5 Image: Uzbekistan’s Minister of Agriculture Jamshid Khodjaev with the president of Indorama Group, Sri Prakash Lohia, in Tashkent, 4 October 2019 Source: Ozodlik 2.4.5 Case study five: Akaltin district On 8 August 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree granting 50,000 hectares of land for cotton production to Indorama Agro LLC, in return for investments by the international textile firm of $340 million.174 The decree also instructs hokimiyats in the Kashkadarya and Syrdarya regions to acquire the land for the proposed project. According to the EBRD’s impact assessment report on the project: ‘Before the Project, 2,897 cotton farms operated in the Project footprint. In total 1,155 cotton farms were approached by the Government in the land acquisition process and 1,068 farms agreed to terminate their LLAs [Land Lease Agreements] while 87 farms decided to continue their own operation.’175 The assessment continues: ‘Phase I farmers who agreed to terminate their respective LLAs (1,068 farmers in total) were offered to join FE “Indorama Agro” LLC and work full time based on long-term labour contracts. Approximately 45% of the farmers (or 481 people) who terminated their LLAs agreed to join FE “Indorama Agro” LLC and are now working in the Company.’ The report notes: ‘The Government representatives (namely the Hokimiyat) provided no cash compensation for the transfer of land of the farms from LLAs to the Company, because they considered that provision of land was willingly done (namely that it is considered “voluntary” via the legal framework).’ According to impacted farmers, however, the land was transferred by hokimiyats to the company without regard for the long-term leases that farmers had and without meaningful prior consultations or compensation from the state for the unilateral termination of their land leases. Farmers state that they were forced by officials to sign “voluntary” statements to terminate their land leases. In many cases, farmers did not have copies of their land leases, which were held by hokimiyats. Uzbek Forum for Human Rights has conducted monitoring of the Indorama project since 2019 and interviewed dozens of farmers and project-affected persons in Akaltin, Sardoba, Nishon and Kasbi districts where Indorama Agro operates. Because of repeated incidents of retaliations against Indorama farmworkers and other stakeholders who speak out or speak to international organisations, all names of farmers and their farms have been withheld in the interests of their safety. 54 A False Sense of Legality