Uzbekistan still remains a kleptocratic state, and this is a matter of great sadness and regret to me.

The scale of the Mirziyoyev family’s corruption has already overpassed the level of corruption linked to the Karimov family. The situation with human rights in the country has become even moredramatic recently. The Mirziyoyev regime is using targeted legal repressions against the critics of the government. Numerous amendments to Uzbekistani legislation allow the authorities to impose administrative and criminal penalties against citizens. Thus, behind the scenes, the Mirziyoyev regime is spreading fear and terror among the population.

Like the previous government, Mirziyoyev too is playing the Islamic terrorism card. The Uzbek security services with systematic regularity report on new episodes when groups of religious extremists are detained. The arrests of the so-called religious extremists are usually linked to their activity in social media or are the result of provocative actions on behalf of the informants hired by the intelligence services.

It is not a secret that the Uzbek authorities themselves have been financing all kinds of terrorist organizations for decades now; they even carried out bombings in Uzbekistan – note, for example, the bombing in February 1999 or the Andijan massacre in May 2005. The main purpose of the terrorist acts carried out by the authorities against their own people was to change the political balance of power in the regions and eliminate both the Islamic and the democratic opposition. It is for this reason that we insist on an international, independent investigation into the Andijan tragedy in the course of which the Uzbek authorities had shot about two thousand people.

In 2018, on Mirziyoyev’s initiative, the University of Journalism and Mass Communication was established. Since September 2019, the University has been enrolling 25 students per year to a program specializing in military journalism. Our opposition movement would like to inquire: Why does Uzbekistan need so many war journalists? Is Mirziyoyev indeed preparing for a war? If yes, then in whose military adventure he is planning to participate?

Against this background, some US politicians have introduced a bill in Congress that would stop theapplication of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to Uzbekistan, their argument being that Mirziyoyev’s government is now implementing some radical reforms. We believe that as long as systematic human rights violations continue and the country’s doors remain closed to secular and democratic opposition, the Jackson-Vanik amendment should continue to apply on Uzbekistan. We have seriousfears that because of Mirziyoyev’s ill-considered domestic and foreign policies, a repeat of the Syrian scenario could happen in Uzbekistan.

To prevent bloodshed in Uzbekistan, we demand that Shavkat Mirziyoyev cancels the presidential election on October 24!

We demand the resignation of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his anti-people and corrupt government! Once they step down, we guarantee their right to a fair trial.

We propose that a provisional government should be formed on the basis of the political opposition movement, Erkin O’zbekiston. Such government would include various interested political forces. Within one year, this provisional government is to prepare the country for democratic presidential elections, so that a functioning government could be established thereafter.