Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07TASHKENT1910
2007-11-05 05:48:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tashkent
Cable title:  

UZBEKS STALL ODIHR ELECTION ASSESSMENT TEAM VISIT

Tags:  PREL PGOV OSCE UZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7711
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHNT #1910 3090548
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 050548Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8706
INFO RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 3416
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 9622
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 4032
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 3895
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0041
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2109
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0060
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 001910 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

USMISSION OSCE FOR ELIZABETH KAUFMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV OSCE UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKS STALL ODIHR ELECTION ASSESSMENT TEAM VISIT

REF: A. TASHKENT 1823


B. NOVEMBER 2 OSCE DAILY DIGEST

Classified By: Poloff Tim Buckley for reasons 1.4 (B, D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 001910

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

USMISSION OSCE FOR ELIZABETH KAUFMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV OSCE UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKS STALL ODIHR ELECTION ASSESSMENT TEAM VISIT

REF: A. TASHKENT 1823


B. NOVEMBER 2 OSCE DAILY DIGEST

Classified By: Poloff Tim Buckley for reasons 1.4 (B, D)


1. (C) Summary. An OSCE staffmember told poloff on November
3 that the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (ODIHR) election assessment team, which was expected
by November 1, had not arrived in Tashkent and the status of
the visit was uncertain. Poloff spoke with OSCE Senior
Project Officer Bernard Rouault on November 4, who confirmed
that the members of the assessment team have not yet been
issued visas by the MFA despite his repeated follow-up
inquiries. The GOU may be taking advantage of the OSCE
Spanish delegation's delay in disseminating the invitation to
ensure that any ODIHR observer mission to Uzbekistan will be
poorly prepared and small in scale. End summary.


2. (C) The OSCE Project Coordination Office (PCO) in Tashkent
worked for several weeks to determine whether the GOU had
delivered a formal invitation for OSCE to observe the
upcoming December elections. Ultimately, the Tashkent PCO
determined that the Uzbeks delivered an invitation on
September 26 to the Spanish OSCE delegation, which currently
holds the Chairmanship. The Tashkent PCO only received the
invitation on October 19 (see reftel A) because the Spanish
delegation apparently did not distribute the official
invitation from the GOU in a timely manner. Rouault
emphasized that the Uzbeks are not at fault for this delay.


3. (C) As noted in reftel, the Tashkent PCO immediately began
preparing for an ODIHR election assessment team to visit
Uzbekistan and determine the scale and logistics of an
observer mission. The Tashkent PCO submitted visa
applications to the MFA more than 10 days ago, and Rouault
has personally followed up on the status of the applications
on numerous occasions since then. The Warsaw-based team
initally planned to arrive on October 30, but the MFA
continues to tell Rouault that the visas will take time and
the applications are under consideration. With elections
less than seven weeks away, Rouault is concerned that by the
time the assessment team is allowed into Uzbekistan there
will be very little time to organize a proper observer
mission.


4. (C) Comment. This is the first time the GOU has invited
ODIHR to observe elections in the past six years, but the GOU
remains nervous about how the elections will be perceived in
the west. The GOU may sense that there is an opportunity to
claim credit for inviting an OSCE observer mission soon after
elections were announced in September while taking advantage
of the delay to stall the assessment team's work. When the
assessment team finally is issued visas to come to Uzbekistan
there will be very little time to organize a thorough
observer mission, which could allow the GOU to have the best
of both worlds. Post had not yet seen reftel B, but
Rouault's comments indicated that he had no knowledge of an
Uzbek decision to limit ODIHR or of Russian influence.

NORLAND