Uzbekistan: Human Rights Round Table

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TASHKENT 001095

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/06/26
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SUBJECT: Uzbekistan: Human Rights Round Table

TASHKENT 00001095 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Holly Thomas, Pol/Econ Officer, Department of State;
REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (C) Summary: Local human rights activists and members of
the diplomatic corps attended a round table discussion at the
Embassy on June 23, 2009. Among the attendees was Elena Urlaeva,
who reported she is doing fine after having been roughed last week
by hooligans while doing activist work. Highlights of the
discussion included the assertion that the GOU is trying to assert
its control over the human rights NGO community by co-opting the
issue; a call to stand up for the rights of Hizb ut-Tahrir members
in custody, and a plea that child labor in the cotton sector not be
viewed in isolation from larger issues of agricultural reform.
Consensus in the room was that the GOU has become savvier talking
about human rights issues, but that little has changed on the
ground. End Summary.



Urlaeva Attacked Again, Doing Fine

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2. (C) Press reports last week had mentioned that Elena
Urlaeva from the Human Rights Alliance was attacked in front of the
Czech Embassy when trying to call attention to certain human rights
abuses. Urlaeva claims to have been a frequent victim of attacks
in the past, some of which have led to serious injury. She stated
that this time, "hooligans" attempted to stab her as local police
looked on, but she suffered only minor injuries. She appeared to
be in good health and good spirits, although she expressed her
concern about increasing harassment and administrative cases being
brought against activists in an effort to intimidate them.



GOU Co-Opting the Role of NGOs doing Human Rights Work?

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3. (C) Sukhrob Ismailov, a Columbia University alumnus from
Rapid Reaction Group (an organization of local experts and analysts
looking at trends and prognoses in the area of human rights),
stated that the GOU is giving a great deal of attention to human
rights issues right now, hosting various conferences and events on
a frequent basis. Ismailov asserted that this attention is merely
cosmetic, and part of the government's broader strategy to co-opt
and control the NGO sector.



The Meat Grinder Effect

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4. (C) Dilarom Iskhakova, an activist working against torture
and ill-treatment in prisons, spoke passionately about the
mistreatment that alleged members of Hizb ut-Tahrir are receiving
in pre-trial detention facilities, claiming that one alleged member
was recently killed as a result of torture while in detention. She
argued that it is necessary to set aside disagreement with avowedly
extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir ideology in order to recognize the abuses
that are going on against alleged members and to fight against
those abuses. She also stated that the more these people are
victimized, the more extreme a person's views become, and the more
the Hizb ut-Tahrir membership grows. "It's like a meat grinder,"
she said.

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Child Labor in the Cotton Industry

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5. (U) Three activists from different organizations involved
with the child labor issue all remarked that child labor in the
cotton industry cannot be looked at in isolation, and commented
that reforms of the entire agricultural system would be necessary
to end the long-standing practice of sending school children to
pick cotton during the fall harvest. One activist added that
asking the world to boycott Uzbekistan cotton is not the way to go
about ending the practice.




6. (C) Comment: The round table provided a good opportunity
to take the measure of the human rights situation from some of our
most-respected contacts. That the GOU is trying to co-opt the NGO
work in the human rights field is an interesting assertion that
appears to be somewhat borne out by trends we have observed as
well. The issue of abuses against alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members
while in custody is one that does not always get much attention or
sympathy in Uzbekistan, but it raises the concern that torture
against these people is a catalyst to increased extremism that
could actually strengthen Hizb ut-Tahrir in the long run.



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