UZBEKISTAN GRANTS STCU AN EXTENSION, BUT PROBLEMS PERSIST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TASHKENT 000151

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019-02-09
TAGS: PREL KNNP UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN GRANTS STCU AN EXTENSION, BUT PROBLEMS PERSIST

REF: a) 06 TASHKENT 610, b) 06 TASHKENT 950, c) 06 TASHKENT 2343
d) 07 TASHKENT 514

CLASSIFIED BY: Steven Prohaska, Second Secretary, P/E Office; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (C) The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU)
continues to face accreditation problems in Uzbekistan, though the
Government of Uzbekistan (GOU) has given STCU until the end of 2009
to complete active projects. (Note: The STCU, which works to
combat proliferation by diverting the efforts of former weapons
scientists in the CIS toward peaceful scientific research projects,
has been working in Uzbekistan since 1998. STCU has supported over
1,000 Uzbek scientists working on over 105 projects related to
agriculture, cotton production, biomedical technologies, nuclear
safety, energy technologies, and other fields. End note.) The
STCU's last remaining representative in Uzbekistan, Regina
Sattarova, told Poloff on January 16 that STCU's main priorities
are nonproliferation and building the sustainability of scientific
institutes. The GOU subsidizes these institutes, but this alone is
not enough to keep them running and STCU also provides the
institutes with modern equipment. STCU works with Uzbekistan's
Academy of Sciences and the Center for Science and Technology
Development under the Cabinet of Ministers.


2. (C) Sattarova complained that while the scientific community in
Uzbekistan is very interested in cooperation with STCU, the
government is not. STCU has had problems with receiving
accreditation from Uzbekistan since 2006. Despite the center's
repeated requests for this, the Government of Uzbekistan has
remained silent, and STCU staff have experienced visa problems.
Sattarova said that some in Uzbekistan's scientific community have
asked whether the Department of State could send a letter on behalf
of STCU requesting that the GOU grant it accreditation. She was not
sure whether the time is right for this yet, however.

Ongoing Projects
--------------


3. (SBU) STCU's nine active projects in Uzbekistan have received
roughly 2.8 million USD in funding from the United States, European
Union, and United Kingdom, and are as follows:

- "Creation of Modern Manufacturing Technologies and Certification
Methods for Radioisotope Production" is a joint project involving
Uzbekistan's Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Tashkent and
Ukraine's Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.
- "Spectroscopic Information and Bound State Potential of Mirror
Nuclei and Rates of Astrophysical Reactions" involves Uzbekistan's
INP in Tashkent.
- "Development of Methods and Equipment for Increasing Cyclotron
Complex Power and Efficiency" involves Uzbekistan's Scientific
Technological Enterprise "Tezlatgich" in Tashkent.
- "Experimental Evaluation of Efficacy of Bacteriophage Treatment
of Bacterial Blight in Cotton and Rice" is a joint project
involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental
Biology, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, and the Institute
of Microbiology, and Georgia's Institute of Bacteriophage,
Microbiology, and Virology.
- "Bioremediation of Soils Contaminated with Petroleum and
Petroleum Products" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's
Institute of Microbiology and the Institute of Petroleum and Gas
Deposits Prospecting Research and Ukraine's Institute for
Physical-Organic Chemistry and Coal Chemistry.
- "Investigation of Soy-Bean Proteins in Treatment of Malignant
Neoplasm" involves Uzbekistan's Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry.
- "Molecular Mapping of Fiber Yield and Quality Genes Using Uzbek
Cotton Germplasm Resources" is a joint project involving
Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- "Characterization and Molecular Mapping of Phytochromes and
Flowering Genes in Cotton" is a joint project involving
Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- "Medical Isotope Development at the Institute of Nuclear Physics"
is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Nuclear
Physics and the Department of Energy.

TASHKENT 00000151 002 OF 002



Comment:
--------------


4. (C) STCU accreditation, if granted, would certainly improve the
center's ability to actively operate in the country and create
opportunities for additional projects. While we can send a request
that the Government of Uzbekistan consider renewing its
accreditation, the center's problems in recent years appear to have
stemmed from lingering GOU distrust of non-governmental
organizations operating outside of its control. It remains unclear
whether the GOU continues to perceive some kind of threat from any
additional STCU projects, but it is at least somewhat encouraging
that the GOU decided to extend its deadline for the completion of
active STCU projects from the end of 2008 until the end of 2009.
NORLAND

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