AMCIT RABBI AND JEWISH-AMERICAN NGO FACE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 TASHKENT 000517

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, DRL (AMB RICKMAN) AND EUR/OHI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2018
TAGS: PHUM ECON EAID KIRF PGOV PREL UZ
SUBJECT: AMCIT RABBI AND JEWISH-AMERICAN NGO FACE
ACCREDITATION AND REGISTRATION DIFFICULTIES

REF: A. 06 TASHKENT 1132

B. TASHKENT 173

Classified By: POLOFF R. FITZMAURICE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D)


1. (C) Summary: In the past month, the Ministry of Justice
has refused to renew the accreditation of an AmCit Rabbi, who
heads the World Wide Lubavitch Movement in Uzbekistan, and
threatened the registration of the Joint Distribution
Committee, a Jewish-American humanitarian organization. In
addition, both organizations complained that Uzbekistan's
recently revised banking regulations continue to severely
disrupt their ability to distribute humanitarian aid. It
remains unclear what prompted the Justice Ministry to more or
less simultaneously deny the accreditation of the AmCit Rabbi
and threaten the closure of the Joint Distribution Committee,
but we do not necessarily believe that the organizations were
targeted because of their Jewish or American connections. It
appears that the Ministry's threats were perhaps more bluster
than real, and we expect that it will now reconsider the
organizations' new applications for accreditation and
registration. On May 1, the Ambassador met with Rabbi
Gurevich and the Israeli Ambassador, and an independent
website reported that an official of the Uzbek National
Security Council was fired for allegedly authorizing the
posting of smear articles against Gurevich that appeared on
state-controlled websites. The report lends credence to the
view that certain Uzbek officials may have taken sides in an
internal conflict within Uzbekistan's Jewish community. The
GOU may now be in damage-control mode. End summary.

LUBAVITCH AMCIT RABBI DENIED ACCREDITATION RENEWAL
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2. (C) On April 25, poloff met with Rabbi Gurevich, the Head
Emissary of the World Wide Lubavitch movement and a dual
U.S.-Israeli citizen, whose application to renew his
accreditation was rejected by the Ministry of Justice via
letter on April 10. The letter, which was signed by the
Ministry's Department for Public Associations and Religious
Organizations Head Jalol Abdusattarov, accused the AmCit
Rabbi of "exceeding his authority" and "failing to fulfill
his duties." The letter, which was shown to poloff, did not
provide any further details about the alleged violations. A
few days before the letter was received, several articles
appeared on state-controlled websites accusing the Rabbi of
embezzlement, which he vigorously denied (Note: On May 1, an
independent website reported that an official at the Uzbek
National Security Council was fired for allegedly authorizing
the articles. The story has not been confirmed. See
paragraph 18. End note.) Gurevich's visa and accreditation
expired on April 1, along with his wife's visa, and the
government could in theory deport both of them at any time.

RABBI REAPPLIES FOR ACCREDITATION, SUBMITS RECOMMENDATION
LETTER FROM ISRAELI AMBASSADOR
-------------- --------------


3. (C) The Rabbi reapplied for accreditation with the
Justice Ministry on April 15. At the request of Uzbek
officials, he also submitted to the Ministry a recommendation
letter from the Israeli Ambassador on April 22. The Israeli
Ambassador raised the Rabbi's case with government officials,
and he was reportedly told that the Rabbi's accreditation
would be renewed if he submitted a recommendation letter on
his behalf. As of May 1, the Rabbi has not heard anything
from the Justice Ministry regarding his reapplication for
accreditation (Comment: We expect that authorities will at
least make a decision on the Rabbi's second application for
accreditation before undertaking any attempt to deport him.
End comment.)

RABBI SURPRISED BY ACCREDITATION REJECTION
--------------


4. (C) The Rabbi told poloff that he was initially shocked
when the Justice Ministry rejected his accreditation renewal.

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He reported having a discussion with Abdusattarov last
summer, in which he asked whether the Ministry could grant
him accreditation for six months or one year, instead of the
usual three months. In reply, Abdusattarov reportedly told
the Rabbi that, unlike other "American NGOs," the Ministry
"trusted" the Lubavitch Movement, but said that the Rabbi had
to correct "two problems." First, the Rabbi had to cease
using letterhead with the Rabbinate's logo (Note: The Uzbek
government deregistered Uzbekistan's Rabbinate in 1998, and
Gurevich had previously served as its Chief Rabbi. End
note.) Second, the Rabbi had to cease issuing a periodic
newsletter on the Lubavitch Movement's activities, which was
not registered with the authorities. The Rabbi said he
fulfilled the Ministry's requests, and fully expected that
not only would his accreditation be renewed, but that it
would be granted for a longer period of time than before.


5. (SBU) For the record, Rabbi Gurevich noted that the
Lubavitch Movement is not an American NGO, but an
international organization whose headquarters is located in
Moscow. The Lubavitch Movement operates a yeshivah, a kolel
where the Torah can be studied, and a day school for 350
students, the only Jewish school in Tashkent. The Lubavitch
Movement also organized summer camps, youth clubs, and
humanitarian aid for the poor.

RABBI'S ACCREDITATION PREVIOUSLY DENIED IN 1998
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6. (C) Rabbi Gurevich noted that this was not the first time
the Uzbek government had denied his accreditation renewal.
Between 1990 and 1998, he served as Chief Rabbi of
Uzbekistan's Rabbinate. Following the passage of the 1998
Law on Religion, the Rabbinate lost its registration, as the
Law stipulated that religious organizations could only be
registered on the national level if they were registered
locally in at least eight municipalities (Note: Synagogues
are currently registered in only four cities: Bukhara,
Samarkand, Tashkent, and Ferghana. An unregistered synagogue
also operates in Kokand. End note.) With the abolition of
the Rabbinate, Gurevich lost his accreditation as its Chief
Rabbi. According to the Rabbi, the government was at first
reluctant to grant him a new accreditation, but Uzbek-Israeli
diamond billionaire Lev Leviev and Israeli politician (and
former Soviet political prisoner) Natan Sharansky personally
intervened on his behalf with President Karimov, who agreed
to let the Rabbi be accredited as the Head Emissary of the
World Wide Lubavitch Movement (Note: Rabbi Gurevich
identified Lev Leviev as the Lubavitch Movement's principal
donor. He also noted that Leviev had submitted a
recommendation on his behalf to the Justice Ministry in
February, before his accreditation renewal was denied. End
note.)

DENIES ACCREDITATION ISSUE TIED TO CONFLICT WITHIN
UZBEKISTAN'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
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7. (C) Rumors have floated in Tashkent that the Rabbi's
problem with accreditation was tied to an internal conflict
within Uzbekistan's Jewish community. For example, an April
3 article on the state-controlled Gorizont.uz website accused
the AmCit Rabbi of hindering Jews of Uzbek nationality from
becoming leaders of the country's Jewish community. When
poloff first inquired with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
regarding the Rabbi's accreditation on April 9, he was told
by American Affairs Desk Chief Ismat Fayzullaev that the
Rabbi had "his own problems within the Jewish community," and
that his accreditation was not a "political issue." The
Israeli Ambassador also told us that the problem stemmed from
"unfortunate" internal division within the Jewish community
in Uzbekistan, possibly fueled by the government.


8. (C) Rabbi Gurevich denied that there were any open
divisions within Uzbekistan's Jewish community, such as
between Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews. However, he
acknowledged disagreements with "three or four" individual

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members of the community, some of whom he believed were
provocateurs. He noted that a member of the Jewish community
in Bukhara had openly accused him of preaching against
Muslims and the Uzbek government. The same individual (who
has a criminal record and whom the Rabbi once bailed out of
jail) also reportedly bragged to other members of the
community of being an "agent" of the National Security
Service.

REPORTS COOPERATION WITH POLICE ON MURDER INVESTIGATION
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9. (C) Rabbi Gurevich reported excellent cooperation with
the Uzbek police in the investigation of the murder of his
secretary, Karina Loiper, and her mother, Svetlana Loiper, in

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June 2006 (ref A). He said that the police eventually
apprehended the perpetrator, who worked as a conductor on the
secretary's daily bus commute, after discovering books in

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his home stolen from the Loipers' apartment. The individual
was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment. The Rabbi stressed
that the murders were in no way tied to anti-Semitism.

JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE ALSO THREATENED WITH LOSS OF
REGISTRATION
-------------- --------------


10. (C) At approximately the same time that Rabbi Gurevich's
application for accreditation renewal was denied, the
Ministry of Justice also began to threaten the registration
of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC),an American-Jewish
humanitarian organization. In an April 2 Interfax article,
Abdusattarov is quoted as stating that a probe into the
operations of JDC's Tashkent office had "revealed a number of
major violations of law" which were enough to suspend the
organization's operations in Uzbekistan. When poloff
contacted JDC Tashkent Director Boris Nedosekov about the
article on April 4, he reported being completely taken aback
by it, as the Ministry had never informed him they were
considering revoking Joint's registration in Uzbekistan.


11. (C) Nedosekov told poloff that the Ministry of Justice
had completed a routine audit of JDC in November 2007. JDC
received the results of the audit in February 2008, which
alleged that it had never registered its international logo
in Uzbekistan (a charge that the Ministry has levied at other
American NGOs in previous years) and lacked an adequate
personnel list. After receiving the results, Nedosekov said
that he called the Ministry to set up a meeting, and was told
instead to answer the complaint in writing, which he did.
Nedosekov heard nothing back from the Ministry until the
Interfax article appeared on April 2.


12. (C) After the Interfax article appeared, Nedosekov
contacted the Ministry again, which agreed to meet with him
on April 14. Nedosekov described the meeting as generally
positive, and he was informed that JDC had to resolve the
problems uncovered during the November 2007 audit and
reregister itself in Uzbekistan as a local branch office of
JDC, rather than as an international organization. On April
21, Nedosekov told poloff that he was just waiting on some
final documentation from JDC's New York office before
submitting the corrected paperwork to the Ministry.


BOTH GUREVICH AND JDC SAY NEW BANKING INTERFERING WITH
ABILITY TO DISTRIBUTE AID
-------------- --------------


13. (C) Both Rabbi Gurevich and JDC also complained that
Uzbekistan's recently revised banking regulations continue to
severely disrupt their ability to distribute humanitarian aid
in the country. The onerous process they described is
consistent with other recent complaints from the business and
NGO communities (ref B).


14. (C) Nedosekov said that the Director of Uzbekistan's
Central Bank issued an internal document in December 2007

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requiring that foreign organizations deposit their funds in
one of two banks (the National Bank of Uzbekistan and Asaka
Bank),which would then review the use of grant monies from
abroad. JDC opened a bank account at the National Bank of
Uzbekistan, and must now submit an application to the bank's
grant commission every month before it can withdraw any funds
for programmatic purposes (it does not need permission to
withdraw money for administrative purposes). JDC submitted
its first application to the bank on February 15, and only
received permission to withdraw funds on April 18. JDC is
still waiting on an answer on its second application to
withdraw funds that it made on March 15. The bank has
reportedly promised to speed up the process in the future.
According to Nedosekov, at one point in February, a bank
official also suggested that a bribe might facilitate the
process.


15. (C) Rabbi Gurevich made similar complaints about the new
banking regulations. The Lubavitch Movement has opened bank
accounts with both the National Bank of Uzbekistan and Asaka
Bank, and has not yet received permission from either bank to
withdraw funds for its humanitarian projects.

RABBI GUREVICH AND ISRAELI AMBASSADOR MEET WITH AMBASSADOR
-------------- --------------


16. (C) On May 1, the Ambassador met with Rabbi Gurevich and
the Israeli Ambassador to discuss Gurevich's accreditation
issues. Gurevich noted that he has still not heard anything
from the Justice Ministry regarding his reapplication for
accreditation. The Ambassador and Israeli Ambassador had
requested a joint meeting with Religious Affairs Committee
Chairman Yusupov via diplomatic note on April 8, but the
government has yet to respond to their request.


17. (C) The three also discussed possible motives behind the
Justice Ministry's rejection of Gurevich's accreditation
renewal. Both the Israeli Ambassador and Gurevich noted that
some members of the Bukharan Jewish community (including
members based in New York) might be conspiring to deport the
Rabbi to gain control of the Lubavitch Movement's finances
(largely donated by wealthy Israeli businessman Lev Leviev),
and speculated that these individuals may have paid off Uzbek
officials to intervene on their behalf. The Israeli
Ambassador also noted that a construction company allegedly
owned by Gulnora Karimova, the President Karimov's eldest
daughter, is seeking to demolish a neighborhood in which
Gurevich's synagogue is located. The Ambassador observed
that the organizations' banking difficulties might also be
tied to their accreditation and registration issues. If some
government officials had conspired to misuse the
organizations' grant monies, they also may have sought to
cover their tracks by deporting the Rabbi and shutting down
JDC.

OFFICIAL REPORTEDLY FIRED FOR SMEARING GUREVICH
-------------- --


18. (SBU) On May 1, the independent Uzmetronom website
reported that Dilshod Nurullaev, a National Security Council
official, was allegedly fired for authorizing the smear
articles against Gurevich which appeared on state-controlled
websites shortly before his accreditation renewal was denied.
The article notes rumors that Nurullaev conspired with
unnamed officials at the Ministry of Justice to take sides in
an "internal dispute" within Uzbekistan's Jewish community.
The story has not yet been confirmed.

COMMENT
--------------


19. (C) It remains unclear what prompted the Justice
Ministry in early April to more or less simultaneously deny
the accreditation of Rabbi Gurevich and threaten the closure
of the Joint Distribution Committee. However, we do not
necessarily believe that the organizations were targeted
because of their Jewish or American connections. It appears

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that the Ministry's threats were perhaps more bluster than
real, and we expect that it will now reconsider the
organizations' new applications for accreditation and
registration. The appearance of the Uzmetronom article also
lends credence to the view that certain Uzbek officials might
have taken sides in an internal conflict within the Jewish
the community, possibly over access to funds from wealthy
donors like Lev Leviev. The Uzbek government now seems to be
in damage-control mode and seeking to rein in those
officials.


20. (C) Although their audience with Religious Affairs
Committee Chairman Yusupov has not yet been granted, both the
Ambassador and the Israeli Ambassador have intervened with
other government officials on behalf of both organizations,
and our delegation at the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also raised their cases during a
private meeting with the Uzbek Charge to the OSCE on April

28. The banking issues cited are also a problem for many
NGOs and foreign investors in Uzbekistan. We will continue
to point out to the Uzbek government that it is in its best
interests to revise its banking regulations so that
organizations like the Lubavitch Movement or JDC will not be
prevented from distributing humanitarian aid in a timely
manner.

NORLAND