Uznews.net – Shovel operator of the Almalyk Mining Combine’s Kalmakir mine Boris Valiyev held a picket on a road leading to Almalyk in Tashkent Region in protest against abuses by the combine’s management and its involvement in thefts of gold ore.

Valiyev demanded that the combine’s Director Aleksandr Farmanov see him to learn about numerous violations at the mine. Valiyev has been trying to make an appointment with the director for a long time.

Angren-based human rights activist Dmitriy Tikhonov, who joined Valiyev’s action, said that for his attempts to publicise violations at the mine Valiyev had faced harassment, his wages had been delayed and he had even been tried for libel.

After failing to see his director to complain about abuses, Valiyev and his friend held a picket near a traffic

Boris Valiyev

police post outside Almalyk on 3 February.

No-one bothered with protesters, even though there were many officers driving past them. The combine’s management did not react to this action either.

Tikhonov said the combine’s management was involved in schemes to steal gold ore from the mine and refine it at home. The management allows outsiders to go down into the mine for few days with their equipment to dig gold, he said. In early December, when illegal gold diggers were caught by a government commission, the prosecutor’s office ordered the detention of the whole night shift – 26 people – which was on duty that night. He added that local jewellers had been involved in legilising gold mined by diggers.

The human rights activist said that the local administration, the prosecutor’s office and police were aware about the scale of gold ore thefts at the combine but they turned a blind eye to this, sometimes offering protection to illegal gold diggers.

This explains as why the authorities ignore the situation with widespread thefts of gold and prefer to stage shows by arresting miners who have nothing to do with thefts. Activists warn that this may lead to all-out strikes of miners.