Muhammad Salih

Muhammad Salih, 2006

Muhammad Salih (Мухаммад Салих), (born 20 December 1949) is an Uzbek political opposition leader and writer. He lives in exile in Norway where the government has granted him political asylum.

Early life

Muhammad Salih was born in the Urgench District of the Khorezm region of Uzbekistan on December 20, 1949. He is a descendant of the well-known aristocratic family Khorezm Beks. He was named after his birth as Muhammad Salih as consonant to his father's name, Muhammad Amin (Madamin). In 1977, he published his first collected poems which brought him instantaneous fame as a poet of avant-gardism. After he was warned by Laziz Kayumov, the main ideologist of the Republic and Chief Editor of the newspaper “Sovet Uzbekistoni”, about the “Baneful influence of the West in poetry”, the first period of his destiny was to be rejected by socialist society. Henceforth and till the 90s he was called a “westernizer in poetry, distant from national traditions”. Salih's early creative activity characterized by the concord of western avant-gardism (especially surrealism) with the complicative Sufi philosophy (especially the school of Djalal ad-Din Rumi) and metaphorics linked to its mystical foundation. He translated the prose of Franz Kafka and French poets of 20th century. His poems were translated into many languages. Hundreds of articles and books have been written about him. His poems were first translated to Russian by Victor Sosnora and later by Alexey Parshikov.

Political activities

Muhammed Salih was not a member of Communist Party. His political activity began in mid of 1980-th in a close connection with his literary reformist activity within the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan. He wrote his first political manifest in December 1984. The Manifest was aimed against the policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan towards national literature, language and history. It was signed by 53 young poets and sent to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, known as the "Letter To The Politburo". The letter criticized the Communist Party as "anti-Uzbek.", Subsequently, Salih published several articles condemning the government's demographic and environmental policies in Uzbekistan. In 1988 Salih was elected Chairman of the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan.

At the beginning of Perestroyka Salih became one of the founders of “Birlik” / “Unity”. In 1989 he founded “Erk” (Freedom) Party. In 1990 Salih was elected to the Uzbek Supreme Council.

In June 1990 on Erk Party initiative Uzbek Supreme Council adopted the Declaration of Independence of Uzbekistan. Salih was nominated as a candidate in the first presidential elections in Uzbekistan in December 1991 and was an only rival of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov. According to the official results Solih received 12.7% of votes, and according to the results announced previously by Uzbekistan Radio he gained 33% and according to the independent observes – the majority of votes. Most election observers said the elections were neither fair nor democratic. After the elections the student's demonstrations were put under gunfire, oppositional newspapers were shut down, criminal charges were filed against the leaders of opposition, Secretary of Erk Party Atanazar Arif was detained.

On June 2, 1992 in response to increasing government repression, Salih resigned from his position as the deputy of Oliy Majlis, (Uzbek parliament). In December 1992 he was accused of foundation of ”Milliy Majlis” and in April 1993 was arrested by an accusation of high treason. But he was released as a result of international pressure under the written undertaking not to leave Tashkent. But he managed to run away first to Azerbaijan and later to Turkey. The Fourth Congress of Erk was held on September 25, 1993 in city of Tashkent without Salih. The Congress worked under the conditions of strong surveillance by low enforcement structures of the authorities. However, the Congress succeeded to adopt amendments to the Charter of the Party, to elect the Chairman, Central Council and other leading bodies of the Party. Representatives of the authorities openly demanded to replace the leader by a puppet person of the regime, but the Congress re-elected Muhammad Salih as a leader of the Party despite of his absence and in exile.

After the Tashkent bombings of February 16, 1999 he was accused of being part of the plot and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia. His brothers were also detained and sentenced to long prison terms. In an interview, Salih has stated that his brothers are still in prison after more than 10 years, and under conditions of continuous torture. In the closely observed trial of Solih, the prosecution produced a confession from Zayniddin Askarov to implicate Solih in the bombing. Later, Askarov, in an interview broadcasted by Voice of America, said his confession was taken under torture, and Solih was not a part of the bombing.^[1]

Detention in Prague

On November 28, 2001 Salih arrived to Prague by plane from Amsterdam at the invitation of Radio Free Europe.^[2] He was arrested at Prague Airport. He was placed in cell in the Pankrác Prison, the same facility where the President of Czech Republic was once detained.

Notwithstanding of strong reaction of public, the Prague Municipal Court sentenced Muhammad Salih to 40 days of imprisonment with the possibility of his further extradition to Uzbekistan.^[3]

The ambassador of Norway, Lasse Seim, was granted permission to visit Salih in prison. The ambassador convinced Salih that Norway was taking all necessary steps in order to release him from prison before the trial. He stressed the importance since the threat of extradition still existed. Muhammad Salih said that he decided to wait the trial. The ambassador was puzzled. He tried to convince Salih that the situation is very precarious and insecure but Salih remained firm in his decision he said: "I'm ready to wait as long as it takes, let the Uzbek side provide all documents of my guilt and let the court pronounce judgement".

The pressure of international public on Czech Republic was growing.^[4]

Peter S. Green, a New York Times columnist, wrote from the Pankrác Prison: “In a whitewashed cell in the Pankrac prison here, the man generally recognized as one of his nation's greatest poets sits behind a scarred formica table, wearing the prison uniform of faded purple sweatsuit and slip-on shoes. High up, a slit of wet sky is visible through the bars of a small window”.^[5]

On December 10, President Václav Havel informed the press about his talks with minister of foreign affairs on Salih's case and that Salih possibly would be released from prison before trial.^[6] And he added : “Maybe it would happen under my guarantee”.^[7] On December 11, President Havel informed the correspondent of Czech News Agency (CTK), that he would meet Salih in Prague Castle and that the President's Office was literally flooded with responses from all over the world in support of Muhammad Salih. On December 12, Muhammad Salih was received in Presidential Palace. The trial was held by Municipal Court on December 14. The Court recognized all the documents provided by Uzbek side as politicized and pronounced the sentence to acquit Muhammad Salih ^[8]

On October 20, 2003, the 5th Congress of “Erk” (Freedom) Party was held in Tashkent,^[9] where National Security Service of Uzbekistan with the help of small group of members of “Birlik” organization under the command of S. Murat attempted to wreck the work of Party's forum. The Congress could conclude his work by adopting the amendments to the Charter and the Program of the Party and election of the leading bodies.

In 2009, on the initiative of Salih, a coalition of opposition forces was established in Uzbekistan, consisting of the “Erk” (Freedom) Party, the organization "Andijan: Justice and Revival" and "Tayanch" (Reliance).

Books

• "The Opponent"
• "Oydinlik sari", 1993, Istanbul, "ERK"
• "Etikodning chorrahasi bolmaydi", 1994, Istanbul"ERK"
• "Ikror", 1995, Istanbul, "ERK")
• "Devlet sirlari" (in Turkish) 1997, Toker
• "Turkistan suuru" (in Turkish 1997, Otuken
• "Agaclar sair olsa", 1997, (in Turkish), Otuken
• "Yolnoma", (in Uzbek) 1999, Istanbul, "ERK"
• "Yolname" (in Turkish) 2002, Istanbul, Оtuken
• "The articles" - 2003, Istanbul, Acun
• "Valfajr" (Konya - 2005)
• "Publisistika, Izdatelstvo Bilgeoguz, Istanbul-2005

References

1. ^ Uzbekistan: Security Service Rebuts Charges It Knew Of Tashkent Bombings In Advance
2. ^ Uzbekistan: Exiled Opposition Leader Detained In Prague
3. ^ Uzbekistan: Opposition Leader Awaits Decision On Possible Extradition
4. ^ RFE/RL Urges Release of Salih
5. ^ Uzbek Poet And Dissident Is Now a Voice In Prague Jail
6. ^ Czech Republic: Uzbek Dissident Released In Prague
7. ^ (СТК, 10.12.2001)
8. ^ Czech Republic: Uzbek Dissident Won't Be Extradited
9. ^ Узбекские силовики и члены "Бирлика" пытались сорвать 5-ый съезд партии "Эрк"

External links

• http://muhammadsalih.com Muhammad Salih's personal blog
• http://uzbekistanerk.com Official site of ERK party
• http://turkiston.tv/ Official site of "13 MAY Union" coalition
• "Freedom of unarmed man" Film about Muhammad Salih (uzbek version)
• "Freedom of unarmed man" Film about Muhammad Salih (Russian version)

Persondata
Name	Salih, Muhammad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 20, 1949
Place of birth	Urgench, Khorezm, Uzbekistan
Date of death
Place of death