Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan has emerged as the regional power in Central Asia, partly because of its relatively large population, extensive natural resources, cohesive military and the dominant authoritarian regime of President Islam Karimov. However, the country is beset with serious environmental problems that adversely effect the life and health of its citizens. It has widespread poverty and unemployment.

Use of water from the Aral Sea for irrigation has led to 60-percent salination of cropland. Poisonous dust and salt clouds, compounded by the recent three-year drought, continue to affect the health of local residents. The Aral Sea remains one of the world's worst socio-environmental disasters. Additional problems include water pollution from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides and soil contamination from agricultural chemicals.

Political opposition is suppressed and although the Uzbek parliament in 1998 approved constitutional measures to promote press freedom, the media remains 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.

Located along the ancient silk trading routes, Uzbekistan was conquered by Genghis Khan in the thirteenth and Timur (Tamerlane) in the fourteenth century. By the late 1800s, the territory had been incorporated into the Russian empire. The Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic was established in 1924, and its eastern region was made a separate Tajik Soviet republic five years later. Independence came in 1991. The armed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has threatened to create an Islamic state in the region, has operated out of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, reportedly with support from Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. The IMU sometimes attracts sympathy from dispossessed and impoverished people, particularly in the south and the eastern Ferghana Valley. The IMU reportedly controls lucrative narcotics routes throughout Central Asia.

Uzbekistan hosts thousands of refugees from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and other countries. The Tajik refugees are largely ethnic Uzbeks. The legacy of large-scale Soviet era farming schemes has had dire implications for the four million people who live downstream.

Uzbekistan is the world's fourth-largest producer of cotton and the world's second-largest exporter, accounting for about 45 percent of the country's exports. Minerals and mining are another foundation of Uzbekistan's economy. The country is the world's seventh largest producer of gold and holds the fourth largest reserves.

According to the Manila-based Asia Development Bank, the Gross Domestic Product growth in 2001 at 4.5 percent was marginally higher than in 2000. The government envisages GDP growth at 5.1 percent in 2002 but this may not be realized given the global economic environment, continuing softness in international commodity prices, and the short term impact of the government's economic policy changes.

Links to other sources

Interactive Central Asia Resource Project

US Committee for Refugees

US State Department Background Notes