Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ASHGABAT1155
2009-09-11 10:54:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:
TURKMENISTAN: OSCE CENTER READOUT ON ITS
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C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001155
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR SCA/CEN; DRL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM OCSE TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: OSCE CENTER READOUT ON ITS
STATEMENT TO PERMANENT COUNCIL
REF: ASHGABAT 1122
Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001155
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR SCA/CEN; DRL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM OCSE TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: OSCE CENTER READOUT ON ITS
STATEMENT TO PERMANENT COUNCIL
REF: ASHGABAT 1122
Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
1. (C) On September 9, OSCE Center in Ashgabat Political
Officer and Acting Head of Center Anne Suotula gave Charge a
readout on the Center's annual Statement to the OSCE
Permanent Council, presented on September 3 in Vienna.
According to Suotula, the statement highlighted new areas in
the Center's work, primarily in the human dimension sphere.
These included media training, penitentiary reform, training
of judges and prosecutors in human rights standards, and the
opening of a hot line for victims of domestic violence.
Suotula noted that the hot line is particularly noteworthy
given that during a recent meeting by OSCE Special
Representative for TIP Eva Biaudet with officials at the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD),Biaudet was told that
there is no human trafficking, prostitution, domestic
violence, or transnational crime in Turkmenistan. When the
MVD official was pressed on this assertion, she suggested
that if there were cases of domestic violence, then the
victim was to blame. The officials were more willing to
discuss domestic violence when the OSCE Special
Representative pointed out that her home country of Finland
also had this problem. Suotula mentioned that a joint
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan customs border training project
would begin at the end of September as a follow-up to a
recently concluded project (reftel). She suggested that a
study trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010 would be a
useful component.
2. (C) Suotula thought the reaction of the Turkmen government
to the Statement had been "good." She noted that cooperation
with the government has been expanding and that for 2009, 28
of the proposed 30 projects had been approved. She hoped for
a similar outcome for the recently submitted list of proposed
projects for 2010, pointing out that Head of Center Arsim
Zekolli was willing to test the boundaries by including a
project on shared experience in multi-party political
systems. Suotula described the Russian response to the
Statement as positive, although it included the standard
Russian view that the Statement should have focused more on
the Center's activities and less on political conditions in
the country. The Russians also observed that the aim of OSCE
activity is to hand programs over to host countries and phase
out the OSCE's role.
3. (C) COMMENT: Turkmen government cooperation with the OSCE
has been improving, as evidenced by the increasing number and
quality of projects that the OSCE has been able to implement.
It will be interesting to see if the positive momentum
continues as the Center pushes programs, such as democratic
development, that lie at the heart of the OSCE agenda but
could easily appear anathema to the Turkmenistan government.
END COMMENT.
CURRAN
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR SCA/CEN; DRL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM OCSE TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: OSCE CENTER READOUT ON ITS
STATEMENT TO PERMANENT COUNCIL
REF: ASHGABAT 1122
Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
1. (C) On September 9, OSCE Center in Ashgabat Political
Officer and Acting Head of Center Anne Suotula gave Charge a
readout on the Center's annual Statement to the OSCE
Permanent Council, presented on September 3 in Vienna.
According to Suotula, the statement highlighted new areas in
the Center's work, primarily in the human dimension sphere.
These included media training, penitentiary reform, training
of judges and prosecutors in human rights standards, and the
opening of a hot line for victims of domestic violence.
Suotula noted that the hot line is particularly noteworthy
given that during a recent meeting by OSCE Special
Representative for TIP Eva Biaudet with officials at the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD),Biaudet was told that
there is no human trafficking, prostitution, domestic
violence, or transnational crime in Turkmenistan. When the
MVD official was pressed on this assertion, she suggested
that if there were cases of domestic violence, then the
victim was to blame. The officials were more willing to
discuss domestic violence when the OSCE Special
Representative pointed out that her home country of Finland
also had this problem. Suotula mentioned that a joint
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan customs border training project
would begin at the end of September as a follow-up to a
recently concluded project (reftel). She suggested that a
study trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010 would be a
useful component.
2. (C) Suotula thought the reaction of the Turkmen government
to the Statement had been "good." She noted that cooperation
with the government has been expanding and that for 2009, 28
of the proposed 30 projects had been approved. She hoped for
a similar outcome for the recently submitted list of proposed
projects for 2010, pointing out that Head of Center Arsim
Zekolli was willing to test the boundaries by including a
project on shared experience in multi-party political
systems. Suotula described the Russian response to the
Statement as positive, although it included the standard
Russian view that the Statement should have focused more on
the Center's activities and less on political conditions in
the country. The Russians also observed that the aim of OSCE
activity is to hand programs over to host countries and phase
out the OSCE's role.
3. (C) COMMENT: Turkmen government cooperation with the OSCE
has been improving, as evidenced by the increasing number and
quality of projects that the OSCE has been able to implement.
It will be interesting to see if the positive momentum
continues as the Center pushes programs, such as democratic
development, that lie at the heart of the OSCE agenda but
could easily appear anathema to the Turkmenistan government.
END COMMENT.
CURRAN