Photos by © Ulugbek Babakulov

The ancient road known as the Great Silky Way survived millennia. The only difference is that trucks have replaced trains of camel, and highwaymen preying on merchants have given way to official structures collecting toll from drivers. Goods from the Great Silky Way once penetrated all of the Eurasian world in defiance of barriers and borders. Nothing changed from this standpoint. Regardless of the artificial hurdles, barbed wire, and the risk of being beaten by servicemen, vendors known as businessmen nowadays keep using the road whose greatness unfortunately abated.

Ferghana.Ru correspondent travelled from the borders of Uzbekistan via Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar along the Great Silky Way. Here is the first part of the account of the trip.

China and Uzbekistan

No need to elaborate here on how goods «made in China» have flooded foreign markets, all too frequently drowning quality in quantity. Analysts point out that cheap and easily available Chinese goods impair development of industry in the countries bordering on China. Determined to defend national industry and hopefully boost prestige of their own goods and commodities, some countries (like Uzbekistan) restrict import from China.

Great Silk Road now

Smugglers see to it that these restrictions do not matter much. More than 50% of what Chinese goods and commodities reach Qorasuv in Kyrgyzstan with its largest marketplace in all of Central Asia are then smuggled into Uzbekistan. It is hardly surprising because the Kyrgyz market itself cannot absorb this flood. (It should be added that the population of the southern part of Kyrgyzstan stands at approximately 2.5 million men at this point or half the whole population of the country.)

It follows that a vast bulk of goods and commodities goes right to small-time wholesale vendors from all over Uzbekistan who brave the road to Qorasuv despite the distances involved and the threat of confiscation of goods.

Demolition

Buyers of Chinese goods and commodities on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border

Smuggled Chinese goods and commodities are a thorough headache for the Uzbek authorities. Desperate for at least something to dam the flood, they fortified the state border and demolished every building there regardless of its purpose and form of ownership. Literally thousands Uzbeks saw their houses torn down, helpless to do anything about it.

That was how Qorasuv looked from the orbit once, 2004

«We used to have a large house with six rooms inside,» a woman whose household was thus demolished told Ferghana.Ru. «And a fairly large land plot nearby. It was torn down because some official had said it was located too close to the border, right near the barbed wire. He said we were facilitating smuggling or something. The authorities gave us land, approximately one third of what we had had, and 5.5 million sums ($4,840) to build another house with. A shack is all we can hop to build with this sort of money.»

Mass demolition was launched in April 2007. The authorities used units of the regular army with their heavy haulers and all other gear. It took them no time at all to level every building to the ground. The people were left literally under the open sky, despite the cold and rains. Almost 200 buildings were demolished on a fairly small part of the border in the settlements of Sokolok, Kisik, and Dustlik. Thousands buildings were leveled to the ground all along the border, just because the authorities deemed them to be located in the wrong place.

A bird-eye view panorama of Qorasuv nowadays

Corrupt border guards

Needless to say, all of that facilitated corruption in the Uzbek Border Service. This correspondent observed with his own eyes how border guards collected toll from vendors dragging their sacks and packs across the border. Tariffs are known to everyone — crossing the border once costs 1,000 sums ($0.8) when «loaded» and 500 sums ($0.4) when empty. Uzbeks cross the border by the thousand every day. They return to the border again, carrying Chinese goods and commodities, bribe border guards, and go home in order to sell the lot without attracting attention of the local law enforcement agencies and earn something to sustain their families.

«View of Uzbekistan from the territory of Kyrgyzstan

It may be added that women alone go in for this certainly weird business. Men keep their distance. If caught which of course happens, a woman smuggler may get away with just a relatively mild beating (a couple of blows with the butt of the rifle or a kick with a heavy army boot) but a man would be tortured.

Uzbek complaints

Uzbek women are morbidly afraid of being recognized on photos and identified by secret services. «They will say we’ve been meddling with the state policy and wipe out all of the family,» they said. «No photos, please.» On the other hand, it does not take a lot by way of encouraging them to talk of their lives and of how they earn their daily bread. Journalist of a foreign media outlet willing to listen offers them the only and rare opportunity to tell the world of life in the authoritarian state of Uzbekistan.

«Top brass ferry Chinese commodities by truckloads. They are never stopped on the border and the commodities are then sold though large stores,» women say. «As for us, it’s different of course. Detention means confiscation of everything and a large fine. That is why we never even try to talk our way out of trouble. We drop the load at the first indication of danger and just run away.»

Kyrgyz households as transshipment bases

Smugglers on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border

Kyrgyzes have their houses right near the barbed wire. Most of them have converted their yards into impromptu warehouses for Uzbek vendors. Every yard has two exits — a broad one leading into the Kyrgyz territory (one a truck will pass through) and a narrow one that leads to the barbed wire on the border which is conveniently cut to allow passage into Uzbekistan.

That the Kyrgyzes living on the border are not exactly good Samaritans is clear. Owner of one such transshipment base told Ferghana.Ru that his income from Uzbek smugglers amounts to $100 on a good day. «Even more than that on the eve of all sorts of celebrations and so on,» the man said. «Or when the school year is about to begin. That’s because everything from pens to teaching aids — you name it — passes through us here.»

Packs 50 to 80 kg each are ferried from Kyrgyz yards by Uzbek women for whom it is the only means of income. Having a 50 kg pack ferried 300 meters to the truck costs vendors 500 sums ($0.4). The women are happy to have this job and wouldn’t want to lose it. Seeing a camera in the hands of Ferghana.Ru correspondent, they screamed to attract attention of Uzbek border guards who had been pointedly looking the other way as if unaware of what the women were doing. Border guards gleefully gave chase but saw their Kyrgyz counterparts across the border and stopped, content with verbal abuse of yours truly.

Uzbek-Kyrgyz border

Smuggled goods

Goods and commodities are smuggled in both directions. Flour, sugar, garments, and home appliances (from China) go into Uzbekistan, fruits and vegetables in the opposite direction. Peasants and locals used by smugglers are not the only ones to benefit from this state of affairs. Representatives of law enforcement agencies want their palms greased, too. It is one of the reasons, by the way, why they will never admit existence of smuggling in the first place.

Baitik Babatayev, second-in-command of the Qorasuv district police this correspondent approached with questions, did his best to reassure Ferghana.Ru that it was a sheer impossibility. «Do you really think we will tolerate smuggling and let smugglers continue their illegitimate activities?» he kept saying. «I’m telling you right here and now that it is impossible, at least on the territory of this district.» Policemen on the beat, however, are more straightforward. They admit that it is smuggling alone that keeps up trade. «Close the border and everyone on both sides of it will suffer,» one of the policemen said. «The authorities do not permit legitimate import and people are forced to become smugglers.»

This correspondent once encountered a Kyrgyz officer (a major) on the border. Seeing a camera, the major got all riled up and demanded to be explained exactly what correspondent of a foreign media outlet was doing there. «Your lot is only looking for compromising facts, you are here to report afterwards that the Kyrgyz authorities turn a blind eye to smuggling… Why wouldn’t you report how Uzbek border guards clobber Uzbek women? You have half an hour and I don’t want to see you again when the time is up,» major by name of Imarali said. What he himself was doing on the border is anybody’s guess. Your truly can only say it was not examination of the checkpoint that he visited the border for.

(to be continued)

Ulugbek Babakulov (Bishkek — Osh — Qorasuv — Irkeshtam — Kashgar — Bishkek). Ferghana.Ru correspondent appreciates IWPR’s help in the work on the piece