Due to resource constraints, IRIN is not updating the country profile below.Uzbekistan country page on ReliefWeb [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc104?OpenForm&rc;=3&cc;=uzb ].
UZBEKISTAN
Last update: March 2007
Uzbekistan . Located along the ancient silk trading routes, the country was conquered by Genghis Khan in the 13th century and by Timur (Tamerlane) in the 14th century. By the late-1800s, it had been incorporated into the Russian empire. The Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic was established in 1924, and its eastern region became the separate Tajik Soviet republic five years later. Independence came in 1991.UNHCR ), there are 1,415 refugees, mostly Afghans. In March 2006, the Uzbek government expelled UNHCR from the capital, Tashkent, giving the agency one month to leave. Uzbekistan is the only former Soviet republic that has acceded neither to the 1951 Refugee Convention nor the 1967 Protocol.Freedom House describes the press as “not free". Journalists, especially those working for foreign media outlets, have been attacked, according to Freedom House in 2006. IRI ), the National Democratic Institute (NDI ), as well as Freedom House. Political opposition is suppressed and although the Uzbek parliament in 1998 approved constitutional measures to promote press freedom, the media remains rigidly controlled. Human rights groups have accused Uzbekistan's secular regime of using its fight against fundamentalism as a pretext for cracking down on its political opponents.Uzbekistan is the world's fourth-largest producer of cotton and the world's second-largest exporter; cotton accounts for about 45 percent of the country's exports. Minerals and mining are also important for the economy. The country is the world's seventh-largest producer of gold and holds the fourth-largest reserves.UNDP ) Human Development Index placed Uzbekistan at 113 out of 177 countries. Private enterprise is not encouraged and foreign investment is minimal outside the energy and mineral sectors. UNFPA ). UNICEF ). About 70 percent of the whole population lives in rural areas and 30.5 percent of the poor are there, compared with 22.5 percent in urban areas, according to UNDP.WHO ). HIV/AIDS infections in the country. The accumulative number of registered HIV/AIDS cases in Uzbekistan is the highest recorded in Central Asia. In 2004 the greatest number of HIV cases was noted in Tashkent city (39.7 percent) and in Tashkent province outside the city (27.3 percent), according to UNDP.violence against women , including domestic abuse of women by parents, husbands and in-laws.human rights record deteriorated further in 2005 after the Andijan massacre of 13 May 2005 in which more than 1,000 people may have been killed when government troops fired on demonstrators protesting against the government of Karimov, according to rights groups. The Uzbek government says 187 died. Amnesty International . Systematic torture is widespread. Concern over the use of torture by the Uzbek government has also been raised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak.
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Uzbekistan in figures
· Population: 27 millionSources: UNHCR , World Bank , UNDP , UNFPA , UNICEF , WHO
Basic facts
Capital: TashkentLanguage: Uzbek, RussianEthnic Groups: Uzbek 80%, Russian 6%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, other 6%.Religions: Sunni Muslim 88%, Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%Border countries: Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz RepublicNatural resources: Gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenumAgriculture products: Cotton, vegetables, fruit, grain, livestockSources: UNHCR , World Bank , UNDP , UNFPA , UNICEF , WHO
