Tight Security for Uzbek Independence Day

Police and soldiers were out on the streets checking IDs as security was stepped up for Uzbekistan’s Independence Day on September 1.

As last-minute preparations took place, students and teachers were drafted in to spruce up a new sports complex in the capital Tashkent which will be formally opened to mark the occasion.

Labourers say work is going on around the clock so as to be ready. Giant banners proclaiming how good life is in Uzbekistan are going up, and special designs are being laid out in flowerbeds.

Police are patrolling public buildings, the Tashkent underground system and areas where the official celebrations will be staged. Soldiers with dogs are guarding the perimeters of the venues.

Students and teachers have been press-ganged into clearing construction debris and washing down the paving stones at the new Bunyodkor Stadium, which cost 250 million US dollars. It makes a change from the normal routine at this time of year, when they are sent out to pick cotton in the countryside.

"Anyone who’s absent gets called into the local government offices the next day,” a college lecturer said, "so we have to come and work, and sign in."

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.

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