Kyrgyzstan: Land fever

Hamid Toursunof 8/15/05

A EurasiaNet Partner Post from Transitions Online

Another attempt by landless people to seize property has highlighted one of the most pressing problems facing Kyrgyzstan's new leadership.

On 20 July a group of 80 people tried to occupy a site leased by a Kyrgyz-Indian joint venture near the city of Osh. This is just the latest in a series of disputes over land and property in southern Kyrgyzstan, a poor region that was the hotbed of the protests that eventually toppled former leader Askar Akaev in March.

Murat Jeenbekov, general director of Wholesale International Kyrgyz-Indian Joint Venture, said protestors occupied the company's eight-hectare leased property on 20 July and began measuring the site.

"After the police intervened, they moved to the other side of the road. The illegal land-seizers are residents of Osh city," Jeenbekov said.

The company intends to build a trade center here, just 400 meters from the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, on land obtained from the Kyrgyz government in 2004 on a 49-year lease. One of the company's owners is an Indian citizen, Satbal Singh.

The protestors did not consider themselves squatters. "Why should we sell our land to people from India when our citizens do not have enough?" Dinara Kamalova, the protestors' leader, told TOL. "We are not land-seizers.... We came here on 20 July and took measures of the land. There is land enough for 82 plots. There was no capture of the land. We demand land plots for landless people, we want justice. And we will stay here so long as the government does not provide justice."

As it turned out, the group did leave several days later after a meeting with the mayor of Osh.

The Kyrgyz-Indian joint venture has already invested approximately $1 million into the trade center. Many local people expect that the new trade center will have a positive effect on the local economy and condemn the protestors.

"If there is a market here, there will be jobs for our children. It will be good. But [the protestors] are not allowing any construction work to go ahead, they're not letting machinery get on the site," said farmer Japarova Karamat, a 55-year-old local resident.

"The city administration has offered them [the protestors] some sites, but they did not agree to accept them. They want the sites that they like, but the site they want is under an agreement, and agreements have to be followed," said Matisakov Berdirbekov, spokesman for the Osh mayor.

Acting Mayor Mamasadyk Bakirov met the protestors, telling them that all their concerns should be solved according to the law and giving assurances that their case would be addressed, AKIpress reported.

Land Hungar

Former leader Askar Akaev promised to transform Kyrgyzstan into a "Central Asian Switzerland." But many say the economic policy, corruption, and tribalism of the elite turned Kyrgyzstan from an industrial-agrarian into an agrarian country.

A half-million of Kyrgyzstan's five million people have left the country in search of jobs and better wages since Kyrgyzstan became independent in 1991. Land for farming and housing is scarce in this mountainous country of 200,000 square kilometers.

"During the 14 years of Akaev's rule a huge army of unemployed emerged. The entire economy was destroyed. All industries have been plundered. People left the country in search of jobs," Osh Province Governor Anvar Artykov told TOL. Official statistics, however, indicate a relatively low 9.5 percent jobless rate in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the Osh regional statistics department, there were 13,843 unemployed people in Osh province as of 1 July, an 11 percent year-on-year rise.

After the March uprising and change of regime, homeless and landless people began occupying land plots. Meanwhile, the pace of emigration by Russian-speakers, who are prominent in industry, education, and the media, has picked up.

Tensions over land have been particularly high in the Kyrgyz part of the Ferghana Valley where Osh is located – a rich agricultural area shared by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The area is fertile, but overpopulated, leading to periodic disputes and sometimes violence involving private farmers in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Agricultural production plummeted in Kyrgyzstan following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as collective and state-owned farms were broken up and distributed to private farmers. Farmers also appropriated the state-owned farm machines.

National statistics indicate growth in the agricultural sector, although most farmers live from crop to crop. Farmers often rely on their children for field work.

"Akaev completed the land reform, but thousands of private farmers were left to the mercy of fate. Uneducated, untrained farmers are getting by, though some of them are doing quite well. But inappropriate use of lands leads to overexploitation of land resources, particularly pastures," Asan E., a 52-year-old private farmer from Osh province told TOL. "Our farmers need low-interest loans, machinery, and well-trained agro-specialists."

The Housing Crunch

The lack of adequate housing is no less acute. According to the Osh city architecture department, 7,000 people are registered as in need of housing out of a total population of 300,000. But the city has built no houses or flats since independence and the current housing stock is outdated, the Kyrgyz section of Radio Liberty reported on 21 July.

Housing demand is being pushed by internal migration, as thousands of rural residents flow into the cities in search of better prospects.

"Property prices are rising constantly. Last year, prices for flats and houses went up by 30,000 soms every month [about $730]," said Izmailova Dinara, a manager at the Musav Ltd. real estate agency. "Prices go up because demand is growing fast, mostly because of our so-called Russians [Kyrgyz labor migrants working in Russia]."

After the unrest last spring prices dropped by a quarter, Dinara said, "but we expect them to go up again in September when people start coming back home from Russia. Real estate is getting more expensive not because the common people are growing more prosperous, but because some people can afford to buy several properties."

Meanwhile, the Bishkek city council requested that former state officials, including ex-defense minister Esen Topoev, return municipal apartments illegally obtained during the past five years, saying, "These officials were not in acute need of better housing conditions."

A Russian Panacea

For Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked, resource-poor country that lacks money for new housing, Russian jobs are crucial to ease tensions arising from land and labor scarcity.

Artykov even speculates about a deal between Bishkek and Moscow to give Russian land to Kyrgyz workers.

"This is possible," he told TOL. "This issue should be addressed by means of bilateral agreements. But also it is necessary to create jobs here. In the last few months, 2,000 jobs have been generated [in Osh]."

"Russia is losing approximately 800,000 people every year, and Russia needs our laborers. Our citizens speak the Russian language easily and in general are loyal to Russia," said Jamoldin Usmanov, a seasonal laborer based in Osh. "And the huge army of Kyrgyz laborers sends lots of money to Kyrgyzstan from Russia every month. Even if we send less a hundred dollars, this could amount to 70 million dollars a month. Our small country wouldn't have survived without Russia."

Rather than seizing land or moving to Russia, some Kyrgyz soon may be able to afford housing by means of a mortgage loan, although there are formidable obstacles involved with this option as well.

"There is a foundation for mortgage loans, there is desire, and all we need are resources," Artykov said. "Negotiations are going on with banks that are ready to work in this direction. Mortgage loans will start this or next year. The problem is that interest rates exceed 10 percent, which is too high and unrealistic. Interest rates should be 3-5 percent."

The new authorities led by Bakiev have promised to provide landless people with land plots. Time will show if Bakiev avoids Akaev's fate.

Editor's Note: Hamid Toursunof is a TOL correspondent in Osh.

Posted August 15, 2005 © Eurasianet