UZBEKS PROPOSE JOINT HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TASHKENT 001489

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/15/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM PINR UZ

SUBJECT: UZBEKS PROPOSE JOINT HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE


Classified By: CDA Brad Hanson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (U) This message contains a guidance request. Please see
para 6.


2. (C) Uzbekistan's Regional Policy Foundation has proposed a
human rights conference to Post as the means to nudge the
bilateral relationship back on track. The Foundation's
director said the conference had been vetted and approved at
the "top" of the Uzbek government and provided a list of
officials, including a Deputy Prime Minister and the Foreign
Minister, who would participate. He said that the first step
was for relevant parties to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding, which would allow conference planning to go
forward. Post found the document largely unobjectionable,
but declined to sign it based on the time necessary to gain
authorization to do so. The foundation director subsequently
told us that the Foundation was prepared to wait as long as
necessary. During our conversation, it became relatively
clear that the director has been instructed from above to
hold a conference with U.S. involvement. The October time
frame, right at the start of the expected presidential
election campaign and around the time the European Union will
review its sanctions against Uzbekistan, is not coincidental.
The Government of Uzbekistan will use any such meeting to
score maximum public relations points. At the same time,
Post is intrigued by the possibility that the government may
intend the proposal as a genuine opening to the United
States. USAID has given two U.S. nongovernmental
organizations the green light to move forward with developing
a conference agenda and list of proposed participants.
Absent specific instructions from Washington to do so,
however, Post will decline to sign the memorandum or
otherwise officially sponsor the conference. End summary.

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A Conference is the Key
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3. (SBU) On August 7 and August 10, A/DCM (also USAID Country
Representative) and Poloff met with Regional Policy
Foundation Director Sayfiddin Jurayev at his request to
discuss a proposed joint human rights conference in October.
Jurayev claimed that the Foundation, which was started in
2004, is one of only two "nongovernmental organizations" in
Uzbekistan working on national security issues. (Note: The
other being the Institute for Strategic Studies. End note.)
The foundation mostly deals with political issues in South
and Central Asia and organizes conferences with academic
institutions, other NGOs, and international organizations.
Jurayev repeatedly claimed that his organization is
independent from the government, even going so far on two
occasions to say that the Foundation can disagree with the
government on some, unspecified, issues. Despite the claimed
independence, however, Jurayev said that the Foundation's
activities have the support of senior government leaders and
"have political significance." Jurayev pointed to a
conference the Foundation sponsored in early 2006 on the
Russia-Uzbekistan relationship, which he said culminated in
an unplanned meeting between Russian participants and
President Karimov, and which he claimed was key to
strengthening relations between the two countries.


4. (SBU) According to Jurayev, the Foundation wants to
organize a similar conference on American-Uzbek relations and
human rights issues. (Note: Jurayev first proposed the idea
of such a conference to the Open Dialogue Project and
National Democratic Institute in late July, but was told that
Post's approval was required before those organizations would
move forward. End note.) Jurayev said that the proposed
conference would help to nudge the U.S.-Uzbekistan bilateral
relationship back on track. He acknowledged that there are
issues of disagreement between the countries, but said that
he thinks it is time for the two sides to come together to
talk about where there has been progress and where there is a
need for more improvements. Isolating Uzbekistan from the
international community is not a good option for either side,
he said.


5. (SBU) A/DCM agreed that more discussion on issues of
concerns is needed, but suggested that it would be more
productive to hold a series of smaller, more focused events.
Jurayev responded that such a series of events could take
place after the first conference, which he said needed to be

TASHKENT 00001489 002 OF 002


more significant to kick things off. Jurayev handed over a
list (Note: Sent to SCA/CEN. End note.) of 17 Government of
Uzbekistan officials that he said would participate in the
conference. The list included Deputy Prime Minister Azimov,
Foreign Minister Norov, former Foreign Minister Safaev.
Responding to Poloff's question, Jurayev said that he was 100
percent sure these officials would be allowed to participate.
He later expanded on this statement by saying that the
conference had been vetted and approved "at the top" of the
Uzbek government.


6. (SBU) Jurayev said that the conference would set the stage
for a new bilateral relationship. He suggested that the
planning stage start with the signing of a five party
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Foundation,
U.S. Embassy, USAID, Open Dialogue Project, and National
Democratic Institute. Late in the day on August 10, Jurayev
sent a draft MOU, which Post has sent to SCA/CEN. Post
reviewed the document and found it to be generally
unobjectionable; however, we informed Jurayev that it likely
would take a significant amount of time to receive
authorization to sign such a document and suggested that it
go forward as a three party agreement among the
nongovernmental organizations. On August 14, Jurayev told us
that the Foundation was prepared to wait as long as needed
for the Embassy and USAID to be able to sign the MOU as the
document forms the basis of long-term cooperation between the
Foundation and the Embassy and is needed to allow the
Foundation to work with Post.

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Comment and Guidance Request
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7. (C) Despite Jurayev's claims to independence from the
government, it is reasonably clear that he has been
instructed from above to hold the proposed conference. He
does not seem to have a clear purpose in mind, beyond vague
promises of setting the stage for a better relationship, and
it may well be that holding the conference is the end the
Uzbeks seek. The proposed time frame for the conference, at
the start of the expected presidential election campaign and
around the time that the European Union will review its
sanctions against Uzbekistan, is not coincidental. Still, we
are intrigued, although a bit skeptical, by the possibility
that the proposal is intended as a genuine opening towards
the United States. USAID had given the Open Dialogue Project
and National Democratic Institute the green light to work
with Jurayev in further developing the conference agenda and
participant list.


8. (C) As noted above, Post's review of Jurayev's draft MOU
found it to be very general and mostly unobjectionable. We
are not inclined to sign the document, however. Were we to
sign such an agreement, which, at least in its initial draft,
referred to the desires of both countries for a better
relationship, we think it should be with the Government of
Uzbekistan directly. To do otherwise sets the precedent of
allowing the GOU to engage us indirectly using a nominal
nongovernmental organization as a cut out. Absent
instructions from Washington to do otherwise, we will decline
to sign the draft Memorandum of Understanding.

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Bio Note
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9. (SBU) Sayfiddin Jurayev, an ethnic Uzbek, was born in 1960
in Bukhara Province. A Doctor of Political Science, Jurayev
graduated from Tashkent State University in 1984. As a
researcher at Uzbekistan's Institute of Strategic Studies, he
participated in several conferences abroad, including an
eight month fellowship at George Washington University in
2002, following which he wrote a 500-page book, in Uzbek, on
the United States' political, legal, social, and economic
structures. Jurayev left the Institute of Strategic Studies
in 2004 to take over the newly created Regional Policy
Foundation.
HANSON