Opposition Calls for Andijan Anniversary Protest

The Birdamlik opposition movement is calling on people in Uzbekistan to stage a peaceful protest to mark the violence in Andijan two years. NBCentralAsia observers doubt that the organisers can drum up enough support to make the action effective.



Last week, the opposition movement Birdamlik, or Solidarity, called on people to stay at home all day on May 13, the second anniversary of the Andijan shootings, as a sign of protest against the authorities’ repressive policies.



Birdamlik, led by United States-based activist Bahodyr Choriev, tried to stage two protests in March and encouraged people to come to the demonstration dressed in white. But both protests were foiled by law enforcement agencies who detained the few people involved.



When calling on people to join the May 13 protest, Birdamlik said the international community was not taking “effective measures” against Karimov’s administration, so people must win their freedom by themselves.



The movement is proposing to name May 13 - the day government troops opened fire on hundreds of civilians in Andijan in 2005 - Freedom Day.



An NBCentralAsia observer from another opposition movement, the Committee for the National Salvation of Uzbekistan, says Birdamlik’s previous failed attempts to hold protests indicate that the plan will not be a success. Birdamlik mostly spreads its protest calls via the internet, and only around three per cent of the population has access to the web.



“Even if they do succeed in getting their call out to people, no one will listen to it,” he added.



But all such peaceful actions should be welcomed, even if they “have neither form nor substance” and people only read about them on the internet, he said, because people are becoming more willing to protest.



Tashkent-based observer Egamberdi Tokhtaev believes the kind of activity that Birdamlik is proposing will have no effect, and the different opposition groups should instead join forces.



“Given the circumstances here, the political opposition could draw on the experience of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or take a closer look at what Mahatma Gandhi did. This is what Birdamlik is trying to do, but I’m afraid the movement is being drained of resources – both ideas and people.”



Opposition groups should form a coalition and stop criticising one another, he concluded.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)