TAJIKISTAN: FREEDOM HOUSE IN STRATEGIC RETREAT

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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