European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 7, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Heartland by John Thor Dahlburg the associated press the hot evening air was Laden with yellow dust from the Kara Kum desert when dark eyed Murad Khy Durov was born in a Maple shaded Hospital and swaddled in a Long White cloth. Delivered by midwife Maria Trofimova the infant one of 120,000 born each year in the arid Oil Rich soviet Republic of  tilted his nation s demographic balance a bit More away from the slavic North and toward the moslem South. Sprawling Over an area half the size of the Continental United states and peopled by More than 47 million inhabitants drawn from a Rich Multi hued palette of ethnic groups soviet Central Asia is now Riding a demographic Boom that is making it the country s new heartland. Soviet Kadzhi Kristan alone has More than 30,000 Beme daled hero mothers with 10 or More children each. In  children 14 and younger Are 40 percent of the total population and a majority in some areas. Uzbekistan s overtaxed schools work double shifts. Exactly when Central asians will outnumber their european countrymen is in dispute. But an asian majority that is largely moslem in customs and Rural in lifestyle is forming. As it does it presents difficult problems for the Kremlin leadership which for seven decades has been dominated by slavs and other urbanized europeans. Despite its demographic dynamism Central Asia wields Little political clout on the National scene. None of its natives sits on the politburo the communist party s ruling body nor do Central asians Wield heavy responsibility in the Moscow based Central government. At the same time the Region from the Blond tinted deserts of  to the roof of the soviet Union the Glacier laced peaks of the pamirs in Kadzhi Kristan is wrestling with the demands of Mikhail s. Gorbachev s drive for economic and social change. Statistics show perestroika the Kremlin s Campaign for National economic renewal is making not slow headway in the five republics of soviet Central Asia  Kadzhi Kristan Kazakhstan Kirghizia and Uzbekistan. Before the revolution the Beys and Emir ruled Here says Khadzhi Mahmud Marov an official of the state economic Institute of Kadzhi Kristan. After the revolution the people kept on receiving orders. Most Are villagers and their psychology is attuned to the command  Gorbachev is pushing for tougher educational standards but Central Asia has always lagged behind the rest of the country in schooling and continues to do so. The Kremlin wants to mobilize All labor resources but there Are More Idle hands in the new soviet heartland than anywhere else and they show Little inclination to move where the jobs Are the frigid russian North and Siberia. Central Asia faces burgeoning underemployment due to the rapid population Rise and a cautious program launched last year to promote family planning As a Means of slowing population growth has run into opposition from Many traditionally minded women. In Turke Menia implantation of intrauterine contraceptive devices is free. The technology exists says the health minister Kurban b. Chag Ilov. What we have to do is spread the knowledge and overcome the  abortion and contraceptives Are regarded Here As child killing says or. Yakub t. Tad Kiev a prominent Tadzik Public health specialist. It s almost unheard of for Rural women to use  clashes Between old and new Are common in Central Asia. Marxism co exists Here with islam and sufi mysticism. Rampant corruption and criminal clans not Only survive but flourish. Rockets bearing cosmonauts shoot skyward from the Bai Konur cosm drome on the desolate Steppes of Kazakhstan making Central Asia the soviet Gate to space. But a Lack of water Mains in Many areas forces up a mosque in Bukhara one of 200 in soviet Central Asia. Page 14 the stars and stripes above Uzbekistan women in a Samarkand marketplace and left a newly married kazakh couple outside the wedding Palace in Alma Ata Kazakhstan. At right children in a Tashkent classroom. Besides an increase in schools the people of Central Asia lag behind the rest of the soviet Union in education. Families to draw their drinking water from microbe infested irrigation ditches. Colossal state of the Art dams in mountainous Kadzhi Kristan generate 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to drive sprawling Industrial complexes. But in the Lush Emerald Hills a Bride can still be bought for up to $16,000. Decades of atheistic propaganda by the party government and state sponsored in anime knowledge society As Well As the subjugation of the islamic clergy to the state have failed to shake the Faith of millions of Central asians. Even government officials and members of the communist party pander to obsolete views and take part in moslem rituals Gorbachev noted while on a 1986 tour of Uzbekistan. He ordered such people held strictly to  almost one third of the people in our Republic remain under the control of islam Murod n. Kudo yes Deputy propaganda chief for Kadzhi Kristan s communist party remarked with obvious disapproval. Half of those with a Middle school education see no difference Between the words Tadzik and moslem " still Gorbachev s Rise to Power has tightened the Kremlin s hold on the area. In the three years since he became general Secretary party Bosses in All five republics have been replaced and Many of their underlings sent into political oblivion. One High level ouster showed How the Region s ethnic differences and latent hostility toward the politically dominant russians can flare into violence. In december 1986, Din Muhamed Yunaev a kazakh was fired As party Boss in corruption riddled Kazakhstan and replaced by a russian Gennady Kolbin. Thousands of Young kazakhs rioted in the Republic s capital Alma Ata and went on a two Day rampage of looting and arson in which two people were killed 200 injured and dozens arrested. More commonly though the Central asians co exist with the Large european populations that began flowing southward with the establishment of czarist Power in the 19th Century. But this is not a melting pot. In Dushanbe Kadzhi Kristan s Sycamore dotted capital City of 600,000, Only about 5 percent of the marriages join Tad his and russians. In the Countryside where two thirds of the Republic s 4.8 million people live labourers in the Fields do not understand simple questions in russian. Nevertheless russian is the language of Power and prestige and of local elites. In Tashkent the Region s most populous City with 2.1 million inhabitants there is Only one russian child among the 829 pupils of Middle school no. 9, where instruction is in uzbek. But russian language courses Are mandatory. A s the language of culture and of Contact explains the principal Natalya a. Mamu Tova. In education sanitation and health care the new soviet seems More third world than superpower. In , 55 of every 1 ,000 babies die before their first birthday giving the Swath of desert North of Afghanistan and Iran the soviet Union s highest infant death Rale a figure More than twice the National average of 25 per 1 ,000. Local officials proudly note that although not a single University existed in Central Asia before the 1917 bolshevik revolution Kazakhstan alone now has 275,000 students in its institutions of higher learning but an army general has complained publicly that uzbek school graduates learn so Little in school that they have to be taught in the army to scrub their Teeth and that they Don t understand the simplest orders in russian. In some areas of Central Asia the infant mortality rate is As High As 70 per 1 ,000 live births seven times the . Figure the labor daily trud reported recently. Sunday August 7,1988 the stars and stripes Page 15