Border settlers make new life with few resources

A new community of reluctant migrants - ethnic Uzbeks from neighbouring Turkmenistan - is slowly emerging outside the town of Talimarjan, on the border between the two countries 55 km southwest of the city of Karshi, the capital of the southern Uzbek province of Kashkadarya. "It happened when the Turkmen authorities decided to move us onto the territory of Uzbekistan after a change in the Uzbek-Turkmen border," Abdunazar Karimov, an inhabitant from the new village, known as Obod makhalla, told IRIN. Although the Turkmen foreign ministry announced last week that ethnic Uzbeks could register as Turkmen citizens if they wished, when IRIN visited the border settlement there were few takers "They did not insist that we leave Turkmenistan," Karimov explained. "We could have remained, and in fact about four families did so. But I am Uzbek and I should live in Uzbekistan. This is why I have moved to Uzbekistan." The five former Soviet republics in Central Asia are still demarcating their borders some 13 years after independence. During the Soviet era, the borders - arbitrarily carved out in the 1920s by Josef Stalin - weren't strictly controlled and were largely unmarked. When the Turkmen-Uzbek border was created in 1991, the small town of Talimarjan was split in half and the Avezov neighbourhood, with all its residents, found itself in Turkmenistan. Abdunazar had been living in this community since 1975, and his seven children were born there. "At the end of February 2002, the Turkmen authorities declared that the deadline for us to move was 1 September 2004 and that after that the settlement would be demolished," he said, adding that the Turkmen part of Talimarjan had been levelled and no citizens of Uzbekistan remained there. "Over 270 families have moved," Abdunazar explained. "Those families which decided to stay in Turkmenistan have moved too, but towards the interior. "This being the case, the forced migrant dismantled his house, transported it to a new site in Uzbekistan by truck, and rebuilt it there. But migrants have complained to IRIN they haven't been provided with any help from either the Uzbek or Turkmen authorities. "We were transported by truck, but we had to pay for fuel and lubricating oil ourselves," Abdunazar said, adding that at the beginning of the resettlement, some families were provided with assistance by being given cement, sand and plaster to build new homes. Concurring, Jumanazar Rakhmanov, another settler, told IRIN that very little aid was given to them, adding that they still had problems with gas and potable water. Lack of jobs and low wages is another problem that resettled people face. "I work as a night guard. I'm paid about US $6 a month," Abdunazar noted. "My daughter works as a teacher at a secondary school, and she is paid around $22. From the salary I get, I cannot buy a sack of flour, not to mention other [basic] things I need." Kobil Kholmatov, another resettled person, noted that many of forced migrants were survived working as day labourers. "Working as peasants on rented fields, they earn about $1.50 a day," he said. "They have work to do in spring and summer. What are they going to do during other times, when there are no seasonal jobs?" he asked. "It was particularly difficult to pass the winter. Some people made fires inside their houses... Because of a lack of brushwood, we lit timber taken from our own houses," Kobil complained. Healh is another source of concern, but fortunately, no cases of serious infectious diseases had been registered in the Obod community. Zokir Rakhimov, head of the town clinic, said that doctors examined the migrants on a monthly basis. "We observe them and when someone gets sick we take measures," he said. "We have enough resources to provide first aid. But if it is a chronic disease, or some other [serious] case, patients should get medications themselves." As for the change in living conditions from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Rakhmanov said: "Conditions in Uzbekistan are a little worse than those in Turkmenistan. There were problems [in Turkmenistan] too, but it was easier for us in terms of gardens and stock farming," he maintained. But the migrants admit that as ethnic Uzbeks they were not really accepted in Turkmenistan. Recalling his time on the other side of the border, he claimed that the Turkmen authorities did not like Uzbeks. When they were crossing the border, Turkmen border guards tried to harrass them and extort money, he said. "It is not easy for an Uzbek to live in Turkmenistan," Rakhmanov said. "The [official] policy of Turkmenistan is pure Nazism. Many Uzbeks - citizens of Turkmenistan - live in Turkmenistan. There are university teachers as well as government officials [among them], but all of them are being fired. There was only one Uzbek in one of the ministries. He was also fired." Yadgar Turlibekov, head of the provincial branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), a local rights group, told IRIN the rights of settlers were violated on both sides of the common border. "According to international norms, each person has the right to choose a place of residence. But the Turkmen authorities prevented Uzbek citizens from remaining in their own houses. It is unlikely that Turkmenistan will grant citizenship to anybody of Uzbek nationality." On Tuesday, the government-run Turkmenistan: Golden Age news portal reported that the joint Turkmen-Uzbek intergovernmental committee held negotiations in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on the issues of border delimitation and demarcation. "The sides once again confirmed that... Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have no territorial claims to each other," the report said, adding that the issue of Uzbek citizens living in Turkmenistan, on territory equal to 17,867 hectares situated along the Turkmen-Uzbek state border in Dashoguz province, was being resolved. But back in Turkmenistan, life is not easy for ordinary citizens either, Rakhmanov maintained, adding that it was difficult to find essential goods at reasonable prices. This is why many of the forced migrants have accepted the move to Uzbek territory. The Uzbek authorities say they are doing what they can to help the new arrivals. Saidullo Jonimkulov, the deputy head of Talimarjan city administration, told IRIN that funds had been allocated from the national budget for putting gas and water supplies into the new village. "Also, loans are allocated to provide aid to immigrants, but people do not want them," Jonimkulov said. Meanwhile, a secondary school is being constructed in the community to accept the first students from 1 September, the beginning of the Uzbek academic year. But Turlibekov believes Uzbekistan needs to do much more to help the new migrants - just one set of victims of ongoing border disputes throughout Central Asia.