1907 Solar Eclipse Expedition by Sergei Prokhudi-Gorskii, Russian Photographer in Central Asia.
This is my little newsletter on Tajikistan that comes out once a week on Saturdays. If you want to see past issues, look to the column on the right for the key word "Tajikistan". If you want to get this in your email or you have comments or contributions, write [email protected]
COMMENTS:
OSCE is very active in Tajikistan and has had a lot of programs this month; it's hard to know how much traction this mission in Tajikistan really has, sometimes because the people they involve in programs are so few, i.e. a dozen or a few dozen border guards hither and yon, doing joint studies with Afghan counterparts or going abroad to study. Does it work? What are the metrics for determining that it works? OSCE, like USAID, is used to justifying itself with numbers like (say) "We had 266 trainings this year in which 1,432 people took part and acquired leadership skills and hands-on knowledge about how to build a sustainable economy" blah blah.
Meanwhile, that economy could actually being going to hell in a hand-basket, but at least the numbers work on the charts and graphs in the Powerpoints. There really is only one test for all these border trainings, however: whether they will help the border hold after 2014, when the US and NATO troops have departed. And then, it's not just picking up X kilograms of drugs that will make a difference, but whether overall the level of the drug trade is reduced and whether terrorism or militancy spills over from the neighbours.
As for OSCE's program to offer legal aid at street-corner tables to hundreds of people on Human Rights Day, that's great, but what about the rest of the year? They had tables out in Khujand, but that didn't help the mothers and teenage sons tried on vague charges of "extremism" and given long sentences earlier this month. How can OSCE get a permanent legal clinic going?
Amb. Susan Elliott met with the Tajik communications tsar embroiled in the Facebook closure, but by then, he was going to open it anyway and it was pretty much over nothing. @eTajikistan says this sort of high-profile tweeted visit from powerful America sends the signal that essentially, American only cares about its Silicon Valley darling Facebook, and not about torture in Tajik prisons, as it hasn't had the same kind of high-profile meeting with the Ministry of Justice about getting the ICRC into the prisons.
Well, yeah, sure, but tant pis, the Minister of Justice isn't available to take a tweeted meeting like that with anybody. It's not that the US cares more about Facebook than torture; it's that the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan cares about neither, and maybe just barely is willing to talk about the one and not the other without having a fit.
I'm a big believer in what former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright used to say, "Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you can't do something." Facebook is what Amb. Elliott can do; it's doable. ICRC is not what Amb. Elliott can do, it's likely not doable. That doesn't mean that NGOs shouldn't try and make all their snarky tweets, I'm all for that, too. Still, somewhere, you need a scorekeeper who says, "Hey, that was doable and this is not doable and have you tried pressing the EU, Russia, or India on these issues?" They have influence, and they are part of the world community, and Russia especially purports to be very keen on human rights abroad these days, especially in America. Put them to work on these international humanitarian issues they claim to love, and get them asking about the ICRC for a change. India is the world's largest democracy and cares about torture and is on the Security Council now and does a lot in Central Asia. Ask them to do this, too!
Twitfights are often instructive. In between posts about Western-funded educational opportunities, paradoxically, like many other young people on Twitter from this region, @eTajikistan rants about the exaggerated notions he has of America's evils in the world -- because he can see them on Twitter and in the world press -- and seldom actually discusses the evils in his own homeland or region -- which are hidden from local official press and not covered as much by the world media -- and then doubles back and bangs on the symbol of that evil West -- the American ambassador -- for not behaving like the Tajik opposition and human rights community (that isn't able to function full strength) and bashing the host Tajik government everyday.This paradigm repeats all over the world where America is involved -- lather, rinse, repeat. And some think the answer is to reduce perceived or actual American evils, by doing things like apologizing for Masri -- and that's all fine as far as it goes and I'm all for that. But the human rights violations and challenge of terrorism are so far greater in these countries of Central Asia and with so far less remedies, that somehow, the @eTajikistan types have to be persuaded to get some corrective lenses for their magnified view of America and myopic view of Russia, the region, and their own country. Some think -- again -- this is achieved by American apology tours (yes, they are that) and breast-beating. The problem is -- that doesn't work on somebody like Beg Zuhorov. He knows deep down the real problem in the world isn't that America didn't apologize to someone they held wrongfully but let go; the real problem is that Tajikistan has nabbed too many people wrongfully they will never let go, so it's not a fair fight.
Even so, America has to thread this needle, and that means not just getting figures like Amb. Elliott in fact to do more for human rights and pressuring the Tajik government more, but asking the @eTajikistan types of the world to figure out how they will someday assume the responsibility of challenging their own dictator rather than obsessing abroad about America and Israel. I don't say that is easy. I do say it is necessary.Afghan and Tajik Border Officers Complete OSCE Training-of-trainers Course
Afghan and Tajik border officers completed today in Dushanbe an OSCE training-of-trainers course as part of a series of training courses to enhance the capacity of Tajik border troops and Afghan border police to detect and interdict illegal cross-border movement.During the two-week course – the third in a series organized by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan - nine Afghan border police officers and 12 Tajik border troops guards learned about modern teaching methodology and how to prepare and deliver training materials in an interactive learner-centered manner. The course also introduced the main components of training programme development.
Previously Afghan and Tajik border guards completed a management course in November.
A workshop for judges and journalists on jurisdiction in defamation and insult lawsuits involving the media concluded today at the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.The two-day workshop was organized by the OSCE Office jointly with the Council of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan. It took place against the backdrop of a series of civil and criminal defamation and libel lawsuits filed by public officials and agencies against a number of independent media outlets from 2010 through 2012.
The OSCE Office in Tajikistan handed over on 8 December 2012 equipment and educational material for a training centre to be set up to train officers of Tajikistan’s Agency for State Financial Control and Fight against Corruption.
“On 9 December we mark International Anti-Corruption Day,” said Hans Peter Larsen, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, during the handover ceremony. “Corruption remains one of the main obstacles for good governance and economic development in Tajikistan. Corruption raises the costs of public administration, distorts the allocation of state funds and undermines public trust in the authorities. To effectively counter corruption, knowledgeable and experienced specialists are needed, and through supporting the training centre, we seek to contribute to successfully addressing the problem.”
OSCE Supports International Human Rights Day Events Throughout Tajikistan
Tajik citizens wait to receive free legal consultations at a market in
Khujand on 10 December 2012. The consultations were provided as part of a
week of events organized by the OSCE Office in Tajikstan to mark the
64th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Photo: OSCE/Yaeem Ashraf
The OSCE Office in Tajikistan, together with partners in government, civil society, local authorities and international organizations, today concluded a week of events throughout the country marking the 64th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Authorities and civil society in Khujand, Garm, Kurgan-Tyube, Kulyab and Shaartuz, as well as in Khorog in the autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan, engaged in local-level dialogue, supported by the OSCE, on human rights issues relevant to their communities.
In Khujand, over 200 free legal consultations were provided in six towns, including in three village markets.
Lots more at the link above -- it's worth watching to see whether 600 people showing up for consultations just for one day yield any effect or have any follow-up.
Tajikistan Joins World Trade Organization
Speaking of international multilateral institutions, Tajikistan has now joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).
I think this means exactly nothing.
Oh, wait, in fact a sourpuss in Russia thinks it's a negative development. Could this be due to the fact that the world seemed to take a lot longer in letting Russia into the WTO than Tajikistan?
Russia thinks that having to remove or fiddle with all those tariffs is going to harm small business in Tajikistan. Er, small business in Tajikistan? Well, half the country's GDP comes from remittances with that "small business" consting of labour migrants. I await a credible third-party report on the impact of joining the WTO on Tajik small businesses or indeed...anything at all.
US Ambassador in Dushanbe meets with Tajik Communications Official -- Facebook OK
Amb. Susan Elliott and Beg Zuhorov, Communications Minister in Tajikistan, December 7. Photo by US Embassy Dushanbe.
Amb. Susan Elliott, who is our ambassador to Tajikistan, tweeted the following, with a little Twitpic, on December 7
@AmbElliott Communications Service Chairman Zuhurov and I had a very good meeting. Facebook is no longer blocked in Tajikistan. pic.twitter.com/wSTJVv4b
Tajik Communications Minister Trolled
Here's the video in case you missed some Russian wits calling up and pretending to be "Sergey Brin" the "translator for Mark Zuckerberg" to ask about Facebook. Other bonus: on this video, Beg Zuhorov tells us that what bothers him about Facebook isn't just that vague "extremism," but that "people order each other" on Facebook. That doesn't mean prostitution (although it could); he means that people pay others to give them "likes" and write nice things about them. I have to say I find this a really great idea for monetarizing the vapidness of FB in ways that hadn't occurred to me. There are currency convertibility questions here and pricing issues, of course, but I wonder what a "like" for a prominent Tajik would cost?'
UN Warns Tajikistan About Radioactive Waste
EurasiaNet's David Trilling tweets in alarm about the 55 million tons of radioactive waste flagged by the UN in a warning to Tajikistan, linking to a summary of a report in Reason of a Raw Story article.
The former Soviet republic, where Stalin’s empire once mined uranium to create its first nuclear bomb, is still stuck with about 54.8 million tonnes of unsecured waste from the now mainly abandoned mines, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said.
The waste is “not treated, not confined, not secured,” agency spokesman Jean Rodriguez told reporters in Geneva.
Most of the sites are near Khujand.
The uranium used when the first Soviet nuclear bomb was successfully tested on August 29, 1949, was extracted in northern Tajikistan.
This sounds hugely big and scary, but it's important to put it into a bit of perspective -- all the Central Asian nations have this; even Turkmenistan, however, has agreed to let NATO help them clean up, and NATO has done some clean up.
Central Asia Online says even that Tajikistan has asked for help with this -- something you don't get from this scary Raw Story version of the news.
Now we all get it that Central Asia Online is engagée and might be inclined to present a more upbeat version of this story, but the fact is, Tajikistan has already gotten aid to do this clean-up:
Tajikistan already receives some assistance, but not enough, he said. Of the 1.156 billion RUB ($34.9m or 166.4m TJS) annually disbursed by the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) to help clean up Soviet-era nuclear waste, more than 20% goes to Tajikistan.
But that’s just a fraction of what is needed. Cleaning up 400,000 tonnes of waste at a site near Chkalovsk in 1991-1992, for example, cost about US $10m (47.7m TJS), said Numondzhon Khakimov, director of the oblast branch of the AN Nuclear and Radiation Safety Agency.
So is Tajikistan just looking for another angle for international aid? How can we tell? And is even another $10 million from the US really such a huge cost to prevent further contamination of the environment and harm to people's health?
Russia pays the lion's share of the costs of this clean-up; poorer countries in Central Asia and Belarus refuse to. OSCE has done its share, says Central Asia Online -- it has put up signs around saying "Warning! Radioactive!" in different languages.
I'd like to see some competent international NGO that monitors these things be allowed to come in here and make a health assessment and also UN agencies gaining access, rather than just issuing warnings. I'd also like some third party to assess what NATO says it is doing, and how complementary OSCE, NATO and the UN are on this effort.
Video Footage Shows Alleged Ill-Treatment Of Tajik Inmates
Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe posted this video reporting ill-treatment in Tajik prisons -- the subject of the UN Commitee Against Torture's critical review last month as I reported.
RFE/RL's Tajik Service obtained multiple videos from relatives of a group of prisoners serving time in the country's northern city of Khujand. The relatives claimed the videos, apparently shot from within the prison, were recorded on a mobile phone and sent to them.
Are mobile phones going to be the death of these regimes? No, because Beg can get them turned off any time in a heart beat, the state controls the providers.
Even so, people struggle to get the story out because of awful things like this:
Can Human Rights Groups Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time?Tajikistan has come under widespread criticism after two inmates, Ajik Qayumov and Hamza Ikromzoda, were found dead in their prison cells in Dushanbe in recent months in separate incidents. Ikromzoda's brother claimed his body showed signs of torture, including burns allegedly caused by a hot iron.
The worst thing in the world would be if they went to all that trouble to get that video out, and nobody paid attention...
I've written on the broader subject of whether or not international and local human rights groups can condemn violations of the rights of terrorism suspects AND condemn violation of the rights of terrorist *victims*. In part this contemplation was inspired by a Twitfight with @eTajikistan, an anonymous Twitterer who appears to be from Tajikistan, but not in Tajikistan. He writes posts like these:
@eTajikistan dear @AmbElliott If U could have an equally "good meeting" w/ #Tajikistan's Justice Min to allow #ICRC access2 prisons that would b awsome!
Zuhorov is of course the fellow who became world-famous for presiding over the closure of Facebook for two days or so, saying it was at "the people's" request due to "extremism" as we reported, and then promised to shut it off, and did.@eTajikistanDear @BarackObama & @HrClinton: Human Rights Day came & went & you forgot to apologize to Khalid el-Masri for illegal #torture & #rendition!
@eTajikistan West’s implicit message to #CentralAsia: We'll tolerate your #Torture, #ExtrajudicialExecutions & vote rigging but keep hands off #Facebook!
And so on. In between posts about Western-funded educational opportunities, paradoxically, like many other young people on Twitter from this region, @eTajikistan rants about the exaggerated notions he has of America's evils in the world -- because he can see them on Twitter and in the world press -- and seldom actually discusses the evils in his own homeland or region -- which are hidden from official press and not covered as much by the world press -- and then doubles back and bangs on the symbol of that evil West -- the American ambassador -- for not behaving like the Tajik opposition and human rights community (that isn't able to function full strength) and bashing the host Tajik government everyday.
This paradigm repeats all over the world where America is involved -- lather, rinse, repeat. And some think the answer to winning over the hearts and minds of disenchanted young people like this is to reduce perceived or actual American evils, by doing things like apologizing for Masri -- and that's all fine as far as it goes. But the human rights violations and challenge of terrorism are so far greater in these countries of Central Asia and with so far less remedies, that somehow, the @eTajikistan types have to be persuaded to get some corrective lenses for their magnified view of America and myopic view of Russia, the region, and their own country. Some think -- again -- this is achieved by American apology tours (yes, they are that) and breast-beating. The problem is -- that doesn't work on somebody like Beg Zuhorov. He knows deep down the real problem in the world isn't that America didn't apologize to someone they held wrongfully but ultimately let go and might be persuaded some day to compensate; the real problem is that Tajikistan has nabbed too many people wrongfully they will never let go, so it's not a fair comparison.
Even so, America has to thread this needle, and that means not just getting figures like Amb. Elliott in fact to do more for human rights and pressuring the Tajik government more, but asking the @eTajikistan types of the world to figure out how they will assume the responsibility of challenging their own dictator rather than obsessing abroad about America and Israel. I don't say that is easy. I do say it is necessary.
Why Would You Tweet Something Like This?
Speaking of Twitter, the State Department is now requiring that tweets have to be cleared 48 hours in advance. And I personally think this is a very good idea for officials, not civilians. The entire fatuous "Twenty-First Century Statecraft" stuff that Alec Ross has hawked around the world is not only incredibly utopian in nature, it is incredibly content-free, especially when you get to violent places like Pakistan, where he was, or it is incredibly ideologically-driven, rivulated with crappy theories about undermining of institutions, empowering of wired elites, and non-hierarchical running of the world.
Fortunately, these world-domination plans have been tripped up now by State itself, which is going to require a 48-hour clearance on tweets (since that's faster than the 30 days for statements, that's considered a victory for the forces of transparency).
I think people should be free to tweet as they please in the media and NGOs, and individuals who don't have thousands of followers aren't public figures who shouldn't be held to the same standards as those speaking to smaller groups, but governments of elected and appointed representatives should be expected to comport themselves properly and hew to the country line. Don't work in government if you don't like that country line, you're not required to.
And you know, just basic, I dunno, common sense. Why would you tweet a picture of yourself in a scenic place with your security guards? Why do the secret police's work for them and give them pictures of such people up close and personal that they may not have? Or why give various non-state rogue actors pictures of such people that they might not have? Or why let the people of Tajikistan see you in scenic poses with your bodyguards, which in their culture doesn't exactly make you seem accessible? Everything about it just seems wrong, when we are a country that just lost four diplomats in Benghazi. Twitter isn't the place to give the shout-out to security people -- your Christmas bonus in their mailbox is. Tradecraft before statecraft, people.
