NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE TAJIKISTAN DIRECTOR GRANTED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001665

SIPDIS

SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/19/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM TI
SUBJECT: NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE TAJIKISTAN DIRECTOR GRANTED
SIX MONTH VISA; NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET

REF: A: SECSTATE 149413, B: DUSHANBE 1650

CLASSIFIED BY: Tom Hushek, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy
Dushanbe, STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: The Tajikistan Director of the National
Democratic Institute has been issued a six-month, multiple entry
visa, after having received short-term visas for several months.
The six-month visa was a prerequisite for obtaining
registration for the National Democratic Institute. Embassy
pressed the Tajik government repeatedly for issuance of such a
visa, and this news represents a success for us (Reftel A).
However, new complications in the registration process for
non-governmental organizations may still make it impossible for
the National Democratic Institute to register and begin
programming in Tajikistan. The Tajik State Security Committee
continues to monitor and harass Institute employees. End
Summary.

One Hurdle Crossed, and Another Appears
===============================


2. (C) Harry Bader, the American Country Director for the
National Democratic Institute, informed us on November 16 that
he had received a six-month multiple entry visa the day before.
This followed several months of extremely limited validity visas
issued to him, despite repeated demarches by the embassy.
Possession of the longer-term visa is a requirement for the
Tajik government to grant official registration to foreign
non-governmental organizations, and the repeated refusal of the
Government to grant Mr. Bader this visa constituted a de facto
rejection of registration for the National Democratic Institute.
Without official registration, non-governmental organizations
cannot function or conduct programs in Tajikistan. The National
Democratic Institute has been present in Tajikistan since
October 2002, but without registration since late 2004, and so
unable to conduct most activities it had planned. The previous
Director was deported for illegal conduct unrelated to his
duties with the National Democratic Institute, further
complicating the organization's position here.


3. (C) The National Democratic Institute will now begin the
registration process, Mr. Bader told us. However, Mr. Bader
said that he is concerned there are yet other procedural or
technical grounds for Tajik officials to deny registration. For
instance, he had learned in the past few days of a Tajik
government requirement that registration application packages,
to be accepted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for
"legalization" before being sent to the Ministry of Justice for
registration, must include full certified and notarized copies
in Tajik and Russian. Given the additional requirement that
non-governmental organizations get their registration packages
through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on to the Ministry
of Justice within 30 days of a vote by their directors to seek
registration, Mr. Bader thought it unlikely that
non-governmental organizations could complete the process within
the 30 day window. He suggested that this requirement from the
Government was intended to give Tajik officials an excuse to
deny registration to non-governmental organizations it
disfavored. Bader estimated that if all international courier
services worked perfectly, along with speedy translation and
certification of lengthy documentation packages, the National
Democratic Institute would be able to complete the application
process in 29 days; but he wasn't betting on this.

Security Service Keeps the Pressure On
==============================


4. (C) Mr. Bader also reported to us that on November 14, the
day before his visa was issued, an employee of the State
Security Committee telephoned the National Democratic
Institute's Tajik Program Officer three times and questioned him
about Mr. Bader's connection to the November 14 bombing in
Dushanbe which killed one person (Reftel B). The Security
Committee employee reportedly asked the Program Officer what Mr.
Bader's reaction had been on hearing about the bombing ("did he
look alarmed, excited, or pleased?"),and said that "people NDI
works with" were associated with "those who made the bomb." The
Security Committee employee also asked whether Bader had
received "subversive training" during a previous assignment in
Ukraine, questioned the Tajik Program Officer's loyalty to
Tajikistan, and suggested various aspects of the National
Democratic Institute's activities in Tajikistan were illegal.
Mr. Bader commented to the embassy that these sorts of questions

DUSHANBE 00001665 002 OF 002


were the norm in State Security's periodic contacts with
employees of the National Democratic Institute in Tajikistan,
and he did not think that this incident represented an
intensification of Sate Security pressure on his organization.
He noted that the State Security employee who made this latest
approach, and who usually approached the Institute, had recently
participated in an OSCE-sponsored training program in France.
Bader said the agent's name was known to Institute employees,
and volunteered to provide it to embassy.

Comment: More Battles Ahead
======================


5. (C) Embassy is very pleased by the Tajik government's
decision to grant the required long-term visa to Mr. Bader, and
will convey our thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
repeated refusal by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to grant a
long-term visa to Mr. Bader, shielded the Security Committee and
the Ministry of Justice from any criticism that they were
refusing registration to the National Democratic Institute, and
the Embassy had urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop
carrying the burden for other agencies which were hostile to the
National Democratic Institute's presence in Tajikistan. However
good this news is, the burdensome requirement for certified
translations of registration packages makes clear that the Tajik
government can produce more obstacles in the way of registration
of foreign non-governmental organizations. Today's news on the
visa represents a step toward another battle. End Comment.
HUSHEK