US embassy cable - 05DUSHANBE1798

UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001798 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, PHUM, TI 
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN:  FREEDOM HOUSE IN STRATEGIC RETREAT 
 
1.  (SBU)  Primarily due to the ending of its DRL grant, Freedom 
House is shifting its Tajikistan efforts to a local NGO.  Robert 
Freedman, Washington-based Program Director, told the Ambassador 
November 9 that Freedom House did not want its Tajik partners 
and human rights defenders to feel abandoned.  In order to 
maintain a presence, and build on the NGO's successes, local 
staff had founded and registered a new NGO, Freedom, to work 
with the human rights community.  Although DRL funding has 
expired, Freedman said potential donors, especially the 
Institute for Humane Studies, are interested in funding a Tajik 
think tank to allow journalists and scholars to look at domestic 
problems and find domestic solutions. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Freedman observed that Tajikistan provided a great 
deal of "political space" in which human rights workers and 
others met freely and discuss sensitive issues without fear of 
arrest or repercussions from the government. "This would never 
happen in Uzbekistan," he emphasized.  He gave the example of a 
Tajik student who participated in a Freedom House training 
program, and then published an op-ed piece about her positive 
experience.  He did caution that freedom of expression might be 
constrained in the period leading to the November 2006 
Presidential elections. 
 
3.  (SBU)  COMMENT: For a director whose NGO has been 
specifically targeted by the Tajik government, Freedman was 
surprisingly positive about the human rights atmosphere in 
Tajikistan.  However, as pleased as we are that things are not 
as bad as in Uzbekistan, the situation for NGOs in Tajikistan is 
far from good.  We support the notion of establishing a think 
tank in Dushanbe, particularly one focused on economic or legal 
rights, which would fill a need for more focused intellectual 
debate.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
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