I do not call you to die for the homeland. I call you to live for the homeland. To live for the homeland is not to be afraid of dying for it...
Muhammed SALIH
Muhammad Salih
(Biography)
Muhammad Salih was born in the Khorezm Region of north-west Uzbekistan on 20th December, 1949.
He served in the Soviet Army from 1968 to 1970. He was among the contingent of the Soviet Army which was deployed to Czechoslovakia in the Spring of 1968. The occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets and the resistance of Czech people changed Muhammad Salih’s vision of the Soviet Union in general and the Communist system in particular.
After leaving the army, Muhammad Salih became a student of the Faculty of Journalism at Tashkent State University.
In the 1970s, he was recognised by literary critics as a leader of the stream of young metaphorists – which was a new tendency in Soviet literature. Metaphorists rejected the theory of socialist realism, which declared Communist ideology as the main source of art. Soviet literary critics denounced Muhammad Salih and his followers as anti-communists.
At the beginning of the 1980s, Muhammad Salih attended High Literature Courses in Moscow. After completing of the Courses, he worked as a screenwriter in Uzbekistan. He was the screenwriter of the historical movie ‘The Golden Head of the Avenger’ based on the true story of a national hero who fights against Russian colonialism.
In 1984, Muhammad Salih wrote an open letter to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In this letter (‘Letter To The Politbureau’), he called the policy of Communist Party as anti-Uzbek and demanded a halt to discrimination against Uzbek culture and to the harassment of Uzbek intelligentsia protecting national identity. The letter was signed by 56 poets and writers. In fact, this was the first open action by the Uzbek political dissidents. The Politibureau responded angrily to the letter, banning all publications of Muhammad Salih and his followers.
On 6th November 1988, ‘The New York Times’ published an interview with Muhammad Salih, during which he called Moscow’s policy a colonialist one. Following the interview, the Communist Party’s leaders began a hate campaign against Muhammad Salih, threatening him with arrest and prosecution. But series of student demonstrations in support of Muhammad Salih organised in Tashkent forced the authorities to change their mind.
In 1988, Muhammad Salih was elected by the poets and writers as Chairman of the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan. Muhammad Salih was the first anti-communist official to hold office at such a high level.
Later the same year, Muhammad Salih founded ‘Birlik’ (Unity), the first opposition movement in Uzbekistan. The movement soon organised a series of mass demonstrations against discrimination of Uzbek language, cotton monoculture and environmental policy.
During this period Muhammad Salih became extremely popular among young people and the intelligentsia.
In 1990, Muhammad Salih set up ‘Erk’, the first political party in Uzbekistan, which declared independence from the Soviet Union to be its first political goal.
In March 1990 he was elected to the Uzbek Supreme Assembly (Parliament).
His first initiative as a Member of Parliament was the project for the Declaration of Independence.
With many independent MPs on its side, Erk became the main challenger to the Communist Party [in Uzbekistan].
During the coup d’etat attempt in Moscow in August 1991, Muhammad Salih (despite being under house arrest) sent a telegram to Boris Yeltsin condemning the coup d’etat and expressing his full support against the coup leaders.
The Communist leader of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who initially supported the coup attempt, later changed sides and announced the independence of Uzbekistan.
Muhammad Salih stood as a candidate in the first presidential elections in independent Uzbekistan, which took place in December 1990. They were neither free nor democratic.
According to the official results, Muhammad Salih gained 12.7% of votes. But the state radio in its news bulletin announced that 33 per cent of voters supported Muhammad Salih. Later the editor of the radio was sacked.
On 16th January 1992, tens of thousands of students demonstrated to demand the cancellation of the election results and the holding of a new election. On the orders of President Karimov, the government troops opened fire on the demonstrators, killing at least two students.
Soon after the incident, Karimov’s regime launched a campaign against the Uzbek opposition. In protest at the government’s repressive policy towards the opposition and democracy, Muhammad Salih left Parliament.
President Karimov offered Muhammad Salih the post of Prime Minister in return for the dissolution of the Democratic Forum. Muhammad Salih rejected the offer.
In June 1992, Muhammad Salih was arrested by order of President Karimov and put in an Interior Ministry jail. After three days, the government was forced to release him under strong pressure from the international community, including the US and British governments. But Muhammad Salih was then placed under house arrest. Soon after, Muhammad Salih left Uzbekistan in order to continue his political activity. He has been living in exile since then.
After several explosions in Tashkent in Feburary 1999, the Karimov government accused him of organising an attempt on the President’s life and arrested many members of the Erk Party, including Salih’s three brothers. Salih himself was sentenced in absentia to 15½ years imprisonment. However, international observers say that the court failed to present any evidence of the involvement of Muhammad Salih.
In December 2001, while Muhammad Salih was in Prague at the invitation of US-funded radio station Radio Liberty, the Czech authorities arrested him on an Interpol warrant issued by the Uzbek authorities. The Uzbek government requested his extradition, but the court in Prague threw out the request and released Muhammad Salih. After his release, Muhammad Salih was received by the then President of Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. During the meeting, the Czech President promised his full support for the democratic movement of Uzbekistan.
n August 2005, Muhammad Salih has set up the National Salvation Committee which united almost all the democratic forces and groups in Uzbekistan and outside.
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