequences. 
 
¶7. (U) The international media has reported on the subject.  A 
recent New York Times article mentioned the mobilization of 
students.  A U.S. Government-sponsored English Language Fellow in 
Khujand who visited his students in the cotton fields published his 
observations online on Ferghana.ru. 
 
IT'S HARD TO FIND GOOD HELP THESE DAYS 
 
¶8. (SBU) Soliev, the cotton farmer, explained that he could not find 
enough people willing to work his fields.  He could not pay workers 
adequately because the government set the purchase price for raw 
cotton at a below-market level.  He could not afford to mechanize 
his farm.  He could not count on a ready supply of cheap labor 
because so many Tajiks had left the country for higher paying work 
 
DUSHANBE 00001388  002 OF 002 
 
 
in Russia or elsewhere.  Instead, he resorted to asking local 
officials to send in students.  The students were generally not very 
efficient; they didn't take their work seriously. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment:  In Sughd and Khatlon, it appears that local 
authorities - primarily the heads of local governments, in 
cooperation with school and university directors - are directly 
responsible for compelling, facilitating, or tolerating forced labor 
and child labor in the cotton sector.  While national-level 
authorities officially have outlawed such practices, they have not 
ensured that local authorities follow the law.  EmbOffs presented 
the information they gathered - including Tajik newspaper articles - 
to the Head of Tajikistan's anti-trafficking commission, Ramazon 
Rakhimov, who promised to investigate the situation further.  We do 
not know whether he has the will - or ability - to compel change. 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment continued: Media attention has not generated a 
public outcry.  Most adults in Tajikistan were mobilized for cotton 
picking during the Soviet period, and many still view labor 
practices in the cotton industry as an economic necessity or simply 
a tradition.  Whilethe problems of forced labor and child labor in 
the cotton harvest in Tajikistan may not be as severe as those in 
other Central Asian countries (reftel B), the problems persist, and 
addressing them would require Tajikistan to wean itself off the 
Soviet-era practices of mobilizing students; reform the agricultural 
sector; and enforce labor laws.  Mobilizing students and closing 
universities during the cotton season hastens the deterioration of 
the educational system in Tajikistan as well.  End comment. 
 
JACOBSON