Farkhad Ibragimov, UZBEKISTAN

In Uzbekistan, one often hears of international human rights organizations like the Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, but the invitation I got from the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE) was a big suprise. Despite the fact that our organization - "People's Diplomacy - was politically active from 1985-1993, I had not been abroad in the past nine years,due to limitiations imposed by the authorities. Given the atmosphere of fear caused by the terrorist attacks on 16 February 1999, going abroad required a certain determination. In my case, IDEE's assistance played a key role and I left for the meeting in Minsk.

The participants of the meeting knew one another very well. I did not know anybody, but had friends in common with the other participants. During the first days of the meeting, the exhibition of literature published by Centers for Pluralism was organized. I was particularly interested in publications of the three civic organizations from Azerbaijan (“INAM”, ANDF and SCDE) which combine propaganda and information on  the organization of democratic elections with consideration for Islamic traditions.

At the same time, it bothered me to learn how far Uzbekistan had lagged behind in attracting the attention of democratic institutions in free countries. This was the first time that we had a chance to experience the very useful activities of the CfP's democratic network. However, I was the only representative from any of the five Central Asian Republics.

The situation in Belarus was, of course, discussed at length. We asked a representative of the Belarusan free trade unions about the correlation between the Belarus’ economy and Lukashenka's authoritarian system and spoke about the problem that results when the initial enthusiam for democracy and free speech fades in the face of economic hardship. If the people believe in real economic benefits in uniting Belarus and Russia , the authorities can rely on voters' support and the opposition can not count on an easy victory.

The meeting participants also took the opportunity to speak about the situation in Central Asian Republics, in particular, in Uzbekistan. Although the government of Uzbekistan declared that it is taking a democratic path of development, the future looks quite grim. The high religious consciousness of Uzbek people, the absence of democratic achievements, the sudden drop in the living standards of the people, are pushing the people into religious fanaticism. Many, particularly young people, see their future in the rigorous observance of prophet Allah's teachings: to live not in accordance with human law(democratic or authoritarian) but by God's word.

Which way will the 25-million people of Uzbekistan and the 60-million of Central Asia go? Unfortunately, the islands of democracy in my country are assisted and encouraged neither by the authorities nor by democratic forces abroad.