Tajikistan has officially confirmed just 76 coronavirus infections and two deaths.
Majlis Podcast: Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, And The Coronavirus
On the last day of April, authorities in Tajikistan announced the country’s first cases of the coronavirus.
There were signs for weeks prior to the announcement that the virus was already in Tajikistan and spreading, but Tajik officials insisted that was not true and attributed suspicious deaths to other causes, usually pneumonia.
Officials in Turkmenistan continue to maintain there are no cases of coronavirus in their country, though many of the same rumors that circulated through Tajikistan about deaths from respiratory ailments and quarantined facilities are also coming out of Turkmenistan.
On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager for South and Central Asia, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion on how the authorities in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have been handling -- or mishandling -- the coronavirus.
This week’s guests are, from Italy, Peter Leonard, a veteran correspondent covering Central Asia and currently the Eurasianet editor for Central Asia; and from Prague, Sirojiddin Tolibov, the managing editor of RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.
People wearing protective face masks line up at safe social distances outside a grocery store in Tashkent.
Crony Charities Spring Up In Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan Amid COVID-19 Crisis
Charities are springing up everywhere around the world to help those suffering from the coronavirus and the lockdown measures taken to stop it from spreading.
Untold millions need such aid and many who are more fortunate really want to help.
The situations in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are no exception and there are charities in those countries that were quickly established to help funnel donations to those needing them.
But questions have emerged in Kazakhstan about the people running one particular fund, and in Uzbekistan there are questions about how much of a charity is voluntary and who, exactly, is receiving the aid.
The stories from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are sadly not unique in the world these days.
The number of coronavirus infections continues to rise, medical staff in many hospitals do not have the proper personal protective equipment, and government orders for quarantines and lockdowns have left large numbers of people out of work and without the means to provide for themselves or their families.
Friends And Relatives
On March 13, Kazakhstan reported its first cases of the coronavirus and on March 20, the country’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, called on "those who want and are able, to help the country."
Nazarbaev’s call was seen as directed at those who had become wealthy during the nearly three decades that Nazarbaev was president of Kazakhstan.
It was reported that on the same day Nazarbaev made his appeal, the Birgemiz (We Are Together) social fund was registered.
The managers of the fund were chosen at a March 24 session of the ruling Nur-Otan party, the political party formed and controlled by Nazarbaev.
Soldiers and a doctor man a checkpoint at the entrance to Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on April 30.
The Peace Through Spirituality social fund and the Veterans Organization were chosen to lead the Birgemiz charity.
Deputy Prime Minister Eraly Tugzhanov, who assumed that post in February, was named to head Birgemiz and Ruslan Sakeev was named the fund's chairman of the board.
Tugzhanov was the governor of Kazakhstan’s western Mangistau Province from March 2017 until September 2019, and in August 2017 he named Sakeev to be his deputy.
The Peace Through Spirituality fund was founded in 2017. The head of the fund is Saule Mukhashova.
According to RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, Mukhashova is also the founder of Kazakhstan’s Mineral Resource Investment mining company and the Sayram-Merey and Sat-Astana social funds. None of those organizations pays taxes.
The current head of the State Control Department in Kazakhstan’s presidential administration is Nurlan Sauranbaev. He previously served as governor of Shymkent Province and before that as head of the organizing committee for EXPO-2017 that the Kazakh capital, then called Astana, hosted.
Sauranbaev is Mukhashova’s son-in-law, though Mukhashova told Azattyq that fact had no influence on her organization being chosen to co-manage the Birgemiz fund.
Mukhashova noted that she had been involved in charity work for 15 years and, as this is the Year of the Volunteer in Kazakhstan, she had already in February been in contact with the president’s office about helping with charities.
The other co-manager of Birgemiz is the Veterans Organization, headed by Baktykozha Izmukhambetov.
A former governor of the West Kazakhstan and Atyrau provinces, Izmukhambetov served from March to June 2016 as chairman of the Mazhilis (Kazakh parliament) and, when he stepped down, was named head of the Veterans Organization.
As one would expect, the Veterans Organization provides assistance to war veterans. It was established in 1987 when Kazakhstan was a Soviet republic.
One interesting fact that Azattyq discovered about the Veterans Organization is that it has received 157.5 million tenge (some $369,250) from the state budget in the last four years and paid 48.43 million tenge in taxes during that same period.
Azattyq tried to contact Izmukhambetov to find out why nearly one-third of the money the Veterans Organization received from the state was paid back in taxes and to ask if the organization had other sources of income. But Izmukhambetov declined to comment.
Please Contribute, Or Else
In Uzbekistan, some business owners and state employees say authorities are forcing them to contribute to charity funds aimed at helping those who are facing hardships from the coronavirus crisis.
RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, reported that teachers, bankers, state employees, and others are being forced to donate to the Generosity and Assistance (Sahovat va Komak) Fund that was established on April 22 under orders of President Shavkat Mirziyoev.
These workers are instructed to contribute part of their monthly salaries, anywhere from one day's to one week's worth of wages.
It is illegal to garnish wages or force someone to hand over part of their salary in Uzbekistan, but the people who contacted Ozodlik said authorities are giving them a form to sign saying the money is a voluntary contribution to the fund, donated without any pressure from anyone.
But even before the creation of the Generosity And Assistance Fund, Ozodlik was in contact with people in Uzbekistan who, speaking on the condition of anonymity, explained how they have been conscripted into charity.
A store owner in the Bukhara area said employees of the city administration came to see him in the middle of April and said they needed the owner to donate to charity.
“When I refused to help, they hinted they could cause problems for me. No businessman wants his store closed,” the store owner said.
He said he gave nearly two dozen sacks of flour, several sacks of rice and sugar, and a box of cooking oil to a charity distribution center.
A few days after that, the administration employees returned.
“I am not against helping, but the authorities need to understand our situation,” the owner said. “It’s hard for us, too. There is no business. The export of goods across borders has halted [under the coronavirus lockdowns].”
A state employee in Jizzakh Province told Ozodlik that authorities are strongly urging state workers to contribute to charities.
"They’re insisting we hand over seven days of our salary to needy citizens," the state employee said, adding: “Most [government] workers are the sole breadwinner in the family.”
But the state employee conceded, “They are afraid to say anything to the leadership, worrying they would be fired.”
In Uzbekistan’s eastern city of Andijon, a merchant said the mahalla, or neighborhood, chairman and several other people came to his house to ask him to contribute some money for the needy.
“I have been giving to needy families for a long time,” the merchant said. “I explained to the mahalla chairman that I know who in our mahalla needs help and I deliver it to them with my own hands.”
The chairman said during this time of quarantine that all aid and donations must be delivered to the distribution center, not in person, in order to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The merchant told Ozodlik he doubts that all the aid being delivered to the distribution center is reaching those who need it.
Ozodlik contacted the Mahallas and Families Support Ministry. An official who also asked not to be named said all aid needs to be brought to the distribution center so it can be disinfected before being given to needy families.
He also insisted that all goods being brought to the centers is being donated voluntarily.
Rasul Jonuzakov, a blogger from the Samarkand area, questioned the charity distribution system.
Jonuzakov said, “In a week, they gave help to some 20,000 families in Tashkent, [but] I did not hear that any of those in need in our mahalla received such help.”
Many people would like to help during the difficult times caused by the coronavirus, but everyone wants to know that the money or goods they give to charity actually ends up in the hands of those for whom it was intended.
RFE/RL's Kazakh and Uzbek services contributed to this report
Qishloq Ovozi is a blog by RFE/RL Central Asia specialist Bruce Pannier that aims to look at the events that are shaping Central Asia and its respective countries, connect the dots to shed light on why those processes are occurring, and identify the agents of change.
The name means "Village Voice" in Uzbek. But don't be fooled, Qishloq Ovozi is about all of Central Asia.
