US embassy cable - 05DUSHANBE2004

UNCLAS  DUSHANBE 002004 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, RS, TI, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN:  THE GRINCH WHO STOLE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 
 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  To celebrate Human Rights Day 2005, Post 
planned for a roundtable discussion with Tajik students on the 
Department's annual Human Rights Report.  Initially, the 
selected venue was Dushanbe's premier university, the 
Russia-funded Russian-Tajik Slavonic University.  After 
complications, Post changed the location to the Tajik Technical 
University.  In both cases the rectors, teachers, and students 
showed desire and excitement to meet with EmbOffs to discuss 
Human Rights.  In both cases, the Russian Embassy and the Tajik 
MFA returned the next day with fabricated excuses that canceled 
the planned discussions.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (SBU) With few native English speakers in Tajikistan, 
university students, faculty members, and rectors alike relish 
the opportunity to meet with EmbOffs to discuss all manner of 
issues.  The students are typically energetic, opinionated, and 
willing to discuss sensitive issues that their government 
brethren smile at politely and ignore.  Russian-Tajik Slavonic 
University students have been particularly amenable in the past 
to such forums and, though often dramatically pro-Russian in 
their views, are always willing to debate and discuss.  When the 
idea for a student-focused Human Rights roundtable came up, they 
were the first students that Post thought of. 
 
3.  (SBU) Slavonic's Deputy Rector, editor of independent weekly 
"Biznis i Politika," and an active partner with Post's PAS, 
Rahmon Ulmasov, initially welcomed the idea and began planning 
for the discussion.  He asked for our assistance to clear the 
event with the Public Affairs section of the Russian Embassy. 
(NOTE:  Russian-Tajik Slavonic University is funded directly 
from the Russian Duma, and the Russian Embassy acts as the final 
decision-maker on such events.  END NOTE.)  Post's PAS contacted 
their colleagues in the Russian Embassy and also received a 
positive first reaction.  Ulmasov called back the next day, 
however, and coyly informed PAS that due to a VIP visit from 
Russia, the students would not be able to meet on Monday, the 
scheduled discussion day.  PAS demurred and asked to do it later 
in the week, at their convenience.  Ulmasov responded, "The 
students will be busy then too."  PAS got the hint. 
 
4.  (SBU) PAS next turned to Tajik Technical University and its 
rector, father of a FLEX student who also worked at Post, 
quickly agreed to a Human Rights discussion, set aside a lecture 
hall for the event, and informed students from the International 
Relations and Economics Departments.  All he asked was for an 
okay from the Tajik MFA.  Post sent a request simply for a 
"discussion with students" and followed up with a call to the 
MFA's Embassy contact, Ismat Nasredinov, who yet again gave an 
initial go ahead for the event, albeit without knowing the topic 
of the discussion.  With everything in motion, Post finally 
believed it had arranged a workable Human Rights roundtable. 
 
5.  (SBU) Though the day before Post was in the clear, the next 
day, the Tajik MFA sent a diplomatic note informing Post that 
Monday the students would be too busy for a roundtable 
discussion "to be postponed until the beginning of 2006."  PAS 
called Tajik Technical University to inquire what happened and 
find out how the decision that the students were "too busy" came 
from the MFA rather than their own rector.  The rector informed 
PAS that he had been called several times by people within the 
government and told to postpone the event indefinitely. 
 
6.  (SBU) Post protested to the MFA with the following 
diplomatic note in response to this heavy-handed, even if 
lightly worded, refusal to discuss Human Rights with Tajik 
students. 
 
Begin text: 
 
(Complimentary opening)  The Embassy expresses its astonishment 
and sharp disappointment that certain elements of the Government 
of the Republic of Tajikistan on December 9 ordered the rector 
 
of Tajik Technical University to cancel a roundtable discussion 
between students and U.S. diplomats planned for December 12 to 
mark the annual United Nations-sponsored World Human Rights Day. 
 While this kind of heavy-handed action might be expected from 
another country in the region, it is unworthy of a progressive 
state like the Republic of Tajikistan.  (Complimentary closing) 
 
End text. 
 
7.  (SBU) COMMENT.  PAS, as arranged with the university 
previously, went ahead and delivered English and Russian copies 
of the Tajikistan section of the 2004 Human Rights Report to the 
students who were scheduled to meet on Monday as 
"English-language material."  In general, Tajikistan is not 
Uzbekistan, and when the mood permits we are allowed to meet 
with students, discuss sensitive issues, and distribute such 
things as the Department's Human Rights Report.  And in this 
Human Rights Report season, Post will be sure to include such 
moves against openness in this year's update - and inform our 
MFA colleagues, mindful of reports on Tajikistan, that 
Tajikistan's reputation is built for better or worse, on 
seemingly small decisions such as this that signal to the world 
community Tajikistan's readiness to do business.  END COMMENT. 
HOAGLAND 
 
 
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