id: 43541
date: 10/25/2005 8:57
refid: 05DUSHANBE1729
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: CONFIDENTIAL
destination: 05DUSHANBE1702|05DUSHANBE670
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
C O N F I D E N T I A L DUSHANBE
001729
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, SA, DRL
NSC FOR MERKEL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2015
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, PINR, KDEM, TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: SWIMMING
AROUND IN AUTHORITARIAN MOLASSES
REF: A) DUSHANBE 0670 B) DUSHANBE
1702
CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy
Dushanbe.
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)
1. (C) SUMMARY: Trying to do the U.S. Government’s business
in
Tajikistan has never been easy, in part because of
under-staffing and low capacity at many of the ministries.
Further, the authoritarian desire to micromanage, as well as the
inclination to buck even minor decisions up to a minister or to
the President himself for fear of making the «wrong decision,»
slows things down, sometimes to the point of paralysis. Since
the «color revolutions» and subsequent pressure from Moscow to
control the Western presence in Tajikistan, these tendencies
have grown stronger and more aggravating. Embassy Dushanbe has
relatively easy access in areas that the Tajik Government sees
as beneficial to its interests — especially the Tajik Border
Guards, the Drug Control Agency, and some parts of the defense
establishment like the National Guard and even the Interior
Ministry. But anything that
smacks of «political» can be
dragged out nearly ad infinitum.
The result is sometimes lost
programs and lost opportunities.
In the end, this paranoia and
rigidity could be self-defeating for the current Government of
Tajikistan. It may think it is
maintaining political stability,
but it’s the false stability Moscow trumpets as the be-all and
end-all for Central Asia. END
SUMMARY.
2. (C) Tajikistan has long
required that meetings with
ministers be requested via Diplomatic Note to the Foreign
Ministry. In an efficient,
smoothly running government, this
would be merely an irritant.
However, too frequently initial
diplomatic notes require several follow-up phone calls to the
ministry in question, then a follow-up call to the MFA, and then
a second diplomatic note weeks later to remind about the first
request.
3. (C) We know that most MFA
offices include Ministry of
Security (MB) personnel, and the Protocol Office is no
exception. We can almost imagine
the MB clerk in Protocol
sorting dip-note requests for meetings into three stacks:
«probably OK,» «maybe later,» and «when hell
freezes over.»
4. (C) The April 14 MFA directive
that embassies and NGOs
inform the MFA by diplomatic note — in advance — of any activity
planned (reftel), was never fully implemented. And, in fact,
Western Embassies and a number of NGOs, under U.S. leadership,
agreed to ignore it. Nevertheless,
this directive may have had
a chilling effect, because lower-level bureaucrats, especially
outside of Dushanbe, sometimes resist giving permission for
programs and projects without an explicit go-ahead from the
central government. As a result,
it sometimes seems
increasingly difficult for NGOs, international organizations,
and embassies to carry out their missions in Tajikistan.
THE UNITED STATES NOT THE ONLY TARGET
5. (C) Organizations such as the
UN and International Committee
of the Red Cross have observed a slowing down or stopping of
their usual activities while they wait for government
«facilitation.»
Independent training programs and conferences
have been delayed without the proper «permissions.» The UN
Tajikistan Office for Peace Building reports that without a
month’s advance notice, visiting delegations cannot get courtesy
calls on partner ministries.
6. (C) In the last two months,
Post has frequently faced a dead
end trying to arrange things as simple as a courtesy call on a
secondary ministry, let alone a demarche on Avian flu or a
high-level visit. On truly
pressing issues, such as Secretary
Rice’s October 13 visit, Post’s last resort and only point of
contact was to call on First Deputy Foreign Minister Aslov, and
ask him to deal with low-level issues such as motorcade
placement and parking-gate access.
Something is wrong when the
number two in a Foreign Ministry does the work of a desk
officer, even if he is gracious and a good problem-solver.
BOULDER’S INTERNET AND INFORMATION CENTER AT RISK
7. (C) The City of Dushanbe risks
losing a $5 million internet
center from its sister city Boulder because the Mayor’s office
will not make a decision on a contractor, and avoids meetings
with embassy staff. Mayor
Obaidulloyev and his office are
notoriously difficult, and he has made clear that he is not much
interested in this project — even though Boulder has given him
the right to choose the local contractor, which undoubtedly
would mean money in his own pocket from the kick-back. In fact,
he bumped the project site from a prominent downtown location to
the far suburbs because he «didn’t like the
architecture.» We
surmise that the mayor and his Moscow cronies simply do not want
an American «information center» — i.e., a «nest of
spies» — in
Dushanbe.
PERVASIVE CORRUPTION MAY SOMETIMES PLAY A ROLE
8. (C) Even programs and projects
distinctly in Tajikistan’s
interests can get held up unconscionably long. The Ministry of
Energy ignored repeated e-mails and instructions from the U.S.
Trade and Development Agency to help coordinate a hydropower
feasibility study, and risked losing this important opportunity
that they themselves had requested.
We surmise that this may
have been ineptitude or, possibly, irritation at having to do
business by international standards instead of cutting deals and
filling pockets behind closed doors.
(COMMENT: The simple role
of all-pervasive corruption cannot be over-estimated. END
COMMENT.)
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION TURNS RECALCITRANT
9. (C) The paralysis stems in
part from the fact that few Tajik
officials, even deputy ministers, want to take responsibility
for making a decision for fear of making the «wrong» decision.
ABA/CEELI has been trying to implement a Human Rights course in
law schools, but no law faculty will entertain the idea until
written permission comes from the Ministry of Education. The
Deputy Education Minister Irina Karimova refused to discuss the
project, and demurred until the Minister could decide. When the
DCM was able to get a meeting, the Minister declared that
ABA/CEELI’s previous Memorandum of Understanding was invalid,
because his predecessor had signed it.
He required ABA/CEELI to
resubmit its proposal for the Ministry to re-evaluate before any
instruction would be given to the law faculties. Meanwhile the
same Deputy Minister Karimova cancelled another successful
ABA/CEELI project and refuses to discuss the matter with the NGO
or the Embassy.
10. (C) Part of this problem is
that ministers, in general,
only want to meet with Ambassadors.
This creates a vicious and
inefficient cycle, because in «normal» countries, all embassy
officers conduct the daily work of the Mission with their
host-country counterparts. By
imposing their own standards that
«only the top has authority,» the Tajiks mire themselves ever
deeper into inaction.
11. (C) More darkly, we speculate
that ABA/CEELI’s problems
stem from the Tajik Government’s Kremlin-influenced instructions
to prevent a «color revolution» in Tajikistan. It should not be
forgotten that following the April 14 directive to pre-inform
about foreign activities, MB instructed all universities and
E
public associations that they were required to report all
approaches by «foreigners» and to turn in the names of all
Tajiks — students, faculty, and association members — who have
contacts with foreigners.
OSCE WHISTLES IN THE DARK
12. (C) Some observers see
nefarious forces at work, reflecting
the influence of a few MB-influenced and self-interested
insiders in the Presidential apparat determined to strictly
control diplomatic and civil-society activities. However, a few
optimistic Western diplomats see the current paralysis simply as
a young government’s growing pains.
Ricard Lepri, Deputy
Director of OSCE, posited that the current go-slow in the MFA
represents Tajikistan’s attempts to have better oversight over
all international activities, not an intent to block activities.
We judge this as an overly
charitable view. (COMMENT: We
would note that the current OSCE Tajikistan leadership adamantly
rejects any step or public statement that might give offense to
the Government of Tajikistan. END
COMMENT.)
13. (C) COMMENT: In response to the difficulties of working in
Tajikistan, many shrug and say, «It’s just the way they are.»
But the current practice of bucking every decision to the top
does not give evidence of a government comfortable with
democratic practices and responsive to its citizens. It creates
paralysis for Western interests.
Coupled with the increased
regulation and scrutiny of Western NGOs, the current situation
suggests a paranoid rigidity that could become self-defeating,
even though it creates the false stability that Moscow trumpets
as the be-all and end-all for Central Asia. END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43628
date: 10/26/2005 4:40
refid: 05DUSHANBE1732
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001732
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, EUR/PPD, EUR/ACE, SA, DRL
NSC FOR MERKEL
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PINR, PROP, KDEM, KPAO, TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: FERMENT FOR
INDEPENDENT MEDIA
1. (U) Sensitive but
unclassified. Please handle accordingly.
Not for public Internet.
2. (SBU) SUMMARY: While the Government of Tajikistan is loathe
to license new independent media outlets, ferment is occurring.
A new, independent weekly newspaper has appeared, albeit with
microscopic circulation. The same
company has appealed to the
Ambassador to lend diplomatic support to its application to
register a new FM radio station.
Likewise, a Tajik NGO has
appealed for help to license a new public television station.
An existing Tajik public relations company, backed by wealthy
Tajik businessmen in Tajikistan and Russia, has received a
license to rebroadcast in Dushanbe Moscow’s «Europa-Plus»
radio
station, and also wants to found a new television station. The
Ministry of Justice, responsible for licensing, still keeps a
tight grip to prevent anything «political» not approved by the
inner circle of decision makers.
Any truly independent,
non-self-censored media will face an uphill battle. END SUMMARY
«2X2»
3. (SBU) A new weekly newspaper,
«2X2,» has been appearing in
Dushanbe for the last six weeks — but only with 99 copies so
that it remains under the legal requirement for registration. A
project of the Avesta Internet Agency, which already produces
reliable and independent Interet and e-mail subscription news (
www.avesta.tj ), «2X2»
is centrist and
somewhat critical of the government.
A-MEDIA
4. (SBU) Chief Editor Zafar
Abdullayev is also the director of
Information Agency Avesta and chairman of the Tajik NGO,
Foundation in Support of Democracy «Kuhi Nor,» which is an
Open
Society Institute project. Abdullayev
was a co-founder of the
independent newspaper, «Asia Plus,» but broke away to found
his
own media outlet. A key editor
for «2X2» is Zebo Tadjibaeva,
also previously with «Asia Plus» as well as a media adviser
for
the Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
5. (SBU) Abdullayev sent the
Ambassador a letter on October 18
recounting his attempts for the last six months to register a
new business, A-Media, with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
A-Media would then apply separately for licenses for «2X2» and
for a new independent FM radio station.
MoJ has played its
standard game of ignoring the application or repeatedly
returning it because of «grammatical errors.» Abdullayev asked
the Ambassador to advocate his case with the Government of
Tajikistan as part of the broader U.S. advocacy for democracy in
Tajikistan.
TV MARKAZ
6. (SBU) The Director of the
Tajik NGO «Fides,» Maarouf
Muhamedov, sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy October 24
detailing his so-far failed attempts with the MoJ to gain a
license for a new public television station, TV Markaz. MoJ
made clear that TV Markaz would not be registered because of
«instruction from top officials not to proceed with registering
media organizations.»
Mumamedov asked, like Abdullayev, that
the U.S. Embassy, as the defender of democracy in the region,
advocate with the government for free and independent media.
EUROPA-PLUS
7. (SBU) A group of wealthy Tajik
businessmen in Tajikistan and
Russia, headed by Nurullo Fasilov of MKR (an Internet,
advertising, and public relations firm), has received a license
for a new private FM radio station in Dushanbe to rebroadcast
Moscow’s Europa Plus. They also
hope to obtain a license for a
private TV station, but no information is available on the
origin of the programming.
Reportedly the MoJ told Fazilov
he’ll get his license, «but if you broadcast anything
‘political’ we’ll close you down.»
8. (SBU) COMMENT: The intriguing factor in the Europa Plus
development is that some rich businessmen in Dushanbe are not
all that satisfied with the current government but are keeping
their heads down. It’s
conceivable that Europa Plus might be a
way for them to position themselves for the future. Some of
them may also be involved with TV Markaz, since Muhamedov hinted
that «Fides» would be only one of the shareholders in his
proposed independent TV station.
END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43641
date: 10/26/2005 9:10
refid: 05DUSHANBE1733
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001733
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, EAID, MOPS, PK, TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN AND USCENTCOM COOPERATE TO DELIVER DISASTER
ASSISTANCE TO PAKISTAN
1. (U) With airlift support by
the U.S. Central Command and the
U.S. Air Force, the Government of Tajikistan shipped 25 tons of
humanitarian assistance to Pakistan via separate sorties on
October 20 and 22. The Tajik
contribution included food,
medicine, blankets, and clothes.
At the request of the Tajik
Government, Embassy Dushanbe’s ODC and DAO coordinated closely
with the Central Command for the C-130 airlift.
2. (U) Embassy Dushanbe’s ODC
chief, LTC Kelsey Harris-Smith
accompanied the first flight, which included a video crew from
Tajikistan State TV and other Tajik officials.
3. (U) Tajik officials told us
this was the first significant
humanitarian relief gesture they had made in recent memory.
4. (U) Embassy Dushanbe
coordinated and released a joint press
statement with the Government of Tajikistan:
BEGIN TEXT:
On October 20 and 22, the Government of Tajikistan will send 25
tons of humanitarian aid to help the people of Pakistan who were
injured and left homeless as a result of the devastating
earthquake.
The Tajik Government will provide food items, medicine,
blankets, clothes, and other items.
The United States Government will provide transport aircraft to
deliver the humanitarian aid from Dushanbe to Islamabad,
Pakistan. This joint humanitarian
action is another example of
the growing partnership between the United States and Tajikistan.
END TEXT.
5. (U) COMMENT:
Given the presence of the Russian military in
Tajikistan and its lift capability in general, it would have
seemed natural for Dushanbe to have turned to Moscow for
cooperation with this humanitarian airlift. END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43754
date: 10/27/2005 3:05
refid: 05DUSHANBE1736
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001736
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL
SUBJECT: THANK YOU LETTER FROM PRESIDENT EMOMALI RAHMONOV TO
PRESIDENT BUSH
1. Please deliver following
message from President Emomali
Rahmonov to President Bush.
Signed original together with
English translation follows by pouch:
2. BEGIN TEXT
October 18, 2005
Dear Mr. President,
Please accept my sincere appreciation of your warm
congratulations on the occasion of the national holiday of the
Republic of Tajikistan — the Independence Day.
I would like to assure you that our traditional friendly
relations will continue to develop in the interests of the
peoples of the two countries.
I take this chance to wish you, Mr. President, health, happiness
and success, and peace and prosperity to the American people.
Sincerely yours,
Emomali Rahmonov
END TEXT
HOAGLAND
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43767
date: 10/27/2005 8:51
refid: 05DUSHANBE1737
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001737
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, SA, DRL
NSC FOR MERKEL
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, KIRF, TI
SUBJECT: DUSHANBE SYNAGOGUE RELOCATION STILL UNRESOLVED, BUT COMING
TO A HEAD
1. (U) Sentitive but
unclassified. Please handle accordingly.
Not for public Internet.
2. (U) The Ambassador called on
Rabbi Mikhail Abdurahmonov on
October 26. Koen Davydov, the
newly-elected Tajik chairman of
the community who has business interests in Israel, also sat in.
On October 21, a young member of
the congregation warned the
Ambassador the Rabbi was about to leave Dushanbe unless he got a
new synagogue and community center building immediately.
3. (U) The vast majority of
Dushanbe’s Bokharan Jews emigrated
in the early 1990s, mostly to Israel and New York, leaving a
remnant community in Dushanbe of about 200, mostly elderly. The
Dushanbe synagogue and community center, which follows the
Orthodox tradition, and which serves hot meals to the indigent
elderly, is in the center of the city within the territory that
has, since the 1980s Soviet urban renewal plan, been slated for
clearance for a vast «national park» (urban green space) to
surround the Palace of Nations, which is now the nearly
completed Presidential Palace.
During the past year, the circa
1940s shabby single-story dwellings in the area, like the
synagogue, have been mostly cleared away. Among the razed
buildings was a neighborhood mosque.
4. (U) We are absolutely certain
that issues of anti-Semitism
are not part of this saga. In
fact, the notoriously difficult
Dushanbe city government has tried to be helpful, within the
limits of secular law.
5. (U) NOTE: Some Jewish news services describe the
Dushanbe
synagogue as a 103-year-old World Heritage Site. It is no such
thing. Dushanbe, an 80-year-old
New Soviet City, did not exist
in 1902 except for a small number of mud-brick houses in a
market village on the bluff above the river. The synagogue was
originally built in the Soviet-Central-Asian residential style
as a private compound in the 1940s when the population surged as
a number of Russian research institutes moved to Dushanbe to
escape the destruction of World War II.
One city archive
document lists the synagogue’s construction date as 1941. END
NOTE.
6. (SBU) Abdurahmonov’s title,
«rabbi,» is a courtesy because
he is not fully qualified to be a rabbi by academic or
theological standards. Since his
first meeting with the
Ambassador in November 2003, Abdurahmonov has insisted he wants
to keep his current building and the city can just make a park
around it. Or, if push came to
shove, he would be willing to
accept from the government another downtown villa of equal size.
He has consistently argued that
the synagogue cannot locate to
a distant site because community members live in the vicinity of
the current building. Being
elderly, they cannot travel far,
and being Orthodox, they cannot use public transportation on the
Sabbath.
7. (SBU) Boris Kandov, President
of the Bokharan Jewish
Community of the United States and Canada, was in Dushanbe in
November 2004 as part of the Bokharan delegation of former
Dushanbe citizens now in the United States who were invited as
honored guests to participate in the 80th anniversary
festivities of the founding of Dushanbe.
The Ambassador asked
Kandov and his colleagues to work with Rabbi Abdurahmonov to
assist in finding a solution.
Kandov and another wealthy
emigre, Yagdarov, offered the community one of Yagdarov’s
residential properties in downtown Dushanbe. But it turned out
there was a complication — it was occupied by relatives of
General Saidamir Zuhurov, former Minister of Security and
current Chairman of the Tajik Border Guard. And they had no
desire to move. Kandov reportedly
worked closely with Mayor
Obaidulloyev, who was quite willing to allocate a new plot of
land for the community.
8. (SBU) Abdurahmonov told the
Ambassador he had told the city,
after Kandov returned to New York, to stop the transfer of the
land to the community because the synagogue wouldn’t own the
land, and therefore would be in danger of losing any new
building on it. The Ambassador
pointed out that no one owns
land in Tajikistan, but they do gain long-term rights to it and
do own buildings they construct on it.
Abdurahmonov then
adjusted his story and said he didn’t want new land because he
didn’t have any money for a new building.
9. (SBU) As a temporary measure,
until the community receives
money for a new building, the city offered three rooms in an old
building in town that currently houses other associations.
Abdurahmonov sniffed that would be inappropriate.
10. (U) When the Ambassador asked
Davydov why businessmen in
Israel haven’t helped the Dushanbe community financially,
Davydov blandly answered, «Because no one asked.»
11. (SBU) Abdurahmonov has told
us before that he is bitter he
was not able to take advantage of emigration to the United
States when it was available to him because he was the family
member forced to stay behind to care for an elderly relative.
Recently, he has been quoted in the international Jewish press
as stridently vowing to leave for Israel unless the City of
Dushanbe gives him a new synagogue.
12. (U) Earlier this year,
Abdurahmonov received a notice from
the city to vacate the site by the end of July. The area around
the synagogue is now mostly rubble, with only a few other
residences and shops still standing.
A new boulevard is already
encroaching on the veranda of one of the synagogue compound’s
buildings. Soon the city will
lose patience, which most cities
would have done long ago, and bring the issue to a head.
13. (SBU) The real issue here is
the elderly folks in the
community. They are being held
captive to brittle egos and what
seems to be, as opaque as it is to us, internecine posturing,
bickering, and buck-passing.
14. (SBU) The U.S. and other
Western Embassies continue to
monitor the synagogue and remnant-community situation closely.
Oddly, the former Israeli Ambassador in Tashkent told us he had
no interest in this affair. The
elderly Tashkent-based,
self-styled Orthodox «Rabbi of Central Asia,» David Gurevich,
occasionally comes to Dushanbe on this issue, but invariably
muddies the waters and leaves hard feelings among government
officials.
15. (SBU) COMMENT: We advocated to Kandov in 2004, and to the
Bokharan community in New York in early 2003, as well as to
NCSJ’s Mark Levin, that the best solution would be for a young
Jewish seminarian to come to Dushanbe for a year or so to give
leadership to the remnant community and to sort out the location
problem. We would think it would
not be too difficult to raise
money in the international Jewish community to build a modest
but appropriate new community center and prayer hall in
Dushanbe. What is required is a
bit a leadership, which
Abdurahmonov does not, and apparently will not, provide. END
COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43914
date: 10/28/2005 11:27
refid: 05DUSHANBE1741
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001741
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SMIG, RS, TI
SUBJECT: RUSSIANS RESCIND INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT REQUIREMENT FOR
TAJIKS
1. (U) The Tajik and Russian
governments officially announced
that beginning November 1, citizens of both countries may travel
between Russia and Tajikistan on their internal passports. A
spokesman for the Tajik MFA stressed the understanding was not
an «international agreement» nor would it create
«international
legal obligations» for either state.
2. (U) This decision reverses
Russia’s May 2005 policy
requiring Tajiks, and other citizens of former Soviet republics,
to have an international passport to enter the Russian
Federation. Between 500,000 and
800,000 Tajik citizens work in
Russia, and wage remittances are conservatively estimated at
$500 million, almost a quarter of the GDP of Tajikistan.
3. (SBU) COMMENT:
When the passport requirement was
implemented, it presented an enormous challenge for the hundreds
of thousands of Tajiks already in Russia without the proper
documents. Not only does the
policy reversal eliminate a
bureaucratic burden for migrant workers, a critical source of
income, it demonstrates Rahmonov’s increasingly close
cooperation with Moscow. END COMMENT
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 43928
date: 10/28/2005 12:23
refid: 05DUSHANBE1742
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
destination: 05DUSHANBE1596
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001742
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: MOJ COMES A
BIT MORE CLEAN ON REGISTRATIONS
REF: DUSHANBE 1596
1. (U) The weekly Tajik-language newspaper,
«Zindagi,»
published excerpts October 27 from a recent Ministry of Justice
press conference in which a Tajik official noted that some
foreign NGOs had activities «beyond the framework of their
charters.» Isroil Shoyev,
Chief, Department of Legal Entity and
Judicial Entity, offered that as a reason why the U.S. NGOs,
Freedom House and National Democratic Institute (NDI), remained
unregistered.
2. (U) In addition to NGO issues, the press
conference
addressed political party and other registration issues.
Sumangul Taghoeva, Chief, Department on Registration of Public
Associations, stated the Ministry had received registration
papers of two new parties: the Party of Economic Reforms and
Agrarian Party and anticipated registering the Progressive Youth
Party (reftel). (NOTE: There was no mention of another party
seeking registration for the second year, Vadhat or «Unity».
END NOTE.) The ministry also announced it had registered and
licensed the activities of eight unnamed publications, and two
unnamed radio and TV stations.
3. (SBU) COMMENT:
All conventional wisdom to the contrary,
previous official explanations about Freedom House and NDI’s
registration woes have always focused on technical issues, not
their activities in Tajikistan.
That an MOJ official is now
publicly questioning NDI and Freedom House’s projects fits into
the trend of increased government scrutiny of any
pro-democracy-read «Western»-activities. As usual, the
government is using legalism to justify political decisions.
END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
NNNN
=======================CABLE ENDS============================
id: 44043
date: 10/31/2005 7:33
refid: 05DUSHANBE1743
origin: Embassy Dushanbe
classification: UNCLASSIFIED
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of
the original cable is not available.
—————— header ends —————-
UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001743
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID, EAGR, TI
SUBJECT: CARE/TAJIKISTAN FY 2006 NOVEMBER CALL FORWARD FOR THE FY
2005-2009 TITLE II DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY PROGRAM
REF: A. CARE/TAJIKISTAN CALL FORWARD LETTER DATED OCTOBER 28, 2005
B. CARE/TAJIKISTAN AER DATED
SEPTEMBER 29, 2005
C. BELLMON DETERMINATION FOR
FY 2004
1. Mission concurs with CARE’s
re-submission of previous call
forward postponed for below mentioned commodities for arrival in
March, 2006. Mission supports CARE’s request for commodities for
distribution submitted on behalf of CARE, Save the Children and
Counterpart.
2. Mission understands that
current financial shortfalls have
resulted in suspended global pipelines for USG supported food
programming and is concerned by the implications that might
impact the commodity allocation for Tajikistan. Mission
requests DCHA/FFP to approve the full call forward.
3. Of this call forward, 1,740 MT
OF WHEAT FLOUR, 160 MT OF
VEGETABLE OIL and 130 MT OF LENTILS will be used for direct
distribution.
4. Mission concurs with
CARE’s call forward of 1,740 MT(50 KG
BAG) WHEAT FLOUR, 160 MT (4-LITER PLASTIC CAN) VEGETABLE OIL and
130 MT (50 KG BAG) LENTILS for March 2006 in-country arrival.
5. Specifications for
commodities are:
Wheat Flour:
Grade: No. 1
Minimum Protein Level: 9.0
percent
Maximum Moisture Content: 14.0
percent
Packing: 50 kg woven
polypropylene bags
Minimum Iron level: 20 mg/lb
Quantity: 1,740 MT
Vegetable Oil, 4L:
Grade/Quality: Fortified Refined
Vegetable Oil
Packing: 4-liter (3.7kg) plastic
containers, 6
containers per carton
Quantity: 160 MT
Lentils:
Grade/Quality: per USDA standard
Packing: 50 kg polypropylene
bags
Quantity: 130 MT
6. CARE has requested that its
freight forwarder determine the
ocean routing of commodities.
Past ports for food deliveries to
Tajikistan have included Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Riga. These
European ports are likely to be the points of entry for this
shipment.
7. CARE and its implementing
partners will arrange for
storage and delivery of the commodities to the distribution
sites through established networks.
8. The Bellmon analysis (ref. C)
states that there is a large
population in Tajikistan with inadequate access to food for
consumption because of low incomes.
The call forward Title II
commodities will not compete with usual levels of commercial
imports.
9. The Mission Director has
further determined that the
shipment of 1740 MT(50 KG BAG) WHEAT FLOUR, 160 MT (4-LITER
PLASTIC CAN) VEGETABLE OIL and 130 MT (50 KG BAG) LENTILS for
March 2006 in-country arrival is in compliance with the Bellmon
requirements for P.L. 480 Title II activities and will cause no
production disincentive or storage problems.
10. Mission requests DCHA/FFP
approval of the full call forward
level, to arrive in country in March 2006.
HOAGLAND
