Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08TASHKENT866
2008-07-25 07:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tashkent
Cable title:  

AMBASSADOR HANFORD MEETS WITH ICRC REPRESENTATIVE

Tags:  PHUM ICRC KIRF PGOV PREL UZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000866 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018
TAGS: PHUM ICRC KIRF PGOV PREL UZ
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR HANFORD MEETS WITH ICRC REPRESENTATIVE

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

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000866

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018
TAGS: PHUM ICRC KIRF PGOV PREL UZ
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR HANFORD MEETS WITH ICRC REPRESENTATIVE

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


1. (C) Summary: During a two-day visit to Uzbekistan,
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John
Hanford met on May 30 with International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) Deputy Director Raffaello Muller, who reported
on prison conditions for individuals convicted of religious
extremism and shared his sober analysis of the likelihood of
prison reform and how to best achieve progress. On May 29,
Hanford also met with government officials to discuss
Uzbekistan's Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation
under the International Religious Freedom Act and the
contents of a draft confidential letter, delivered by Hanford
to the Uzbeks the week before his visit, which lays out steps
the government could take to increase religious freedom and
have its CPC designation eventually lifted. In addition, on
May 30, Hanford met with a variety of religious leaders,
scholars, and human rights activists. (Please see septels).
End summary.

ICRC PRISON VISITS PROCEEDING ACCORDING TO PLAN
-------------- --


2. (C) On May 30, Ambassador Hanford met with International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Deputy Director Raffaello
Muller. In March, the ICRC reached agreement with the Uzbek
government to restart prison visits, which had been stalled
since December 2004, on the basis of a six-month trial
period. Muller noted that a "good dialogue" continued with
Uzbek authorities and that the government had so far
respected the agreement's modalities, which includes
unfettered access to prisons and prisoners. He reported that
the ICRC had conducted seven prison visits to date under the
interim agreement: three in Tashkent, one in Chirchik, and
three in Bukhara province, including one repeat visit.
Muller was adamant that if the Uzbeks did not respect their
standard operating modalities, ICRC would immediately halt
its prison visits in Uzbekistan.

TREATMENT OF RELIGIOUS PRISONERS
--------------


3. (C) Hanford explained to Muller that one of the major

reasons why Uzbekistan was designated a Country of Particular
concern (CPC) were persistent reports that significant
numbers of Muslims had been tortured and sentenced to long
prison sentences for alleged membership in extremist
organizations based often on little more than coerced
confessions. Muller acknowledged hearing of such incidents,
noting estimates from human rights organizations that Uzbek
prisons held 3,000 to 7,000 political prisoners, most of whom
were reportedly sentenced on religious extremism charges.
However, Muller stressed that he had no way to determine the
credibility of such estimates. He was unable to estimate
what percentage of the prison population comprised religious
prisoners. Muller explained that while the ICRC was
responsible for monitoring the welfare of all prisoners, it
paid special attention to political prisoners (including
religious prisoners),as they were more often exposed to
mistreatment.


4. (C) Muller noted that at least according to Uzbek prison
regulations, all prisoners have the right to fully practice
their religion. During visits to prisons, Muller reported
seeing areas inmates could use to pray and copies of the
Koran and the Bible in prison libraries. However, he also
heard about incidents in which prisoners were punished for
violating internal prison regulations by praying at certain
times of the day. Muller believed that prison regulations on
religious practice were inconsistent, or applied
inconsistently. He believed that individuals sentenced on
religious extremism charges had less freedom to practice
their religion than other inmates. Muller also noted that
prison conditions varied considerably across Uzbekistan, and
that staff at certain prisoners were better trained or more
lenient than others.

PRISON VISIT MECHANICS
--------------


5. (C) Muller explained that ICRC currently has six prison
monitors in Uzbekistan, and that it takes about a week to
conduct each prison visit. Upon first arriving at the
prison, ICRC asks to see the list of prisoners and archives
of the prison. It then interviews a random selection of
detainees, spending between 20 minutes and two hours
interviewing each of them. ICRC also will specifically
request to see certain political prisoners. Before leaving
the prison, the ICRC monitors will share their initial
assessment of conditions with the prison administration.
ICRC attempts to revisit prisons in order to determine
whether authorities have made requested improvements and to
ensure that prisoners were not punished for talking with
ICRC. The organization also periodically shares its findings
with higher-level officials. Between 2001 and 2004, Muller
said that ICRC managed to visit almost all of Uzbekistan's
detention facilities. He noted that there have been some
improvements in prison conditions since 2001.


6. (C) Muller emphasized that receiving a comprehensive list
of the inmates for each prison was one of ICRC's standard
operating modalities and was non-negotiable from their
standpoint. Muller said that ICRC could not share the lists
with other organizations, as doing so would violate its
confidentiality agreement with the government. Muller
recognized that the government could still try to hide
certain prisoners from the ICRC by transferring them to other
locations, but he believed that it would be difficult to hide
individuals indefinitely. He pointed to his own experience
in Chechnya, where authorities tried but failed to hide
certain prisoners from the ICRC, whose existence eventually
became known through repeated visits. However, Muller added
that authorities in Chechnya eventually constrained the
ICRC's access to prisons after they decided the organization
knew too much about conditions.

PROSPECTS FOR PRISON REFORM
--------------


7. (C) Muller believed that most of the human rights
violations he observed in Uzbek prisons were the result of
two factors: poor training for Uzbek prison guards and
policies determined by higher-level Uzbek officials. He
noted that the ICRC was able to point out and attempt to
correct mistakes made by lower-level prison authorities, but
it had much less influence on decisions made at higher levels
of government. Muller explained that prison officials and
guards themselves were operating under high degrees of stress
and suffered from elevated suicide rates. Another major
problem Muller noted was that prison officials were generally
not punished for committing human rights violations


8. (C) Muller was somewhat skeptical about the short-term
prospect of improving prison conditions in Uzbekistan. Since
the restart of prison visits in March, Muller noted that some
things had improved at various prisons, but he did not see
systematic improvements. Muller believed that reformers
existed within the Uzbek government, including former Deputy
Interior Minister and current Deputy General Prosecutor
Alisher Sharafutdinov, but noted that they were few and far
between. He believed that real change would be generational,
observing that the current ruling class still shared a
largely Soviet mentality, while the younger generation tended
to be more worldly and interested in human rights issues.

MULLER'S VIEWS ON SANCTIONS
--------------


9. (C) In response to Hanford's question, Muller argued that
sanctions were counterproductive in the context of
Uzbekistan, observing that EU sanctions against Uzbekistan,
first implemented in the wake of the 2005 Andijon events,
were largely symbolic and ineffective. He believed that the
imposition of EU sanctions blocked, rather than facilitated,
dialogue with the Uzbek government on human rights issues,
including on restarting ICRC prison visits. Muller explained
that Uzbekistan's proud and stubborn officials were afraid of
appearing to lose face by caving into the EU's political
pressures on human rights. Instead, he noted that it was
only after the EU decreased the pressure on Uzbekistan by
waiving the sanctions for six months in October 2007 that the
ICRC and the government were able to reengage in a serious
dialogue on restarting prison visits.


10. (C) Rather than the threat of sanctions, Muller believed
that the most effective approach for dealing with the Uzbek
government on human rights issues was to offer it
step-by-step assistance in bringing its law enforcement and
judicial systems up to international standards. Muller
believed that Uzbek officials were more receptive to offers
of assistance than threats of sanctions.

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


11. (C) What Muller told us about conditions improving for
religious prisoners at some prisons, but not at others,
tracks generally with what we have heard from human rights
activists. We also agree with Muller's assessment that
offers of assistance, rather than threats of sanctions, are
likely to spur further human rights and religious freedom
improvements.
BUTCHER