Eurasianet.org
April 2

A recent and unexpectedly large protest in the Uzbek city of Samarkand has raised concern among local officials about the potential for broader student unrest. Discontent at higher-education institutions is reportedly high in Uzbekistan. Some local observers believe students and professors are likely to face increased government repression, joining other persecuted groups, including independent journalists, human rights advocates and members of "unauthorized" religious organizations.

A crowd of up to 2,000 students from the Samarkand Foreign Languages Institute staged a spontaneous protest March 24 in an effort to get regional officials to reverse a decision to remove the institute’s rector, Yusuf Abdullayev. Some protesters carried placards with slogans such as "Return the Rector," "Return our Reason" and "No Rector – No Studying."

Protesters gathered outside the Samarkand Province administration building, where they faced the regional governor, Shavkat Mirziyayev, and a group of Interior Department and National Security Service agents. Both local and national officials seemed taken aback by the protest’s size and apparent spontaneity. Some protestors said their numbers had swelled to 2,000; the web site Uzland.uz counted 500.

The initial stance of the demonstrators appeared confrontational. They denounced the governor and demanded to see Abdullayev. At one point, they threatened to occupy the regional administration unless Abdullayev was reinstated. Seeking to avoid a clash, authorities summoned Abdullayev, who appeared to confirm the official account that he had been replaced at his own request. He reportedly explained to protesters that he was 57 years old, 30 years of which he had spent in government service. He added that he wanted to enjoy a peaceful retirement.

Later, authorities invited a group of protestors into the Hokimiyat, or regional administration building, to discuss their complaints. However, five law enforcement agents reportedly filmed people both inside and outside the Hokimiyat, and one reporter later complained to Uzland.uz that police had taken her tape recorder.

During talks with officials, representatives of the demonstrators strongly endorsed Abdullayev’s leadership. They said he had fostered a positive educational atmosphere by virtually eliminating corruption and hiring top-notch faculty. He also managed to tap sponsors who provided the Institute with computers and free access to the Internet, which many higher education institutions in Uzbekistan do not have. Abdullayev’s removal, protesters said, raised concerns that the institute’s existing system was in jeopardy of being dismantled. Specifically, they worried about a revival of corrupt practices at the institute. At one point, they threatened to occupy the regional administration unless Abdullayev was reinstated.

The protesters eventually dispersed peacefully. Such relatively large-scale expressions of dissatisfaction are rare these days in Uzbekistan, where President Islam Karimov’s government has acted to stifle political and religious expression. Most protests in recent years have been limited in scale, mostly organized by small groups of human rights activists or relatives of those convicted for religious activity deemed illegal by the state. Thousands of believers, many of them supporters of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir group, have reportedly been jailed. Local observers say the Samarkand protest is among the largest since the early days of Uzbekistan’s independent era, when now-banned political groups, such as Birlik and Erk, staged rallies.

That students rallied behind Abdullayev is not surprising. Colleagues say he played a vital role in building the institute, presiding over the opening of more than 10 new language faculties, as well as opening departments of international diplomacy, economics and tourism. In establishing the institute, Abdullayev could draw on his extensive contacts gained during a lengthy diplomatic career. In the 1980s, during the Red Army’s occupation of Afghanistan, he served as a Soviet consul in Kabul. After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Abdullayev was Uzbekistan’s ambassador to Russia. After five years in Moscow, he returned to Uzbekistan and reinvented himself as an academic.

According to local political observers, one factor behind the Samarkand protest was building discontent over higher education in Uzbekistan. Students complain that good professors often leave and that even the best students cannot obtain good grades without paying bribes to faculty members.

Some local human right activists suggest the student protest has broader political implications. Uzbeks over the last decade have faced increased government repression, while at the same time coping with stagnating economic conditions. Many, rights activists contend, are fed up with the government’s authoritarian practices. Thus, the Samarkand protest may reflect a nascent trend of popular resistance to arbitrary government action.

A short-term consequence of students’ protest is likely to be intensified repression. Some officials reportedly fear that the Samarkand protest could spark similar outbursts of student frustration at other higher education institutions. Already, special service agents are stepping up the monitoring of students, and are prepared to react swiftly to quell fresh signs of dissent. According to a source at the Samarkand Hokimiyat, regional officials are determined to take a tough line against the students, fearing that if they do not, a displeased President Karimov might sack them.

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