Jeff Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at the Open Society Foundations, has a letter to the editor in The Washington Post critiquing the statement from a senior State Department official claiming that Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov wants to introduce democratic reforms.

The statement was made during a briefing for the press while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's was visiting Uzbekistan.

The State Department's own reports don't support this premise, nor does a letter from Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake sent to NGOs recently, says Goldstein:

So why does a senior U.S. official now believe Mr. Karimov’s pious statements, against all the evidence of the Uzbek dictator’s past actions and previous official U.S. statements and reports? Is it because the United States needs Karimov to keep supplies flowing to Afghanistan?

UNICEF representatives have been officially invited to Uzbekistan to conduct monitoring of reports of the use of child labor, Radio Ozodlik reported.

Jean-Michel Delmotte, the representative of UNICEF in Tashkent, confirmed that the proposal had come from the government of Uzbekistan, the Russian news agency Regnum reported. Delmotte said that the Uzbek authorities promised to give him comprehensive assistance in organizing monitoring of the problem of child labor.

Publications by WikiLeaks of alleged classified diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Tashkent indicate that UNICEF repeatedly tried to minimize the scale of the problem of forced child labor in Uzbekistan and argued against a boycott, EurasiaNet reported.

UNICEF has not made any comment about the WikiLeaks revelations.

Meanwhile, this year, as in past years child labor in the cotton harvest has been documented by local monitors. The Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan reported that in Kashkadarya province, fifth-graders were taken to harvest the cotton.

"The daily quota is 80-100 kilos. For each harvested kilo, 150 soums (about 5 cents) is paid," Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group told Radio Ozodlik.

It is important to point out that while the Uzbek government decided to invite UNICEF to observe child labor, it has refused to invite an independent monitoring group from the International Labor Organization (ILO), however.

Uzbek authorities also continue to interfere with the monitoring of child labor by Uzbek human rights activists. In Koson district, two human rights activists from Kashkadarya were detained by police for monitoring the use of children in the cotton harvest.

In recent years, more than 60 Western companies have pledged not to buy Uzbek cotton in order to compel the government to cease the use of child labor, Responsible Sourcing Network reports. They include Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer, the Gap, Tesco, Gymboree and others.

The Uzbek government continues to deny that children are forced to work in the harvest.

Recent photos obtained by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights expose the starkly promitive living conditions for children labouring in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.

The photos, taken in October in Kashkadarya region, Uzbekistan show that children as young as 12 are picking cotton and living in primitive conditions for weeks during the harvest.

Uzbek girl, 12, in Kashkadarya
They are forced to sleep together in groups in rooms with only cardboard placed on the floor, with blankets they have brought from home. Their clothes are placed in bags along the wall.

Carboard placed on the floor of spartan sleeping quarters in Kashkadarya.
Girl resting on the floor in cotton harvest, Kashkadarya
For washing up, they have plastic bowls affixed to a log.

The school-children do their own cooking.

Cotton harvest, Kashkadarya
Teachers accompany the children to the fields and work themselves.

Girls in Kashkadarya cotton field.
Children and teacher, Kashkadarya
Girl in cotton fields, Kashkadarya
Somehow, this girl is able to smile despite these primitive and hard working and living conditions in the cotton harvest in Kashkadarya.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed off to Uzbekistan this weekend as part of her tour of Central Asia which included a surprise visit to Afghanistan Thursday.

While chatting with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul yesterday, Clinton took time to joke about a recent humorous incident in the United States, when Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told reporters that he didn't know who the president of "Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan" was -- and didn't think it mattered because it had nothing to do with creating jobs.

Karzai listened to Clinton's anecdote about Cain and commented, "That isn't right, but that's how politics are" (see the video at the Washington Post here.)

Pundits are now endeavoring to explain to Cain just why Uzbekistan's president Islam Karimov is important -- because of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), the supply line to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The US is now intensively engaging with Karimov, a dictator who has held his country in thrall for 22 years, sending thousands of devout Muslims to prison for their religious activity outside of state confines, and jailing dozens of independent journalists and human rights activists for trying to report on the massive human rights violations.

Recently the Obama Administration persuaded the Senate Appropriations Committee to lift restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan, in place for 7 years over severe human rights problems in Uzbekistan, in order to help bolster the NDN, proffered to Uzbekistan as an opportunity to build stability and prosperity in a new US-backed "Silk Road".

Alarmed at what they saw as an abandonment of principles, US human rights activists appealed to Clinton in September to raise Uzbekistan's many human rights problems of political imprisonment, torture, suppression of the media, and forced child labor in the cotton industry. Labor unions and rights groups also picketed a high-profile conference at the American Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce of State Department officials, visiting Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev, and American corporations doing business in Uzbekistan such as Honeywell and General Motors.

Clinton is scheduled to visit the General Motors plant in Tashkent during her visit.

On the eve of her visit, again a coalition of human rights advocates, labor unions, retailers and investors addressed an appeal to Clinton, urging her to raise with the Uzbek government its failure to admit a delegation of the ILO into Uzbekistan to inspect the cotton fields. Andrew Strohlein of the International Crisis Group has called the Uzbekistan's mobilization of students to pick cotton, documented extensively this year by Uzbek human rights monitors, "The world's largest state-run program of forced child labour."

Just as the activists' new appeal went out, the State Department responded with an answer to their past letter of September 27. In a letter obtained by EurasiaNet dated October 18, Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs replied that the Department of State "actively seeks to improve Uzbekistan's democratic and civil society development and its record on human rights" yet implies that "national security interests" must take priority:

Congress has prohibited the use of foreign assistance funds for assistance to the central Government of Uzbekistan unless the Secretary of State determines and reports to Congress that Uzbekistan is making substantial and continuing progress on specific issues related to promotion of democracy and respect for internationally recognized human rights. We have not thought it appropriate up to this point to provide such a certification, and have continued to provide limited assistance that involves working with Uzbek government institutions -- in such areas as counternarcotics, health, and nonproliferation -- by using certain available notwithstanding authorities and in consultation with Congress.

The Department of State remains concerned over continued reports of the Uzbek government's widespread use of forced child and adult labor in the centrally managed cotton harvest, including the harvest that is being conducted now. I and other Department principals raise this issue frequently with the government, including our urging the government to allow credible, outside parties (such as the International Labor Organization) to monitor the cotton harvest.

"Currently, the statutory restriction cannot be waived on national security grounds," nevertheless Blake explains. The new legislation would give the Secretary of State authority to waive the restriction as "in the national security interest of the United States" -- although currently the draft legislation mandates six-month reporting to review possible corruption in contracts, and an annual human rights examination. The purpose, says Blake, is to "provide defensive non-lethal equipment to enhance Uzbekistan’s ability to protect its border with Afghanistan, through which cargo destined for U.S. forces flows."

In a press conference following her meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev, Clinton claimed that Uzbekistan seemed to be making progress.. Human rights groups were puzzled, as they couldn't see the improvements or even what State could have meant by them. Blake now actually contradicts this in his letter:

This limited waiver and the provision of defensive border protection equipment to Uzbekistan would not in any way diminish our efforts to encourage respect for human rights in Uzbekistan. It also does not state that we think Uzbekistan has made substantial or adequate progress to date.

According to the Uzbek government, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the United States grew from $100.3 million in January-June 2010 to $131.5 million in the same period of 2011. So the amounts of trade are not large, and the military component more symbolic than anything. Nevertheless, it's a victory in the Uzbek government's quest for legitimacy, and it remains to be seen whether the US can leverage Tashkent's desire for international respectibility into some actual human rights progress -- or even some of those jobs Herman Cain was concerned about.

This article first appeared on the Choihona blog at EurasiaNet.

Advocates against the use of forced child labour in Uzbekistan spoke out again today in an appeal to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the eve of her trip to Central Asia.

Twenty representatives of American trade unions, labor and human rights groups, investors, brands and retailers called on Secretary Clinton to raise with Uzbek President Islam Karimov the need to permit the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to enter Uzbekistan to inspect conditions in the cotton fields.

Reliable reports indicate year that as many as 1.5 million children are removed from school and forced to work in the harvest.

The letter indicates that a number of years of dialogue have gone on with the Uzbek government about these concerns without action:

We do recognize this is a complex problem that will require time to address.  However, we note with grave concern that the steps we had supported three years ago as the first and simplest 'good faith' measures that might have been taken by the Government of Uzbekistan have, to date, not been taken.

Uzbek human rights monitors and journalists have reported numerous instances this year of children as young as 8 and 10 picking cotton, with many students aged 12-14,  below the allowable standard for some types of labour. They have also uncovered confirmation that Uzbek state officials deliberately mobilize students through coercion and threats and plan for their exploitation in the annual cotton harvest.

Clinton is touring through Asia to bolster ties with regional powers involved in supplying troops in Afghanistan. She made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan today. The Secretary plans to visit the General Motors plant in Tashkent.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

October 19, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Department of State
via fax

Dear Secretary Clinton,

We represent a broad, international coalition of human rights organizations,  trade unions ,  brands and  retailers, investors,  industry associations  and other nongovernmental organizations  brought together by our common concern over  continued use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan .   We understand you will be visiting Uzbekistan shortly, and urge you to make a priority of this issue in any discussions with the Uzbek government.

As you are aware, your visit also coincides with the opening of the fall harvest in Uzbekistan,  when an estimated 1 1/2  million children  are compelled  to pick cotton.   Recent spot reports and photographs circulated by activists within Uzbekistan have documented that children as young as 8 are currently being removed from school and forced to participate in the cotton harvest.  The spot reports indicate that, despite cosmetic measures by the Uzbek government to respond to international concerns, the practice of widespread mobilization of children and youths continues unabated in the current harvest.

We have appreciated the opportunity to communicate these concerns directly with you, and with senior staff at the State Department, over the past three years, and look forward to further engagement with the Department on this important issue, particularly in the run-up to the 2012 International Labor Conference. We do recognize this is a complex problem that will require time to address.  However, we note with grave concern that the steps we had supported three years ago as the first and simplest 'good faith' measures that might have been taken by the Government of Uzbekistan have, to date, not been taken.

We continue to believe that the only step that can truly demonstrate that the government in Taskhent is interested in making significant efforts to address this problem is for it to invite the International Labour Organization (ILO) to send a high level observer mission, as recommended by the ILO's Committee on the Application of Standards, to assess child labor in Uzbekistan during the cotton harvest.  As you are aware, for the second year since this recommendation was first put forward, the Government of Uzbekistan has refused to allow such a mission, even though this would have been a natural follow-on to Uzbekistan's ratification of the ILO's child labor conventions.

We urge you to indicate that unless the Government of Uzbekistan takes this key step, and thereby demonstrates a willingness to make significant efforts to combat forced child labor, they risk a downgrade to Tier III on the State Department's Trafficking in Persons list, and the consequences that may trigger.

We appreciate the opportunity to share with you our ongoing concern with forced child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton production, and look forward to further engagement with the Department on this important issue.

Sincerely,

American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA)
AFL-CIO
American Federation of Teachers
Anti-Slavery International
Boston Common Asset Management
Calvert Asset Management
CREA:  Center for Reflection, Action and Education
Child Labor Coalition
Fair Labor Association
Human Rights Watch
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
International Labor Rights Forum
National Consumers League
National Retail Federation
Responsible Sourcing Network
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Open Society Foundations
Social Accountability International (SAI)
U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA)
United States Council for International Business

Organizations working in the campaign against forced child labour have estimated the number of children working in the cotton fields to be from 1.5 million to 2 million. These estimates were made on the basis of extrapolation of numbers based on surveys of limited areas. Recently, two new sources became available which help confirm these figures and indicate in fact the number may be higher.

Uzbekistan is a closed society with an authoritarian regime where independent local and international monitors are heavily discouraged, and the media is not free to report critically without reprisals. Uzbekistan has not permitted the International Labour Organisation to enter the country and monitor the cotton harvest to determine the ages of people working and the conditions of their work.

Therefore, past estimates have had to rely on studies of some provinces and extrapolation from available known data

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London has published studies of the use of children in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan for a number of years. The latest study was based on past reports that were updated in 2010. Based on a survey of some areas, SOAS was able to estimate the number of children used in the cotton harvest:

Based on the survey of six districts, and extrapolating on the basis of further evidence, the conclusion was that ‘[p]ractically all school children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old (from 5th to 9th grades) in rural areas and small towns (district centres) were being recruited for the cotton harvest’ (SOAS, 2009: 19). This equates to about 2.4 million children in the 5th–9th grades and means that children picked an estimated 40–50% of the total cotton harvest.

In August of this year, a number of cables alleged to have been obtained from diplomatic sources by the activist group WikiLeaks were published. The release of these cables began in November 2010 and have continued throughout the year, culminating in the largest batch. Among these cables are numerous reports from the US embassy on its meetings with Uzbek officials and representatives of UNICEF regarding the issue of forced child labor.

In a cable dated June 6, 2008, the US Embassy in Tashkent quoted the figure supplied by the state-controlled trade union:

According to a knowledgeable source, the Trade Union of Uzbekistan (a quasi-governmental organization) estimated in 2008 that 1.64 million school-age children were involved in agricultural work, including cotton picking, representing 45 percent of the total number of Uzbek schoolchildren in grades 5 to 11.

Since most of the agricultural work performed by school-children in Uzbekistan relates to the cotton industry, it is safe to say that the 1.64 million children referenced here are involved in cotton-picking.

This cable also mentions non-governmental groups inside the country who have estimated that anywhere from several hundred thousands to 2 million children could be involved in harvesting cotton. In defense of argumentation that there are less children employed than previously, the cable notes the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey performed by UNICEF, a study that was later acknowledged by UNICEF to be flawed. The cable author as well notes that the survey was conducted in March and May 2006, and thus did not capture the use of children during the fall cotton harvest period from September through November.

Although this cable conceded both the NGO estimates of one million and even referenced the official trade union figure of 1.64, in a subsequent cable, a US diplomat contradicted the Embassy's own previous assessments and claimed that NGO figures were not reliable.

NGOs have continued to press for the entry of the ILO into Uzbekistan, and to gather information about forced labor.

This season, there was a breakthrough when monitors inside Uzbekistan were able to get a hold of a document that indirectly confirms the numbers of children mobilized in one region.

The Paris-based group Association Droits de l’Homme en Asie Centrale (the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, AHRCA) recently was able to obtain an official government document that indicates plans by the authorities to send as many as 170,000 school-children to pick cotton in the Khorezm region.

The document -- an official press release -- is said to demonstrate the wide-scale involvement of the state bureaucracy in both coercing children and adults to pick cotton, and punishing them if they fail to obey orders.

The press-release, prepared by the Khorezm region Interior Ministry, stated:

In order to have a quality harvest, in the 2011 harvest, we will have a short time frame to mobilize cotton-pickers, a total of 202,641 people, including 34,800 students from colleges, and high schools. 463 temporary residences (302 field barracks), 109 civilian housing units, 52 tents, etc., have been prepared for their accommodation

This type of press release is typically distributed among local mass media and to the participants of staff meetings held nearly every evening during the cotton season at the offices of provincial and district authorities.

As AHRCA points out, if the authorities have given the total of 202,641 in their province, and the 34,800 college students are subtracted from that figure, the remainder is 167,841 people -- and these are likely to be even younger students.

(In Uzbekistan, where children attend school for 10 years, "college" means a high-school level vocational school or academy for older teens).

While there is only an indirect indication that this figure of nearly 170,000 is a reference to school-age children, it's very likely that for the purposes of planning, this is what is intended, since officials would know the exact number of students enrolled. If the reference was to day laborers, for example, the figure could only be approximate as the large number of labor migrants abroad and the numbers of those returning to Uzbekistan are fluid. If the reference was to teachers or other state employees, they would have been mentioned as a category of people.

Based on the figure of 170,000 out of the population of Khorezm, which constitutes 6% of all 13 cotton-producing regions of Uzbekistan, the likely number of schoolchildren mobilized to pick cotton throughout the country is then estimated at 2,797,350 persons, or at the very least, 2.5 million people.

The document also outlines the coercive nature of the cotton industry:

The subjects of this forced labor are not only schoolchildren and students, but the farmers themselves. Criminal proceedings are brought against those who plant anything other than cotton in their fields, such as more profitable crops, or those who allow livestock to graze in their fields. Two typical details from the press release of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

1) "As a result of measures taken by law enforcement bodies, we have identified 230 cases of rice cultivation without permission, and among them 222 cases at farms and 8 cases of partial allotments, a total of 941 hectares...According to these facts, materials were prepared and brought to the courts to take action in accordance with the law."

2) "...On June 2, 2011 in the village of Boshkirshik, Yangibazar district, in the cotton field at the Istikbol Farm owned by Atadjanov Saparboy (date of birth: 09/30/1956), a cow trampled 293 cotton bushes on a 95.4 square kilometer area."

For this "offense," the farmer's cow was confiscated, slaughtered, and the meat was turned over to other agencies.

"This document demonstrates that the government of Uzbekistan does not intend to change anything in the command economy established in the cotton industry, with its usual practice of mass forced labor of workers sent to pick cotton each autumn," says AHRCA.

"In our view, the only way to persuade the Uzbek government to stop the Stalinist practice of forced labor is to conduct a boycott of its cotton and textiles," says AHRCA.

AHRCA has called upon the European Parliament to reject pending legislation that would give preferential tariffs for Uzbek textiles exported to Europe and to abolish the Generalized System of Preferences for Uzbek cotton and textiles.

A young Uzbek schoolboy returning home at night from the cotton fields where he had laboured all day was struck by a car and seriously injured last month, and remains in a coma, the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) reports.

Bakhodir Pardaev, age 13, a 7th-grader at School No. 24 in the Chirakchi district in  Kashkadarya province was run over by a car in mid-September while returning home with other schoolchildren from the cotton fields, AHRCA reports.

Human rights monitors have condemned the practice of forced child labour in Uzbekistan, and have repeatedly warned about the poor conditions middle-school children must work in. Accidents like this have happened before as groups of children are compelled to walk along highways at night from the fields.

Bakhodir was struck by a car at the 12th kilometer of the Hirakchi-Karshi highway driven by Bakhtiyor Yakhshiboev. With Bakhktiyor in the vehicle was his brother, Jalol Yakhshiboev, who happens to be a reporter at the Kashkadarya provincial state television station.

Bakhodir was sent in September along with his classmates to pick cotton at the Sokhibkor Farm owned by Usanov Eshdavlat located several kilometers from his school.

The boy was rushed to the local emergency room with a ruptured spinal cord, a fracture of his right jaw, a broken arm and leg and injury to the right side of his upper body. He has remained in a coma, and was eventually transferred to the neurological ward at the Karshi provincial hospital on September 26.

Makhbuba Ergasheva, the mother of Bakhodir, called on the local prosecutor to launch an investigation into the accident, but no action has been taken.

According to local sources, the journalist enjoys the protection of the local khokim or mayor, Nuriddin Zainiev, and authorities may be blocking an investigation into the accident caused by the journalist's brother.

National Security Service officers have been guarding the hospital to prevent any leak of information about the condition of the boy, and the heartbroken parents have been forbidden to contact human rights defenders or independent journalists, says AHRCA.

Tashkent's 6th international cotton and textile fair opened this week, and Uzbekistan's state media trumpeted the event, initiated by President Islam Karimov, as a triumph of the national economy and the dictator's "Uzbek model of reform" practiced for the last 20 years since independence.

Once again, the government web site gov.uz trotted out figures claiming a stunning growth of the GDP -- numbers that are difficult to check given heavy state control over information and persecution of independent journalists.

The event is not only a source of a good chunk of Uzbekistan's foreign currency revenue -- Tashkent took in $500 million in orders last year and expects more this year -- it also serves to further glorify the state:

"The Conception for further deepening of democratic reforms and formation of civil society in our country designed by our head of state has opened up a new stage of democratic market reforms and liberalization of the economy," gushed the government website."

Yet agriculture remains under state control as it did in the Soviet era, with farmers forced to meet state quotas and sell their cotton at fixed prices. With the high price of cotton and the drought in Uzbekistan this year, farmers have been pressured more than ever by local administrators.

Some farmers in Surkhandarya last month who were unable to produce their state quotas were thrown in jail, and sadly one man, Ismail Turanazarov, committed suicide. He left a note that he was unable to get fuel or a loan for his crops -- an all too common story, according to human rights monitors in Uzbekistan. State propaganda claims that farmers can get favorable loans to develop their land, but activists report that many banks are corrupt and officers loan only to government officials and their relatives.

The monitors also report widespread use of children as young as 10 and 12 in the fields, in the 5th through 7th grades, laboring alongside their teachers in many cases and exposed to cold, lack of food, dust, and pesticides. Through great risks, activists have been able to get out numerous pictures and videos documenting the exploitation of children and adults.

Such conditions have prompted human rights and labor groups to look for various ways to publicize the issue, including at a picket of President Karimov's daughter Gulnara when her designs were shown on a Manhattan runway. More than 60 companies and an apparels trade association have now pledged not to source their cotton in Uzbekistan. Yet most of them are from the US and European Union; 330 other companies from 38 countries around the world showed up at the Tashkent Cotton Fair this year -- as the government boasts -- 30 more than last year.

Does that mean that the boycotts don't make a difference and can't make a dent in the demand? Uzbekistan in fact has forged new trading partnerships with Pakistan this year as floods reduced the harvest last year, and has enjoyed increasing cooperation with South Asian countries.

Yet from the state propaganda, it’s clear the regime craves legitimacy, and that can be a lever for change. A centerpiece of the gov.uz article (only in the Russian edition ) is mention of Christian Schindler of Germany, director of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation; Ray Butler of the International Cotton Association and other traders who were portrayed as praising their partnership with Uzbekistan and its great prospects at the fair. These are the kinds of people that activists are increasingly reaching.

Even without an immediately visible impact, the boycott seems justified as a moral task, and one that activists don't seem to expect to work instantly. Already, some results have become apparent. The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee voted to end favorable tariffs for Uzbekistan under their trade agreement, and the International Trade Committee will vote on the issue November 22.

Uzbekistan is sensitive enough to world public opinion that it ratified the International Labor Organization's conventions against child and forced labor, and has lurched between saying there is no forced labor, to saying that it is successfully monitoring and eradicating it -- although the conditions have not been verified as Tashkent has not permitted an ILO inspection team to enter the country.

This article first appeared on Choihona blog at EurasiaNet.

Tashkent's 6th international cotton and textile fair opened this week, and Uzbekistan's state media trumpeted the event, initiated by President Islam Karimov, as a triumph of the national economy and the dictator's "Uzbek model of reform" practiced for the last 20 years since independence.

Once again, the government web site gov.uz trotted out figures claiming a stunning growth of the GDP -- numbers that are difficult to check given heavy state control over information and persecution of independent journalists.

The event is not only a source of a good chunk of Uzbekistan's foreign currency revenue -- Tashkent took in $500 million in orders last year and expects more this year -- it also serves to further glorify the state:

"The Conception for further deepening of democratic reforms and formation of civil society in our country designed by our head of state has opened up a new stage of democratic market reforms and liberalization of the economy," gushed the government website."

Yet agriculture remains under state control as it did in the Soviet era, with farmers forced to meet state quotas and sell their cotton at fixed prices. With the high price of cotton and the drought in Uzbekistan this year, farmers have been pressured more than ever by local administrators.

Some farmers in Surkhandarya last month who were unable to produce their state quotas were thrown in jail, and sadly one man, Ismail Turanazarov, committed suicide. He left a note that he was unable to get fuel or a loan for his crops -- an all too common story, according to human rights monitors in Uzbekistan. State propaganda claims that farmers can get favorable loans to develop their land, but activists report that many banks are corrupt and officers loan only to government officials and their relatives.

The monitors also report widespread use of children as young as 10 and 12 in the fields, in the 5th through 7th grades, laboring alongside their teachers in many cases and exposed to cold, lack of food, dust, and pesticides. Through great risks, activists have been able to get out numerous pictures and videos documenting the exploitation of children and adults.

Such conditions have prompted human rights and labor groups to look for various ways to publicize the issue, including at a picket of President Karimov's daughter Gulnara when her designs were shown on a Manhattan runway. More than 60 companies and an apparels trade association have now pledged not to source their cotton in Uzbekistan. Yet most of them are from the US and European Union; 330 other companies from 38 countries around the world showed up at the Tashkent Cotton Fair this year -- as the government boasts -- 30 more than last year.

Does that mean that the boycotts don't make a difference and can't make a dent in the demand? Uzbekistan in fact has forged new trading partnerships with Pakistan this year as floods reduced the harvest last year, and has enjoyed increasing cooperation with South Asian countries.

Yet from the state propaganda, it’s clear the regime craves legitimacy, and that can be a lever for change. A centerpiece of the gov.uz article (only in the Russian edition ) is mention of Christian Schindler of Germany, director of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation; Ray Butler of the International Cotton Association and other traders who were portrayed as praising their partnership with Uzbekistan and its great prospects at the fair. These are the kinds of people that activists are increasingly reaching.

Even without an immediately visible impact, the boycott seems justified as a moral task, and one that activists don't seem to expect to work instantly. Already, some results have become apparent. The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee voted to end favorable tariffs for Uzbekistan under their trade agreement, and the International Trade Committee will vote on the issue November 22.

Uzbekistan is sensitive enough to world public opinion that it ratified the International Labor Organization's conventions against child and forced labor, and has lurched between saying there is no forced labor, to saying that it is successfully monitoring and eradicating it -- although the conditions have not been verified as Tashkent has not permitted an ILO inspection team to enter the country.

This article first appeared on Choihona blog at EurasiaNet.

Uzbekistan is reporting sales of some $550 million worth of cotton and textiles at the two-day International Cotton and Textile Fair held in Tashkent, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports.

Some 330 companies from 38 countries reportedly sent representatives to the fair and those representatives bought a reported 600,000 tons of Uzbek cotton and textile products on October 12-13.

Uzbek media reported that China's Xinjiang Group of Agricultural Resources and Tianzhan Cotton Exchange, Elma Yarn of Bangladesh, Vinotex of Vietnam, Toeshima of Japan, Arta Tejarat Zamin of Iran, Falcon of Turkey, Miad General Trading of the United Arab Emirates, Tirotex of Moldova, Russia's TransSpecProm, and Bellegprom of Belarus were the major purchasers at the fair.

Many international companies stayed away from the fair: more than 60 worldwide have announced a boycott of Uzbek cotton, which rights groups say is often picked by children in violation of child-labor laws.

There are also many reports of secondary and university students along with some professionals being "volunteered" to harvest cotton instead of attending school or working.

The campaign against purchasing Uzbek cotton has seen increased support among Western companies in recent years with well-known brands such as Burberry, Levi's, H&M, and others publicly vowing to avoid knowingly buy it.

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.