After the collapse of the Soviet regime, like other Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan chose democracy as the principal political system according to which people would establish the government and rule the country. Many actions had been done in Uzbekistan on the path to democracy, including accepting foreign investment to establish international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) the main functions of which were to work in human rights promotion, independent mass media, and small and medium size business development. A few years later, the power over government was centered in the hands of the president Islam Karimov and the conception of democracy was reinterpreted.

Today NGOs are under growing pressure from the Uzbekistani government, and cannot conduct any actions independently but only after official permission from government institutions. The Andijan events on May 13, 2005 made the situation even worse. The government authorities claimed that it was a reflection of the so called “colored” revolutions that took place in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. They used this fact as an effective tool to eradicate NGOs, and justified their actions by stating that those revolutions were results of the activities of NGOs that were sponsored by foreign donors who were trying to influence the countries policy for their own profits. In reality, the government was eliminating NGOs in order to prevent information about the real situation in Uzbekistan leave the country as well as to keep “information vacuum” in the country. More than a hundred NGOs were forced to stop operation and were closed down. The government got rid of more than a hundred NGOs, among which were Human Rights Watch, IREX, Open Society Institute, Soros Foundation, Internews, and Radio Freedom.

Today, another NGO, Agricultural Cooperative Development International / Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), is being pressed by the government of Uzbekistan. The State Tax Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan told to Regnum.ru that:

Investigation showed that during realization if the micro-crediting program in 2004-2005 years, Andijan office of ACDI/VOCA hid the unreasonable expenditure of big amount of cash in total sum of $3 million.

According to the representative of the Tax Committee, ACDI/VOCA has fully accepted its guilt and all required paper were signed. At the moment, government is going to charge the NGO to pay fees for its wrongdoings.

NGOs play a large role in building a democratic state, and civil society taking part in the activities of NGOs helps to make the country able to choose its form of rule. Today’s situation in Uzbekistan is a real challenge for NGOs, as all the time there is a great possibility of being caught by the government for wrongdoing like giving people micro-credit to develop their farms. Most people are risking their freedom by working for such nongovernmental organizations.

Nongovernmental organizations are one of the few tools that can be used by the society as a counterbalance to the government. I again state that the roles of NGOs in building a democratic state and developing civil society are very significant. I will keep my fingers crossed for ACDI/VOCA and other NGOs for their bright future and success in promoting the concept of democracy.