AMBASSADOR' S MEETING WITH HYDRO-POWERED FOREIGN MINISTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000933 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/21/2017 TAGS: PREL PREF PGOV EAID KDEM TI AF IR SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR' S MEETING WITH HYDRO-POWERED FOREIGN MINISTER REF: (A) STATE 81839; (B) STATE 77753; (C) DUSHANBE 928; (D) DUSHANBE 764 CLASSIFIED BY: Tracey Jacobson, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy Dushanbe, STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Ambassador met Foreign Minister Zarifi June 20 to discuss a laundry list of outstanding issues, including the upcoming completion of the Nizhniy Pyanzh bridge, our demarches on Afghan refugees (Ref A) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's upcoming summit (Ref B),and the status of registration for implementing partners National Democratic Institute and Internews. An energized and smooth Zarifi once again demonstrated that although he has honed his debate skills during his years in the West, he is still a bit of an old thinker at heart; his one-note hydropower song is increasing in volume. End Summary. ¶2. (C) The Bridge: Zarifi, echoing President Rahmon in his meeting with Admiral Fallon June 19 (septel),pressed hard for a bridge opening date and the Secretary's participation, suggesting that even President Bush should come. Ambassador said she expected some information next week. She raised our concern that the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan have not made any agreements about the use, maintenance and security of the bridge. Zarifi initially suggested the United States should put something together, but the Ambassador pushed back, saying it was high time for Tajik and Afghan officials to talk directly, perhaps with U.S. facilitation or support. He agreed to put the issue on the agenda for the upcoming meeting of Deputy Foreign Ministers in Kabul in July. Ambassador also raised the latest in a series of recurring cement problems -- although our contractor had signed a contract and pre-paid for the final cement deliveries, the Dushanbe Cement Factory was balking, saying it was planning to raise the price. Zarifi promised to help but insisted that this was not bad faith on the part of the government-owned factory, but rather a critical shortage of cement to supply all the infrastructure projects: "Why doesn't the United States build a cement factory in southern Tajikistan, which could also supply Afghan needs?" The Ambassador replied that until contracts, such as the one signed with the cement factory, were respected, no private company would want to make that kind of major investment. ¶3. (C) Refugees: Ambassador raised U.S. concerns over the treatment of refugees, in particular the recent round-up of more than 100 Afghans living in Dushanbe and insistence that they move out of the capital to the countryside where they are registered. She expressed particular disappointment over the Ministry's dipnote response on the issue, which basically said that refugees were not an appropriate topic for our bilateral relationship, and that the Tajik government preferred to talk to us about economic development. Ambassador noted that while we are actively engaged in promoting trade and regional economic integration, our bilateral relationship must also include human rights. Zarifi first said that the incident had been blown out of proportion, and blamed unspecified "forces who want to destabilize Tajikistan" by stirring up the issue, even linking such forces (probably Uzbeks or maybe Russians) to the bombing of the Supreme Court over the weekend (ref C). He said that security forces had initially rounded up 120 Afghans at a "filter" facility, and found that 46 of them had false residency documents, 14 were involved in contraband, and several were renting apartments illegally and not paying taxes. "We know why they want to live in the city and not the countryside. Conditions for them in the countryside are no worse than for our own citizens. But these Afghans want to be here to traffic narcotics." Ambassador noted that forcing Afghans out of the cities violated Tajikistan's international commitments, and that the U.S. government would continue to follow refugee issues closely. Zarifi replied: "I've seen the marches in Washington. Your migrants aren't satisfied either. If the U.S. government cares about migrants so much, why has your embassy in Moscow never raised the deplorable treatment of Tajik migrants in Russia, three or four of whom are killed every day?" Ambassador noted that we have raised Tajikistan's migrant population in the annual Trafficking in Persons report, and would try to find out whether Embassy Moscow had ever raised this issue with the Russian government. ¶4. (C) Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Zarifi promised a formal response to our demarche soon, but once again echoing the DUSHANBE 00000933 002 OF 002 President, indicated that Tajikistan is largely in agreement with our position. On Iran, he pushed for continued dialogue, saying that "other forces" (Russia) would not be happy to see the situation stabilized, since the instability plays into its economic and political interests. In an impresssive demonstration of spin, he insisted that while Tajikistan had said it supported Tehran's "desire" to become a full member of the organization, it had never said it supported its actual membership, as there is currently no mechanism to do so. "Iran is not a threat to us -- to the contrary, it is helping us develop infrastructure, both transport and hydropower. Why aren't your American companies doing the same? I know if you told AES to build a power station they would do it. Why doesn't Gerald Metals build a power station, then they can buy even cheaper aluminum?" Comment: This was a slight variation on the regular theme that if we want Tajikistan to be less involved with Iran, we'll have to put our money where our mouth is. Zarifi refuses to believe our repeated assertions that Western business invests where there is a reasonable environment and potential for profit, not where governments direct it. End Comment. ¶5. (C) National Democratic Institute/Internews: On the National Democratic Institute, Zarifi expressed surprise that the Ministry of Justice had been unwilling to meet with Amcit director Harry Bader to discuss registration. (The Ministry apparently told Bader they wouldn't talk to him because, in a classic Catch-22, he didn't have a long term visa and because his organization was unregistered.) He promised to help Bader get a meeting, and also committed to renewing his visa one month at a time here in Dushanbe while he pursues registration. (Bader had resigned himself to flying to Bishkek each month to obtain a new airport visa upon re-entry; so the Minister's new offer represents a slight improvement. An MFA official called the embassy June 21 to ask us to tell Bader to come in for his visa extension.) On Internews, Zarifi was unequivocal: no one cares about radios, only about electricity. "The reason this licensing process is stalled is because these radio stations are not a priority for the government, so no one is working on it." Rejecting Ambassador's arguments that democratic reforms must accompany economic development to ensure that benefits accrue to the people, Zarifi accused Ambassador of becoming Marie Antoinette: "You are like the princess who, when told the people had no bread, suggested they eat kasha. How can you talk about radios when we have no electricity for 5 months a year?" (Note: The Principals' Group of resident Ambassadors and Donors is also planning to take up the issue of Internews' community radio stations with the government -- a welcome development. End note.) ¶6. (C) Comment: The meeting offered nothing new, but rather rehashed Zarifi's previous practice of turning everything back to a discussion of hydropower. However, we have evidence that our interventions along with UNHCR, demonstrating international attention to the refugee issue, have prevented or postponed further round-ups. Further, we have kept the National Democratic Institute and Internews present in country, despite their lack of registration. This past spring, the Principals' Group helped secure some useful amendments to an otherwise poor Law on Public Associations (ref D). In this increasingly challenging environment for democratic reform and human rights, while we may not be able to move many of our issues forward, we still seem to be able to slow the rate of backsliding. Our interventions seem to get the most traction when we team up with other missions and multilateral organizations. JACOBSON