IRANIAN CIVIL SOCIETY PROGRAMS OFF TO GOOD START

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUSHANBE 000121 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/NESCA, SCA/CEN, NEA/IR E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2018 TAGS: PREL PHUM TI IR SUBJECT: IRANIAN CIVIL SOCIETY PROGRAMS OFF TO GOOD START REF: 2007 DUSHANBE 1596 Classified By: Tom Hushek, DCM, STATE; reason 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C/NF) PolEcon Officer met January 15 with International Research Exchange Council Dushanbe staffer Anna Crowley, to discuss progress ON State Department-funded training programs targeted at Iranian civil society organizations (reftel). Crowley said that the first seminar, held November 11-15 in Dushanbe, had gone well. Four Iranian non-governmental organization representatives from the field of social protection participated, along with ten representatives from similar organizations in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. ¶2. (C/NF) The seminar went well, albeit with some small tensions due to the Iranian participants' presumption that they were the natural leaders of the other Farsi-speaking participants. The Iranian and Tajik representatives received small grants following the seminar to do follow-on training and seminars ON social protection with additional Iranian social protection organizations. The Afghan and Pakistani participants were not interested in the small grants following the seminar, as they have larger funding bases than their Iranian and Tajik counterparts. ¶3. (C/NF) The Iranian participants encountered no difficulties before, during, or (so far) after their participation. They did not seem worried about political implications of their cooperation with a U.S. Government-funded program, because their activities were non-political. They were well aware of the seminar's U.S. Government connection. ¶4. (C/NF) One difficulty encountered was for Afghan participants to obtain Tajik visas. Reportedly the Tajik embassy in Kabul refused to take any action ON their applications. Fortunately, the head of Fidokor, the Tajik implementing partner, knew the Director of Asian affairs at the Tajik Foreign Ministry as an old friend; she asked him to resolve the problem, and he directed the embassy in Kabul to issue the visas. Some Tajik embassy staff in Kabul "got into trouble over this" Ms Crowley had heard. ¶5. (C/NF) Fidokor is now ON a recruiting mission in Iran for participants in the next seminar, ON child protection, planned to take place in Dushanbe in early April. They hope to FOLLOW up with two seminars ON women's issues in June and July. ¶6. (C/NF) Comment: It is likely the Tajik Foreign Ministry is aware of the nature of this program, especially given its involvement in the visa issuance process. But so far the program seems to be flying under the radar of the Iranian government. The problems the Afghan participants encountered with visas are typical, resembling many other cases of Afghans trying to come to Tajikistan for legitimate reasons and being unable to obtain a visa (or being told to pay a large bribe to get the visa). The need for the personal intervention of a senior official of the Foreign Ministry in Dushanbe over routine visa matters illustrates the difficulty of doing business of any sort in Tajikistan. End comment. HUSHEK