Вчера на сессии олий мажлиса (парламента) Узбекистана прошло обсуждение текста обращения к народу. В нем, в Частности, говорится, что республика создала для себя “узбекскую модель” развития, а заодно и условия для построения правового государства. “Мы поняли, кто мы, и теперь осознаем свои цели”, - прокомментировал Ислам Каримов обращение парламента. Обращение дало повод узбекскому президенту порассуждать о новой государственной символике России. Она президенту Каримову не нравится.

- Как только будет исполняться российский гимн, все встанут с мест, и у каждого в уме будут звучать именно такие слова: “Союз нерушимый республик свободных сплотила навеки великая Русь”, - сказал господин Каримов в беседе с корреспондентом "Ъ". - Это гимн тоталитарной системы, в которой правила коммунистическая партия, это гимн, одобренный Сталиным и другими вождями. Он вызывает вполне определенные ассоциации, от которых не уйдешь.

Остальные госсимволы России также вызывают у господина Каримова не слишком приятные ассоциации - с временами Российской империи. Российский триколор не нравится президенту Каримову потому, что под ним со времен Петра 1 Россия вела захватнические войны. Не лучшего мнения узбекский президент и о российском гербе: “Орел, который вцепился когтями во что-то там, - это символ самодержавия, той огромной власти, которой был наделен "ок паша" (белый царь)”.

Господин Каримов считает, что российское общество вправе выбирать те символы, которые отвечают его интересам, но со старыми символами трудно строить новое государство.

- Мы с огромным вниманием следим за тем, какой путь выбирает для себя Россия в XXI веке. Мы всегда с уважением относились к интересам России в регионе Центральной Азии. Отрицать их наличие было бы просто глупо, но мы ждем партнерства. Россия - партнер могущественный, и некоторые политики с Севера в диалоге с нами делают акцент именно на своем могуществе, а не на равноправии. Узбекистан же предлагает модель взаимоотношений России с Финляндией, которая тоже когда-то входила в состав империи, однако сейчас это равноправный и уважаемый Россией партнер, - сказал президент Каримов.

Чтобы стать для России чем-то большим, чем просто прежняя союзная республика, Узбекистан обзаводится союзником. Вчера впервые за девять лет независимости в Ташкенте побывал с официальным визитом министр иностранных дел Казахстана Ерлан Идрисов. Он заявил, что отныне Узбекистан и Казахстан, ранее боровшиеся за лидерство в Средней Азии, решили действовать сообща. Для начала они разберутся с взаимными долгами, оставшимися еще с советских времен. Господин Идрисов считает, что теперь экономика России в регионе встретится с объединенной мощью Центрально-азиатского экономического сообщества (ЦАЭС). Оно было создано в апреле 1994 года Казахстаном, Киргизией и Узбекистаном, в марте 1998 года к нему присоединился Таджикистан. В качестве первого шага к расширению сотрудничества Казахстан согласился увеличить на 10 млрд куб. м в год транзит через свою территорию узбекского и туркменского газа для “Итеры”.

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andmines planted by the Uzbek military along the country's disputed frontier with Kyrgyzstan have left another two Kyrgyz civilians seriously injured, Bishkek officials said this month.

The accident was the fourth such incident reported since September and brings the casualty toll in Kyrgyzstan to 12. Tajik officials claim land-mines planted along their frontier with Uzbekistan have killed more than 15 people and wounded dozens of others.

Uzbekistan insists the ordnance is a necessary security precaution against infiltration by Islamic rebels. In 1999 and again this year, members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which aims to establish an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, staged armed incursions into southern Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Cooperation between Tashkent and Bishkek in combating the rebel attacks has led to improved relations between the two republics, especially on the economic and military fronts. But the land-mine issue threatens to jeopardise much of the progress.

The minefields have been laid along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz and Uzbek-Tajik borders in the Fergana valley and around the margins of the Uzbek enclave of Sokh in the southern Batken region of Kyrgyzstan.

Officials in Bishkek and Dushanbe claim the majority of victims are shepherds, women collecting firewood, children and drivers travelling across the borders. They complain the policy is clearly ineffective and victimises local residents.

Uzbek Foreign Minster Abdulaziz Kamilov admits several civilians have been injured in land-mine accidents but blames the regional authorities for not taking preventive action. "They [the local authorities] have to make sure people in border regions are aware of land-mines" he said.

Uzbekistan's National Security Council Secretary, Mir-Akbar Rakhmankulov, dismissed claims that the ordnance had been deployed without informing neighbouring countries. "The Tajik military were provided with full information explaining where the mines had been planted and why these measures were taken."

But the Tajik Foreign Ministry has sent a protest note to the Uzbek government condemning the laying of ordnance as illegal under the Ottawa convention of 1997. Tajik Deputy Foreign Minster Abdunabi Sattorzoda pointed out that Uzbekistan had not posted special warning signs in the affected areas, which had resulted in the deaths of several innocent people.

Tynychbek Kalybekov of the Kyrgyz border guard service denied maps indicating the location of land-mines had been handed over to the Kyrgyz military. He said the Bishkek authorities had not been informed in good time.

The counter accusations are made more complex by the fact that the Central Asian republics are still in the initial phases of delimiting frontiers. Tashkent claims ordnance has only been deployed on the Uzbek side of the frontier, but Dushanbe and Bishkek dispute this. The regional authorities in Batken assert that Uzbek soldiers laid mines 100 metres inside Kyrgyz territory.

Without a formal delimitation of the border, it is difficult to resolve this problem. Each side refers to frontier maps from different Soviet periods when the borders between the Central Asian republics moved to and fro. Bishkek refers to maps produced in 1955, which it insists are fairer, while Tashkent favours boundaries drawn up in 1924.

There is a suspicion among some in Kyrgyzstan that the planting of land-mines by Uzbek forces along the disputed border is part of a strategy to impose a frontier before a joint commission can come up with a solution.

"The border running between Uzbekistan and the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan is the most difficult one," said Kyrgyzstan's main negotiator Salamat Alamanov.

"We proposed not only to start negotiations by discussing frontier problems in Batken, but also to set up a special group dealing with only this particular stretch of the border."

Alamanov said the Kyrgyz authorities were still awaiting a response from Tashkent. While the border negotiations rumble on without much progress, there's growing anger over Uzbekistan's land-mine policy. Following the death of one Tajik civilian, the Dushanbe media carried several emotive reports on the issue, criticising Uzbekistan's unneighbourly conduct and accusing Tashkent of violating international agreements on curbing mines.

"Who would dare to look into eyes of a teenage girl and explain why she has lost two legs by stepping on a land-mine?" asked the Asia Plus newspaper.

The Democratic Party and Communist Party of Tajikistan have joined the chorus of condemnation. In Kyrgyzstan, there is a perception Uzbekistan fails to understand the cost of its policy.

"If anything Uzbekistan should pay compensation to us!" said Kyrgyz member of parliament Tashbolot Baltabaev. "Because thousands of hectares of pasture land are out of use, which has led to thousands of soms [the local currency] in losses"

"Regardless of whether your neighbour is small or big, you have to be on friendly terms. Its difficult to call the planting of land-mines friendly."

According to some local analysts, Uzbekistan, with its military operations against IMU groups straining its already weak economy, has resorted to using cheap land-mines to enhance border security.

But the price it will have to pay for worsening relations with its neighbours, on whom it relies to help combat Islamic fighters, could be much higher.

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South Korean embassy officials and managers at the company's Uzbek factory insist car production is continuing and plans for the manufacture of a new model - the Matise - will go ahead in August next year.

The company's Uzbek subsidiary - UzDaewoo - employs 3,000 workers in its car factory in the eastern Fergana valley. The plant produces 60,000 cars a year and is Uzbekistan's most prized foreign investment project.

Although Daewoo's creditors agreed to provide $606 million in loans on November 29, the deal rested on South Korean trade unions accepting 3,500 job cuts at the company's domestic plants. The crisis did augur well for Daewoo's far-flung subsidiaries in Uzbekistan and Eastern Europe.

But Kim Heung-Soo, first secretary at the South Korean embassy in Tashkent, said the Uzbek government has stepped in to ensure UzDaewoo's car production business is protected from the problems being encountered by the parent company.

"The production of cars is a priority area in the Uzbek economy," Kim said. "That's why the Uzbek government is itself regulating the activity of the enterprise in order to protect it from risk.."

UzDaewoo - a joint venture set up in 1996 - brought hope to Uzbekistan's flagging economy and propelled the republic into the forefront of car manufacturing in the region. In addition to the Fergana workforce, thousands more have found employment supplying materials and components to the plant.

The Daewoo empire, which had borrowed heavily to diversify and invest, was severely hit by the Asian economic slump. The company was declared insolvent, owing $16 billion, on November 8.

The bankruptcy could jeopardize a take-over by United States car manufacturer General Motors and its Italian partners, Fiat. A sell-off bid to Ford collapsed in September.

Daewoo's arrival in Uzbekistan brought car manufacturing to the republic for the first time. Uzbeks had grown up with Soviet cars - the famous Ladas, Zhigulis and Volgas. New owners expected their cars to last at least 20 years, patching, welding and sewing them together until they finally fell apart. Foreign cars were an unknown quantity and not to be trusted.

Drivers bowled along in their old relics, bumping up and down on heavy-duty suspensions, and negotiating potholes with steering long slack and haphazard through heavy use and lack of spare parts. Cracked windscreens were par for the course, together with missing window wipers, door handles, and mirrors.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, tired of seeing his country lurch from one financial crisis to the next, embraced high-investment Daewoo, in the hope of revolutionizing transport at home and enabling his country to become a major exporter to the rest of Central Asia. Owning a new, shiny Daewoo set you apart and sent out a clear signal of where you stood in the social pecking order. A Daewoo became an essential badge of office for any aspiring "new Uzbek".

UzDaewoo produces three models - the top of the range Nexia, beloved of government ministers, the diminutive Tico, and the Damas, an eight-seater mini-van, which has revolutionized Uzbek public transport.

The traditional three-hour long wait and stampede for government buses has become a thing of the past, as enterprising Damas owners now provide an alternative service ferrying passengers to all points of the Uzbek compass.

But many locals are not impressed with the new-fangled machines. They gleefully exchange horror stories of the latest Daewoo crash, tut knowingly at the cars' inability to cope with Uzbek bends and potholes. "These cars were never for the likes of us," said a local farmer. "My car is like my own child, I know every bolt, every hinge and part intimately. There's nothing I haven't repaired myself. Our cars last for decades. Word is in the West people replace their cars every two years! What kind of cars are those? We don't want them here. No, I won't miss Daewoo."

But the Fergana plant has produced 200,000 cars since opening. Between 1997-1999, UzDaewoo accounted for 92-93 per cent of the total car sales in Uzbekistan. One foreign journalist on arriving in the country reportedly said, "This isn't Uzbekistan, it's Daewoostan!"

Despite the red-carpet treatment afforded UzDaewoo, the company has had its problems setting up a successful operation in Uzbekistan, and not all of them stem from the financial crisis plaguing Daewoo itself. Uzbekistan's draconian exchange regulations and refusal to give full convertibility to its currency made importing parts for the Fergana assembly plant prohibitively expensive. The company has so far only succeeded in making 8 per cent of parts inside Uzbekistan, the remainder need to be imported.

Despite recent moves by the Uzbek government to set-up a special business exchange rate, this still falls short of reflecting real foreign currency values. As a result UzDaewoo effectively sells its cars at a loss inside Uzbekistan.

In 1998 a locally made Nexia cost $4,000, compared to around $5,500 for a Russian made Volga. Today the same car costs $7,000, but the Volga only $4,500-$5,000. Given price is the major decisive factor in which car people buy, Daewoo is now under extreme pressure from its Russian competitors. Hence the decision to switch from the Nexis to the new, smaller Matise next year.

Coupled with the grim news from Seoul, UzDaewoo workers have every reason to worry about their future. So too do the "new Uzbeks" - a Daewoo pull-out from Uzbekistan could have serious repercussions for foreign investment in the republic generally, and with it the economy as a whole.

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n agency said emergency workers have averted an environmental disaster as 80,000 cubic meters of oil gushed into a lake from 16 oil wells on its bottom closed 50 years ago.

Skimmers were used to remove the oil from the Uchkizil artificial lake in Surkhandarya region, the regional Emergency Situations Department told Interfax.

It said that only three of the wells are currently pouring out oil, between 17 and 20 cubic meters a day, but that the oil is being removed.

The regional administration has closed recreation zones around the lake and have banned the local population from using water from it. Tankers are bringing water to the area.

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he clothes of young women studying in Uzbek universities are being kept under strict control.Any attempt to break established rules is punished.Young Uzbek women must be 'modest and gentle' and meet the requirements of eastern 'education and shyness.'

The university administration do not allow female students to wear mini skirts, trousers, dresses exposing the neck and shoulders or the ritual Uzbek dress - the hidzhab (covering everything except the eyes).In the Tashkent Pedagogical Institute, for example, this prohibition concerns only students studying in Uzbek-language groups.

Clothes of upper-grade schoolgirls are under strict control as well: they are allowed to wear trousers only in cold weather.The topic of dressing is broadly discussed in the press. They publish angry letters from aksakals (old men) condemning long slits in skirts, and television programs say that Uzbek young woman must be modest and shy and prepare for marriage.

A newspaper, Pravda vostoka, recently published a short article by Yulia Yuldashbayeva, a journalism student at the National University.The article, entitled 'The level of knowledge does not depend on clothes,' describes the strict requirements of dress expected of female students'.Meanwhile, on National Television Channel 1 representatives of the Muslim Administration, the Islamic University, and activists of local communities discussed why young women must not veil their face and wear hidzhab and, basing their argument on religious texts, have decided that Muslim women are allowed to expose the face, hands, and feet.Traditional Uzbek clothes fully correspond to the above requirements.Although the discussion's participants did not openly say that Uzbek young women must not wear any other clothes, the audience could easily make this conclusion.

The Hurriyat newspaper writes: "Women (in particular young women) wearing mini skirts and having their hair styled like 'witches' proudly go down the streets, pretending to be foreigners.But they are Uzbek women, and to be an Uzbek is a great joy.Unfortunately, they do not know what a young Uzbek woman must look like because some mothers do not think it is their duty to teach their daughters how to behave at home and in the street, and those in charge of education are responsible for this situation."

Uzbekistan has signed a Convention calling for the ending of all forms of discrimination against women and supports the observance of human rights.Of course, the media can discuss all social issues, but why is the issue of controlling women's dressing considered so important?One of the basic human rights is the freedom of personality, which includes free choice of what clothes to wear.Ms. D. Gulyamova, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan and Chairperson of Uzbekistan's Women's Committee, once pointed out that "it is necessary to educate young women in the spirit of high religiosity and morals and create the feeling that marriage, family and home are sacred" (Narodnoye slovo, 10 October 2000).

However, there is a question: why do they only condemn women wearing European-style clothes and not young men drinking vodka and men having several wives.Besides, prohibitions have never promoted the 'healthy, spiritual environment' that the Women's Committee is pursuing.

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he Tajik deputy prime minister, Qozidavlat Qoimdodov, received the head of the World Bank mission on the Aral Sea problems, Ahmad Masood, and the head of the World Bank mission in Uzbekistan, Mr David Pierce, last Friday.

The Khovar news agency reports that the interlocutors discussed the distribution of water resources among the Central Asian countries and the work of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for the Salvation of the Aral Sea (IFSAS). Qozidavlat Qoimdodov stressed that water, being one of Tajikistan's important natural resources, is not always used sensibly. As a result, the republic, which has plentiful water resources, is short of electricity. In this connection, the deputy prime minister underlined the need to complete the construction of the Roghun [in central Tajikistan] and Sangtuda [in the southern Khatlon Region] hydroelectric stations, which are in need of foreign investment.

The sides also touched on issues relating to the IFSAS Executive Committee's efforts to implement a water resources control project. In this regard, Qoimdodov noted that a permanent Executive Committee office should operate in Tajikistan.

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he results of the talks between the Kazakh and Uzbek government delegations became known on Saturday. The topic of gas supplies to southern Kazakhstan was discussed in Tashkent. It finally emerged that the price for Uzbek gas will considerably increase from the New Year.

The government delegation led by Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov held talks in Tashkent on buying gas next year. The Uzbek side refused to sell gas at the present price - 35 dollars for 1,000 cu.m. The Kazakh delegation proposed several ways of swapping gas in order to keep the price as before. But the sides could not reach a compromise. The final results of the talks are not too encouraging for residents of the republic's southern regions. The price for Uzbek gas will rise from 35 dollars to 50 dollars for 1,000 cu.m on the border from 1 January 2001.

Daniyal Akhmetov, Kazakh deputy prime minister: "We are preparing contracts for signing under the former terms of payment, but at a price of 50 dollars for 1,000 cu.m. We cannot unconditionally dictate the price, let's say. We agree with those conditions which the Uzbek side has set for us."

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he Uzbek parliament passed the country's the budget for next year in its final reading with a deficit of 1.5% of GDP (57.5 billion sums) at a Thursday session.

The budget provides for revenues of 1.1528 trillion sums (30.1% of GDP), and expenditures--including loans--of over 1.210 trillion (31.6% of GDP).

According to the law, the budget deficit is to be compensated by returns from privatization (1% of GDP) and loans from the Central Bank (0.5% of GDP).

Next year, the country's industrial output is expected to grow by 5.8% as compared to 2000, and agricultural production by 5.5%, as foreseen by the budget.

Inflation next year is not expected to exceed 16%, and GDP is forecast to grow by 4.5% at 3.828 trillion sums. The official exchange rate as of December 14 is 316.25 sums/$1.

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