TAJIBAYEVA TRIAL OPENS WITH CHARGES OF U.S. AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000261

SIPDIS


SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, SA, AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2016
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV UZ
SUBJECT: TAJIBAYEVA TRIAL OPENS WITH CHARGES OF U.S. AND
FRENCH SUPPORT

CLASSIFIED BY AMB. JON R. PURNELL, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D).

REF: 05 TASHKENT 2739


1. (C) Summary: The trial of human rights activist Mutabar
Tajibayeva opened in a small town near Tashkent on January 30.
The charges against her include having received funding from
the U.S. and French Embassies, which she used to distribute
literature intended to sow panic among the populace. The
indictment does not fault Tajibayeva for receiving the grants,
only for "misusing" them and failing to pay taxes on the
income. However, the accusation suggests that foreign funding
for local NGOs, and perhaps Western intent to "destabilize"
the government, could come up in the trial itself. End
summary.


2. (C) The trial of Margilon-based human rights actvist
Mutabar Tajibayeva opened on January 30 in ower Chirchik
District Criminal Court, located i the small town of Dustobod
about 45 miles from Tshkent. According to Human Rights Watch
staff wo attempted to attend the trial, police were
reprtedly searching all cars entering Dustobod, and denying
entry into the ton to international and domestic trial
monitors. Human Rights Watch representatives were not allowe
to enter the town. In the hearing, presiding jdge Abdulaziz
Yuldoshev reportedly postponed the trial until January 31 to
give Tajibayeva furtheropportunity to familiarize herself
with the inditment.


3. (C) Included in the 39-page indictment, of which Post
obtained a copy, is the accusation that, "...in starting the
activity of her illegally organized civic organization,
Burning Hearts, she received $5,620 in financial aid from the
U.S. Agency for International Development and $200 from the
French Embassy and misused it to distribute materials which
were intended to threaten public safety and order, spread
panic among the populace, and use slander and rumors to
disturb the peace and destabilize the situation..." The
indictment also accuses her of failing to pay required taxes
on the grant income.


4. (C) In March 2002, through the Embassy's Democracy
Commission program (Note: Not USAID. End note.),Tajibayeva
received a grant of exactly $5,620 to conduct trial monitoring
in the Ferghana Valley. During the one-year grant period, she
failed to submit timely activity reports, and the grant was
not renewed. The French DCM recently told poloffs that the
$200 from the French Embassy noted in the indictment was
likely a personal gift from his predecessor. Tajibayeva was
attempting to monitor the trial of accused Akromiylar members
in Andijon when the May 2005 unrest broke out.


5. (C) Comment: Tajibayeva's case began with a charge of
extortion based on a dubious complaint from a man who bought
and sold fish from Tajibayeva's fishing farm. It has since
been transformed into a mass of allegations accusing her of
spreading lies in attempts to subvert the government. In the
first Andijon-related trial of terrorist suspects, GOU
statements suggested the United States and other Western
governments were trying to use human rights NGOs to spread
public disorder and destabilize Uzbekistan. In light of those
accusations, it is interesting that the charges against
Tajiboyeva specifically mention "misusing" U.S. and French
funds, not simply accepting them. That said, the fact that
U.S. funds are mentioned in the charges at all means that
foreign funding for local NGOs, and perhaps even Western
intent to "destabilize" the government, may come up in the
trial itself.

PURNELL