TURKMENISTAN: COOPERATION WITH INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000331

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/ACE, DRL
AID/W FOR EE/EA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EAID KDEM TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: COOPERATION WITH INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY
AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVES FORWARD

REF: A. ASHGABAT 0206

B. ASHGABAT 0099

C. 07 ASHGABAT 1130

D. 07 ASHGABAT 1346

E. 07 ASHGABAT 1391


1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.


2. (U) SUMMARY: Over the past two weeks, USAID Country
Representative has met with the Director of the Institute for
Democracy and Human Rights to finalize areas of cooperation that
were discussed in previous meetings. USAID noted the progress made
and introduced implementing partner ABA and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as a joint partner in
preparing a legal database. Although the Director was pleased with
the new ideas, she made it clear that she was ready to see USAID
action on the ideas as well. The Director noted that the Institute
was ready to start the process of bringing Turkmenistan's Law on
Religion into conformity with international standards as well as
begin to review juvenile, family, and election laws. END SUMMARY.

FEBRUARY 26 MEETING: GETTING GOING


3. (U) USAID/CAR Regional Director Bill Frej and Program Officer
John Morgan, along with the USAID Country Representative, met with
the Director of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Shirin
Ahmedova and Department Head Shemshat Atajanova on February 26.
Although it was an introductory meeting for the regional USAID
representatives, Ahmedova took the opportunity to follow up on
issues discussed in recent meetings and to begin planning future
joint activities. Ahmedova thanked USAID for helping coordinate the
recent meetings with USAID's regional local governance expert and
USAID's sub-grantee to Counterpart's Turkmenistan Community
Empowerment Program (TCEP),the American Bar Association (ABA). She
appreciated their suggestions and was ready to move forward with
planning for local governance and service delivery as well as rule
of law programs.


4. (U) Ahmedova noted that the Institute was ready to start the
process of bringing Turkmenistan's Law on Religion into conformity
with international standards. Moreover, it had established a
commission in November 2007 to improve all legislation to
international standards. Turkmenistan established an interagency
process for reviewing laws and has already drafted a list of laws
that will be reviewed. In addition to the Law on Religion, it will
also include juvenile, family, and election laws. The Institute
will also partner with international organizations and/or donors to
coordinate assistance in reviewing and drafting the new
legislation.


5. (U) Ahmedova also proposed a meeting later the same week to firm
up plans for USAID-supported computer training for Institute staff
and assistance with developing a legal database. She requested
USAID assistance to create a legal database that would not only
include Turkmenistan's legislation but CIS legislation as well
(septel). (NOTE: The expanded focus goes beyond what USAID had
originally proposed, and closely corresponds to an existing online
OSCE resource, www.legislationonline.org. END NOTE.) Ahmedova noted
that Turkmenistan was improving its laws by bringing them into
conformity with international standards, and would begin by looking
to its neighboring countries for successful examples.

MARCH 1 MEETING: FOCUS ON RESULTS


6. (U) Ahmedova and Institute Department Head Shemshat Atajanova
met early on Saturday morning with USAID Country Representative, the
visiting USAID/CAR Deputy Regional Director of Democracy and
Conflict Mitigation, and USAID's implementing partner IREX to
organize logistics for proposed computer training. Rather than
simply talk about possible training courses, Ahmedova moved ahead to
set specific dates for the training courses to begin. She also gave
IREX's representative Atajanova's personal phone number and told

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them to contact her and continue with the necessary planning.


7. (U) USAID Country Representative informed Ahmedova that progress
had been made on the previous plans for the legal database. After
meeting the day before with OSCE, the two donors proposed to partner
with the Institute on this project since by working together they
could deliver a better product in less time. The OSCE would provide
the physical components (such as database software, scanning of
laws, and loading onto the internet) necessary for putting the
database together and USAID, through Counterpart and ABA would
provide technical assistance on using the database. While it was
possible for Counterpart/ABA and/or IREX to compile a legal database
for the Institute, the OSCE has already created a single site for
other CIS countries, and it would be easy for them to do the same
for Turkmenistan.


8. (U) Ahmedova was very interested to begin working on the
database and seemed more concerned with getting a product up and
running rather than a complete version that had all of the laws and
other legislative acts. (COMMMENT: This makes sense, sinces it
will be almost impossible to get all laws and legislation together
before posting it online. END COMMENT.) She also knows that there
are other ministries planning on putting together a legal database
as well. Based on discussions with other international
organizations, various ministries appear to be competing to be the
first one to complete the task (septel). Despite a very busy
schedule to prepare for International Women's Day on March 8, she
asked for another meeting two days later to talk about the next
steps in getting the database up and running. She asked that OSCE
and USAID be present to coordinate and state their plans.

MARCH 3 MEETING: STRICTLY BUSINESS


9. (U) USAID learned before the meeting that the OSCE Ambassador
would represent OSCE, along with the OSCE Center's Human Dimensions
Officer. The OSCE Ambassador was very concerned about the Center's
project list for 2008, approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA),which stated that the OSCE would partner with the Ministry of
Justice for a similar database project. (NOTE: The OSCE project was
approved by MFA for the first time this year after being rejected
for the past three years. END NOTE.) He was also concerned that
the approved project list limited the ability of the Institute to
work with OSCE on a data base project since it was not listed as the
partner.


10. (U) Ahmedova read the relevant clause in the agreement and said
that the agreement does not preclude cooperative work. She noted
that the Ministry of Justice and Institute of Democracy are already
partners on informational matters and that it should not matter if
the OSCE worked with the Institute on this project. Moreover, she
stated the Institute could employ the Ministry of Justice as a
partner without a specific Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Ahmedova said that she would call the Minister of Foreign Affairs to
ask the MFA to remove the offending clause from its agreement with
the OSCE so that the proposed partnership could continue. She also
requested that the OSCE Ambassador contact the MFA to have the
clause removed. The OSCE Ambassador was surprised by her
suggestions and perhaps by the speed of her reaction as well.


11. (U) The ABA Country Director made a brief presentation on the
types of training that ABA could provide both for the database and
otherwise. He pointed out that the database would be obsolete the
day it came online if it were not routinely updated with
Turkmenistan laws, regulations, and Presidential Decrees in a timely
manner. He also stressed the need to establish a central
repository, to which Ahmedova agreed. Ahmedova was pleased with
information and pressed for a workplan with goals and dates be
submitted as soon as possible. Ahmedova concluded by giving him
Atajanova's personal phone number, and noted that he should keep
Atajanova informed as ABA continued to work in this direction.


12. (U) On the way out of the meeting, the OSCE Ambassador told the

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USAID Regional Deputy Director of Democracy and Conflict Mitigation
that he was extremely pleased with the output of the meeting and
that he was happy that the two entities could partner together. All
agreed that the meeting was extremely productive. USAID Country
Representative asked ABA Director to develop a workplan for the
Institute, since Ahmedova was ready to move beyond meetings to
actions. USAID Country Representative further noted that the
workplan should contain immediate deliverables, such as legal
training experts, which would illustrate the U.S. side's commitment
to working with the Institute. ABA agreed to submit a plan within
several days.


13. (U) COMMENT: This series of meetings was extremely productive
and continued the growing working-level engagement with the
Institute. The meetings also showed that the Institute is not just
interested in talking about action, rather its director is extremely
interested in seeing it as well. Ahmedova ended each meeting with a
clear indication of the next steps that she expected. It is now
extremely important that the United States delivers on these
meetings. This will not only continue to earn her trust, but will
also show the resources which our partners can bring, and will
hopefully open up further areas for joint work with the Institute.
The partnership with the OSCE on the legal database project is also
important since, despite much talk on donor coordination, it is a
rare occurrence in practice. END COMMENT.

HOAGLAND