UZBEKISTAN: ACTIVIST ACCUSES OPPOSITIONISTS OF EMBEZZLING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TASHKENT 000585 SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA, DRL, EUR/ACE, AND INR AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PASS TO AMEMBASSY PODGORICA AMEMBASSY ATHENS PASS TO AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/04/27 TAGS: PHUM EAID KCRM KDEM PGOV PINR PREL SOCI UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: ACTIVIST ACCUSES OPPOSITIONISTS OF EMBEZZLING NED GRANT FUNDS REF: TASHKENT 361 CLASSIFIED BY: Richard Fitzmaurice, P/E Officer, Department of State; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) Summary: During an April 23 meeting with poloff, Human Rights Alliance activist Elena Urlaeva, who was attacked by unknown assailants on April 15 (septel),accused Free Farmers Party leader Nigara Khidoyatova and Gulam Umarov, the son of imprisoned Sunshine Coalition leader Sanjar Umarov, of embezzling National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grant monies they received to support the Alliance's activities. After Urlaeva raised her concerns with Khidoyatova and Gulam Umarov last fall, they reportedly accused her of being "ungrateful," largely broke off contact with the Alliance, and began to assemble a new group of activists to support. As we have observed first-hand the apparent disparity between what the Sunshine Coalition received to support the Alliance's activities and the Alliance's persistent lack of resources, we believe Urlaeva's allegations are credible and warrant further investigation. We also are disturbed by reports that the Sunshine Coalition was paying activists to participate in public protests in Tashkent, which, in many cases, needlessly put them in harm's way. End summary. URLAEVA ACCUSES SUNSHINE COALITION OF EMBEZZLING FUNDS -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) During an April 23 meeting with poloff, Human Rights Alliance member Elena Urlaeva accused Free Farmers Party leader Nigara Khidoyatova and Gulam Umarov, the son of imprisoned Sunshine Coalition leader Sanjar Umarov, of embezzling National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grant monies that they received to fund the Human Rights Alliance's activities Both Urlaeva and Khidoyatova have long reported to poloff that the Human Rights Alliance received almost all of its funding from the Umarov family via Khidoyatova. During a visit to NED's offices in Washington as part of an Embassy-sponsored International Visitors program in September 2008, Urlaeva reported being shocked to learn that the Sunshine Coalition received nearly 100,000 dollars in NED grant monies to support the Human Rights Alliance (Note: This is the figure cited by Urlaeva. Post is not sure exactly how much the Sunshine Coalition received from NED to support the Alliance. End note.) In contrast, Urlaeva reported that the Alliance only received about 600 dollars a month in operating expenses for a total of nine months (Comment: In his frequent interactions with the Human Rights Alliance in 2007 and 2008, poloff found the organization to be highly disorganized and poorly funded. We believe the amount cited by Urlaeva is credible. End comment.) In addition to this amount, she reported that Khidoyatova paid her and other activists roughly 50 dollars each time they participated in one of their frequent pickets in Tashkent. ¶3. (C) Urlaeva accused Khidoyatova and the Umarov family of pocketing the rest of the grant money. After the meeting at NED, Urlaeva said she shared her concerns with Khidoyatova and Gulam Umarov, who reportedly accused her of being "ungrateful" and then largely broke off contact with her and the other Alliance members. She added that when NED recently agreed to continue to fund the Sunshine Coalition, Khidoyatova began assembling a new group of human rights activists in Tashkent to support. In addition, Urlaeva accused Gulam Umarov of being slow in providing promised emergency assistance to her, and then not providing her the full amount to which she was entitled. NED INTERIM GRANT ASSESSMENT IN EARLY 2008 TASHKENT 00000585 002 OF 004 -------------- ¶4. (U) In March 2008, Embassy Tashkent was asked to review the interim assessment for the Sunshine Coalition's NED grant. The assessment did not include how much the Sunshine Coalition received from NED in 2007 (the first half of the grant period),but it recommended that the Coalition be given 65,972 dollars to continue its activities in Uzbekistan between April 2008 and March 2009. The assessment noted that the "Sunshine Uzbekistan received Endowment support to advocate for political prisoners, and to assist human rights activists in Tashkent to carry out their work...the Sunshine Uzbekistan provided a meeting place for Uzbekistan's human rights activists...the organization hosted weekly meetings, attended by an average of 20 human rights activists...these weekly meetings provided activists a chance to exchange ideas and experiences, discuss developments, and coordinate activities." The interim assessment further noted that the "Sunshine Uzbekistan has become an important advocate and resource for the few human rights activists still able to work in the country... the weekly meetings sponsored by Sunshine Uzbekistan are a valuable opportunity for the country's activists to meet and discuss experiences...the growing number of participants reveals its importance to civil society...the organization's program manager has met with Endowment staff several times at NED's Washington, DC, office...for these reasons, Endowment staff recommends continued funding for this organization." ¶5. (SBU) Commenting on the NED's interim assessment, we voiced approval of continuing NED support for the Sunshine Coalition, but we also noted suspicion that the "results being reported to NED [by the Sunshine Coalition] are exaggerated." Poloff remembers being surprised at the time by the disparity between the amount of money the NED apparently gave to the Sunshine Coalition to support the Human Rights Alliance and how poorly funded the Alliance appeared to be. The advocacy efforts of the Sunshine Coalition on behalf of any political prisoner other than Sanjar Umarov were not clearly visible, and the Human Rights Alliance was a highly disorganized and bare-bones operation, even by the relatively low standards of other independent human rights groups in Tashkent. KHIDOYATOVA PLANS TO CREATE NEW GROUP LED BY FORMER MVD LECTURER -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) In a meeting on April 1, Nigara Khidoyatova told poloff that NED had extended the Sunshine Coalition grant by another year. She also reported that the Sunshine Coalition had ceased support of the Human Rights Alliance and was now creating a new human rights organization to be led by Otabek Makhamov, a former Ministry of Interior (MVD) lieutenant and lecturer at the MVD academy, who was detained on espionage charges in February 2007 after he attended a human rights workshop at the Budapest-based International Law Enforcement Academy without gaining permission from his superiors. She said the new group would be comprised mostly of young activists and would seek to attract more youth into civil society activism. ¶7. (C) On April 24, Nigara's sister Nadira Khidoyatova, a co-founder of the Sunshine Coalition, confirmed that her organization was no longer supporting the Human Rights Alliance and was instead working with a new group of human rights activists. Nadira described Urlaeva as "unprofessional" and overly-confrontational. Instead, Nadira reported that the TASHKENT 00000585 003 OF 004 Coalition was now seeking to work with other activists, including Ezgulik Chairwoman Vasila Inoyatova and Rapid Reaction Group member Sukhrob Ismoilov, who were "more competent" and took a less confrontational stance towards authorities. Nadira, who completed a suspended sentence on corruption charges this year, also reported being recently hauled into the General Prosecutor's Office in Tashkent and grilled by officials about the Sunshine Coalition's activities in Uzbekistan. She reportedly told officials that the Coalition's main goal was to "improve relations between Uzbekistan and the United States." FORMER MVD LECTURER AMNESTIED IN 2008 -------------- ¶8. (C) On April 24, Nigara Khidoyatova reported that after Makhamov returned from the Budapest conference, he was arrested, charged with spying for the United States, and eventually sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. According to Khidoyatova, Makhamov was told by Uzbek authorities that if he confessed to "planning a color revolution" in Uzbekistan, he would be released. Makhamov reportedly refused to confess, against the advice of his own lawyer. After serving one and half years at the Bekobad prison, Makhamov was amnestied and released in the fall of 2008. During his imprisonment, Makhamov's mother, a human rights activist the Ferghana valley, reportedly died of natural causes. UPDATE ON SANJAR UMAROV -------------- ¶9. (C) On April 1, Nigara Khidoyatova said that Sanjar Umarov had been transferred again in mid-March from the Tavaksay prison in Tashkent province to the Sangorod prison hospital in Tashkent, presumably for medical treatment. She also said that Umarov's naturalized AmCit wife had applied for an Uzbek visa at the Uzbek Embassy in Washington, but had not yet received any response. In addition, she claimed to have written a book in Russian on Umarov and was trying to get it translated into English. On April 24, Nigara reported she that had no further update on Umarov's condition or current whereabouts. In early March, Khidoyatova explained that Umarov's sister-in-law had visited him in prison in February and had found that his health condition was still critical and had not improved since October 2008 (reftel). COMMENT -------------- ¶10. (C) We are unable to verify Urlaeva's accusations against the Sunshine Coalition and we doubt the accuracy of other allegations recently made by Urlaeva, including that she was attacked by unknown assailants on April 15 (septel). Still, we believe her allegations that the Sunshine Coalition might have embezzled NED grant monies are credible and warrant further investigation, as they track with our own observations on the apparent disparity between what the Sunshine Coalition supposedly gave to the Human Rights Alliance under its NED grant and the amount of money the Alliance appears to have actually received. It is also suspicious that Khidoyatova and Gulam Umarov ended their support for Urlaeva TASHKENT 00000585 004 OF 004 after she began asking questions about the amount of funding they received from NED. If Urlaeva had not participated in the IV program in September 2008 and visited NED's offices, it would have been highly unlikely that she or any other Alliance would have found out how much the Sunshine Coalition was actually receiving to support the Alliance. We recommend that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) request a full accounting from Gulam Umarov of the money that the Sunshine Coalition spent on the Alliance's activities. ¶11. (C) In addition, we are disturbed by Urlaeva's revelation that her and other Alliance activists were paid by Khidoyatova for participating in public protests demanding the release of political prisoners, including Sanjar Umarov. Khidoyatova appears to have taken advantage of the elderly (and destitute) Alliance activists, who are well-intentioned but naive. In doing so, she also unnecessarily put the activists in harm's way, as the protests were almost invariably followed by a government crackdown. In general, we believe that the Sunshine Coalition's activities in Uzbekistan, including its support for the Human Rights Alliance, have been largely counterproductive. The Alliance activists were mostly involved in organizing small-scale public protests which appear to have had little impact beyond landing participants in trouble. We also fear that by providing funding support to human rights activists via an opposition political party, the NED is feeding into the government's paranoia that the U.S. government is supporting activists to conduct a "color revolution." While we believe it is important to continue to support independent civil society actors in Uzbekistan, we believe such support should be directed towards activists and NGOs in Uzbekistan that are not directly affiliated with the political opposition. ¶12. (C) We long have had concerns about the true allegiance of the Khidoyatova sisters, whom even members of the Umarov family say they do not fully trust. While other, less prominent activists have quickly run afoul of authorities for any criticism of the current regime, Nigara appears to be able to operate more or less freely, even though she has been very public in her opposition and routinely spreads unfounded rumors among the diplomatic corps about the health of President Karimov or the business activities of his daughters. Nadira was imprisoned for several months in 2006, but unlike Umarov himself, she was released and given only a suspended sentence. NORLAND