Several years ago, stickers appeared on lampposts across east London. “I. Karimov killed Farhad Usmanov,” they read, accusing the president of Uzbekistan of being responsible for the high-profile death in custody of an activist who opposed the despotic Uzbek regime. The stickers later vanished, but thanks to the $32 billion a year cotton industry, Uzbekistan’s bad name is swiftly regaining its previous notoriety.

Talk to anyone about cotton in Uzbekistan and the picture drawn is horrific. Forced child labour picks much of the country’s annual 800,000 tons of cotton exports – Uzbekistan is the second biggest cotton exporter in the world. Uzbekistan is one of the five countries that dominate the global cotton industry, the others being China, the US, India and Pakistan. Of the cotton produced in Uzbekistan, 43% is exported to Asia and 19% to Europe.

The oppressive, crumbling Uzbek government runs the country as a fiefdom for some 20 powerful families. It massacred hundreds of protestors in 2005. Craig Murray, author and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, says Uzbek cotton ends up in one in four cotton garments bought in the UK. Since Ethical Corporation last covered the issue in 2005, it appears conditions in the country have worsened dramatically.

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