Due to statements and appeals of our colleagues and associates, this year the Uzbek authorities have stopped sending children to cotton fields, but now the Uzbek government forces their parents and elder brother, sisters to pick cotton.

While national cotton harvest centers continue receiving reports about the relatively rich harvest, the media and international organizations also receive reports about victims of forced labor in the country. However, the General Prosecutor’s Office and other government agencies of Uzbekistan tryto hold back and close their eyes to consequences of this rotten policy of the authorities of the country.

“Ezgulik” Human Rights Societyhas managed to make a list of several tragic incidents that have occurred in Uzbek cotton fields, which had been publicized in the media, and now calls the Uzbek Prosecutor General’s Office to organize a special investigation team to investigate the incidents. At the same time, our society asks inspectors of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations to draw attention to the situation in the Uzbek cotton fields and immediately take appropriate measures to prevent them.

“Ezgulik” Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan

Case 1:

September 14: A man died after he was hit by a convoy of buses, which were driving people from Tashkent to Syrdarya province for cotton harvesting. According to witnesses and Uzbek law enforcement agencies,the victim was IskandarSoatkulov, anunskilled 45-year-old laborer from the village of Khozhatahir, Baisun district of Surkhandarya province. He was running away from a police officer, who chased him. As a result of the chase, he was hit by a vehicle. The man died in a hospital from injuries.

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Case 2:

September 14, a convoy of buses with cotton pickersgot into an accidentin Mirzaabad district, Syrdarya province on the way from Tashkent to Zhizak. As a result, a bus driver and several cotton pickers were injured. Journalists from “Ozodlik”, the Uzbek service of Radio Liberty, could not find out the names of the victims. According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred as a result of a collision between two buses from different parts of the convoy.

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Case 3:

In most cases, cotton pickers are driven to cotton fields by trucks. On 17 September, a ZIL truck which was driving students from the Industrial College of Chirokchinskdistrict of Kashkadarya provincegot into an accident. As result, 29 students out of 39 from the truck were hospitalized. Reporters could not find out their names.

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Case 4:

September 17: A Nexia car hit a tractor trailer with harvested cotton in Altynkuldistrict of Andizhan province. As a result of the accident, one person died and three more were hospitalized. According to “Ozodlik” sources, 24-year-old Dilshodbek Valiev, who was sitting next to the driver, died on the scene. Driver ElyerMirzazhonov and another passenger Hamid Turdiev were hospitalized with severe injuries.

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Case 5:

September 20:IbodulloBoboev, the head of Vocational-Technical College in the village of Dukhchi,Shakhrisyabz district of Kashkadarya province, died in a car accident. He was sent to pick cotton in Mubarek district. KhollisObidzhon, a Nexia car driver, was seriously injured and hospitalized.

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Case 6:

September 23: A Nexia car hit 19-year-old Khumoyun Ergashev in Mirzachul district of Jizzakh province. The victim was sent to pickcotton. According to eyewitnesses of the accident, KhumoyunErgashev picked cotton instead of his father, who works as a teacher in Bakhmaldistrict. The young man was hospitalizedin serious condition.

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Case 7:

September 23: 30-year-old BegaliErgashevwas badly hit in a car crashin Izbaskan district of Andizhan province. BegaliErgashev, the head of Road Safety Department in Pakhtaabad district, died in a local hospitalthree days after the accident. According to eyewitnesses, the Nexia car, which Ergashev drove, drove into a tractor trailer at full speed. The tractor, which was transporting harvested cotton, did not have tail lights.

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Case 8:

September 25: 57-year-old Murod Melikuziev from the village of Kieli,Dangarskdistrict of Ferghana province, died following a heart attack after he climbed onto a tractor trailer to unload bags with harvested cotton. According to witnesses, Melikuziev came to pick cotton instead of his grandson – a high school student.

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Case 9:

September 26: Mansur Kholiknazarov, an 18-year-old college student from the Tashkent Railway Transport College, was hit by a tractor at the cotton field of “Boevut-3”farm association in Boevutdistrict of Syrdarya province. The young man was sent to pickcotton in Syrdarya province. He was having a rest on the field the bushes with his headphones on. After the incident, he was hospitalized.

A day after the given incident, two students from the given college had a fight. Injured, they were also hospitalized.

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Case 10:

Students from regional colleges were taken to cotton fields in the early days of the cotton harvesting campaign. On 28 September 28, 18-year-old MazhidUteganov, a thirdyear student from Takhiatash Polytechnic Vocational and Technical College, committed a suicide by hanging himself on a gas pipeline. He was sent to pick cotton in Khuzhayliydistrict of Karakalpakstan. According to ‘Ozodlik’ sources, the accident occurred in one of the local houses, where the college students temporarily stayed.

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Case 11:

October 2: 19-year-old ShamsiddinBobosaidov, a second year student of the Mathematics and Physics Faculty of Gulistan State University, died in Akaltyn district of Syrdarya province. According to “Ozodlik” source, Shamsiddin was a victim of a fight between students.

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Case 12:

October 2: two small children were killed by smoke during a fire in a local house in Ellikkaladistrict, Karakalpakstan. The children, aged 3 and 5, stayed at home alone without parental control as their mother was forced to pick cotton in “Istam-Turkman” farm. A source from Ellikkaladistrict told “Ozodlik” that the woman’s husband is a labor migrant working in Russia.The tragedy happened when the children’s mother was on the cotton field.

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Case 13:

These days, classmates of Shahnoza Mirzazhonova continue picking cotton on the cotton fields of Rishtan district, Fergana province. Shahnoza Mirzazhonova, a 2-year student of Fergana Polytechnic University, died on 3 October during the cotton harvesting campaign. According to “Ozodlik” sources, the student did not feel wellon October 2, and she asked for a leave to go home. On 3 October it was announced that the student died.Representatives of the Polytechnic University administration, who visitedthe student’s parents, asked them not to associate the death of their daughter with the cotton harvesting campaign and announce that their daughter died as a result of an accident in their bathhouse.

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Case 14:

October 5: 63-year-old AbdurazzokKhudoiberdievdied of a heart attack in Nishandistrict of Kashkadarya province. He headed the districtcotton harvesting center. According to results of the forensic medical examination, the man died as a result of a massive heart attack.

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Case 15:

October 5:AbbosbekTaptiev, a 19-year-old employee of “Uz-Dong Won Co” Company based in Asaka, died on the cotton field of Kurgantepa district,Andizhan province. A source from the company told “Ozodlik”that Abbosbek died at night from a heart attack.