Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BAKU1163
2006-08-08 10:36:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baku
Cable title:  

AMBASSADOR'S INTRODUCTORY ROUNDTABLE WITH

Tags:  PREL PGOV PHUM PINR KDEM AJ 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHKB #1163/01 2201036
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 081036Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0972
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAKU 001163 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR KDEM AJ
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S INTRODUCTORY ROUNDTABLE WITH
AZERBAIJANI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Classified By: Charge Jason P. Hyland for Reasons 1.4 b and d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAKU 001163

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR KDEM AJ
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S INTRODUCTORY ROUNDTABLE WITH
AZERBAIJANI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Classified By: Charge Jason P. Hyland for Reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (U) SUMMARY: In a July 31 roundtable meeting, nine of
Azerbaijan's leading human rights activists told the
Ambassador that Azerbaijan's elections in 2003 and 2005 were
not free and fair, citing bias in the composition of the
election commissions as part of the problem. The NGO leaders
stressed that freedom of assembly remained restricted and
that media freedom was under assault. The group also told the
Ambassador that widespread public corruption undermined the
rule of law and hindered democratic reform in all branches of
the Government, but especially in the judiciary and the
executive. The result, two activists argued, was a capitalist
system mired in mafia-like corruption that ill served the
public interest. The Ambassador reaffirmed USG commitment to
political and economic reform as a key pillar of our
bilateral relationship. The Ambassador highlighted USG
support for civil society and stressed that we remained
committed to defending and protecting human rights. END
SUMMARY.

ACTIVISTS CITE ELECTIONS, FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND MEDIA
FREEDOM
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) Saida Gojamanly, chairwoman of the Bureau for Human
Rights Protection NGO, told the Ambassador that Azerbaijan's
November 2005 parliamentary elections did not meet
international standards for a free and fair election.
Gojamanly said that it was disappointing to see the United
States continually endorse perceived "improvements" to the
electoral process when, as Gojamanly argued, the presidential
election of 2003 and the parliamentary elections of 2005 were
both far from free and fair. Saadat Benanyarly, Chairwoman of
the local chapter of the International Society for Human
Rights, added that the Unified Election Code (UEC) needed to
be changed in order to reform the currently pro-government
system of local election commissions that contributes to bias
in the electoral process. (OSCE ODIHR made this
recommendation to the GOAJ in its final report on the 2005

parliamentary elections.) Benanyarly added that GOAJ
restrictions on the public's constitutional right to freedom
of assembly further undermined democratic development in
Azerbaijan.


3. (C) In a comment echoed by other speakers, Saida Gojamanly
highlighted the increasing number of attacks on journalists
and the failure of the GOAJ to extend the license of ANS
television as evidence of imperiled media freedoms.
Underscoring her message, Gojamanly cited the unsolved 2005
murder of prominent opposition journalist Elmar Huseynov,
several assaults on opposition journalists in 2006 and the
recent arrest of opposition journalist Mirza Sakit on charges
of carrying heroin as further evidence of the deteriorating
media freedom climate. (OSCE and Western Embassies are
actively urging the authorities to renew ANS' license. In
addition, the Finnish Ambassador to Azerbaijan who recently
visited Baku in connection with Finland's EU Presidency
raised the Sakit cases with senior GOAJ officials.)

ANTI-CORRUPTION, JUDICIAL REFORM VITAL
--------------


4. (C) Benanyarly added that the GOAJ officials' "need for
control" was a key factor in widespread public corruption,
noting ironically that officials believed to be the most
corrupt were now members of the GOAJ Anti-Corruption
Commission itself. (Benanyarly's comments met with nods of
agreement and references to Presidential Chief of Staff Ramiz
Mehdiyev.) Benanyarly also commented on the poor condition of
the health and education sectors stressing that the low wages
paid to most employees created incentives for corruption for
which the GOAJ was responsible. Public pensions, for example,
at around $50 per month, were grossly out of line with the
growth in current prices and the cost of living.


5. (SBU) Novella Jafaroglu, Chairwoman of the Society for the
Defense of Women's Rights, underscored the difficulty that
many women face in Azerbaijan's patriarchal society,
particularly prevalent in the regions outside of Baku. She
emphasized that her organization (which maintains nine,
partially Embassy-supported, resource centers around the
country) works closely with women in need of legal redress
for abuse, sexism or other crimes. However, Jafaroglu noted
that the extraordinary level of corruption in the Azerbaijani
judiciary meant that fair verdicts were few and far between,
a view echoed by several of the activists. (Jafaroglu also
highlighted the Department's Human Rights Report as a
powerful tool in the democracy and human rights discourse.)
Jafaroglu stressed the importance of building women's

BAKU 00001163 002 OF 003


coalitions to advance social and political reform that cut
across party lines. She said that she and colleagues had
reached out to ruling YAP party women leaders in addition to
the opposition party women leaders to encourage
coalition-building on issues of mutual concern.


6. (SBU) Murad Sadaddinov, a former political prisoner and
the head of the Azerbaijan Foundation of Democracy and Human
Rights Protection, said that he had three ongoing human
rights concerns to bring to the Ambassador's attention.
First, Saddadinov reiterated earlier comments on the absence
of the independent courts as a central failing of the system.
Second, he said the country was yet to have a truly
democratic election in its modern history. Third, Saddadinov
remarked that the GOAJ continued to hold political prisoners
adding, without a specific reference, that even as President
Aliyev has decreed the release of several hundred political
prisoners in the past two years, others continue to be
arrested on trumped-up charges.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE; DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) Elchin Behbutov, a former Interior Ministry official
and now prison system monitor, told the Ambassador that
police misconduct and human rights violations continue to be
critical problems. Behbutov, noting the importance of prison
and pretrial detention monitoring, said that there have been
three deaths of Azerbaijanis in police custody, likely to due
abuse and torture in 2006, and doubtless others of which he
was unaware. (Post continues to work closely with Behbutov's
NGO to investigate and follow up these reports.)


THE DANGER OF DIRTY CAPITALISM
--------------


8. (SBU) Eldar Zeynalov, Chairman of the Human Rights Center,
told the Ambassador that the United States was transparently
focused on "realpolitick" when it came to Azerbaijan because
of the country's rich energy resources and strategic location
on the border of Iran and Russia. As a result, he said, the
U.S. was far too willing to put aside democracy and human
rights in pursuit of our national interests. Drawing a
comparison with U.S. policies toward pre-revolutionary Iran
under the Shah, Zeynalov ominously warned that the gains from
oil for the U.S. would be short-lived if more was not done to
advance democratic development.


9. (SBU) Zeynalov emphasized that economic reform - improving
the bottomline for ordinary Azerbaijanis - was key to long
term democratic development. He highlighted the need for
greater anti-corruption efforts and transparency in
government, describing the current economic development model
as "dirty capitalism" in which the market was not free to
allocate resources on its own but rather was stymied by
corruption in a mafia-like economic system.


10. (SBU) Nazim Imanov, an economic and political analyst,
told the Ambassador that the advancement of democracy in
Azerbaijan was hindered by the fact that it was suppressed
for the past 200 years of Russian tsarist and then Soviet
rule and was therefore difficult for the public adapt to.
Imanov described democratic reform as either a "top down"
process in which Ilham Aliyev gives democracy to the people,
or a "bottom up" process in which revolutionary change is
brought about the people, motivated by the political
opposition. Imanov added that Azerbaijan lacked the capacity
to carry out the revolutionary reform from the bottom up
because the opposition is weak and ineffectual, the direct
result of U.S. policies that were indifferent to democratic
development due to U.S. policy focus on Azerbaijan's energy
resources. Imanov urged the Ambassador to support actively
the human rights community.

AMBASSADOR: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE ESSENTIAL
--------------


11. (SBU) The Ambassador stressed U.S. support at all levels
of government, from President Bush to Secretary Rice and on
down, for protecting human rights and advancing democratic
development. The Ambassador affirmed the USG's commitment to
advancing tangible democratic reform and supporting the
growth and development of civil society. The Ambassador
further remarked that economic and political rights were
inextricably linked, adding that freedom of economic
opportunity was also a human right. The Ambassador told the
group that adherence to the rule of law, anti-corruption and
a transparent and accountable government were core interests
of the United States in its bilateral relationship with

BAKU 00001163 003 OF 003


Azerbaijan.
HYLAND