TAJIKISTAN: THE GRINCH WHO STOLE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

UNCLAS DUSHANBE 002004

SIPDIS


STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL RS TI
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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