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ENDURING FREEDOM: One
year on
Central Asia: Jury still
out
By Jeffrey Donovan
WASHINGTON - A little more than a year after
American troops touched down in Central Asia, United
States officials say that the verdict is still out on
whether Washington's "enhanced engagement" with the
region's authoritarian leaders is bearing fruit.
A year ago last month, with the acquiescence of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, US troops were
deployed to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to assist the war
on terror in neighboring Afghanistan. Washington also
won fly-over rights or other forms of cooperation from
the remaining Central Asian nations.
While
viewed as a strategic turning point in a region long
regarded as Russia's backyard - and a buttress against
the spread of Islamic terrorism - Washington's alliance
with authoritarian regimes has drawn criticism from
human rights groups around the world. They say that
American support has bolstered autocrats such as
President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, enabling them to
crack down more harshly than in the past on dissidents
in the name of America's war on terror.
Pauline
Luong-Jones, a Central Asia expert, is a politics
professor at Yale University in the northeast US.
Luong-Jones said, "The main problem to me seems to be
the US government is symbolically - if not in toto -
saying that security, military security in particular,
is the most important thing, that the only way to combat
terrorism is through force. And these governments are
taking that as a symbol that they can continue to treat
their own real or suspected Islamists with force."
In just the latest example, England's Keston
News Service, which monitors religious rights in the
postcommunist world, reported last week that Uzbekistan
had punished some 150 prisoners for trying to observe
the month-long Ramadan fast, which began on November 6.
The agency also reported that prisoners detained on
political or religious charges were being forced to sign
statements vowing that they would not observe religious
rituals at home following their release. Otherwise, they
could be moved to a prison known for its violent
treatment of inmates. Uzbek authorities say that they
know nothing of the reports.
By cooperating with
the US in its war on terror, Central Asian governments
have reaped significant benefits, analysts say. US aid
to the five Central Asian states has more than doubled
and now amounts to nearly US$600 million. And leaders
once considered controversial in Washington have been
given warm receptions in this US capital this year,
including Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbaev.
US officials hope that the new ties
help stabilize a region where they seek to reduce
Russian influence, capitalize on energy resources, and
suppress Islamist militancy, while gradually making the
climate better for human rights and democracy.
In an interview with RFE/RL this week, US
President George W Bush made an impassioned defense of
the policy. "We value every life - everybody counts. And
in my judgment, the more people relate to the United
States, and work with the United States, the more likely
it is they will work to improve the human condition."
But critics such as Luong-Jones say the reality
on the ground in Central Asia is quite different. She
said that as their lives grow worse, people are
beginning to blame it on both their governments and the
US. "They're seeing deterioration in their livelihood.
They're seeing an increase in repression. And they're
attributing it to this new US strategic relationship
with Central Asian governments."
Some leading
human rights groups want Washington to take a much
stronger stand with Central Asian governments. Some
organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, advocate
making all US aid conditional on specific reforms in
each country.
But the Western human rights
community is not of one voice. Some believe that the
Bush administration, caught in a political and strategic
dilemma, is conducting itself fairly well in Central
Asia.
Catherine Fitzpatrick is program director
for the former Soviet countries for the New York-based
International League for Human Rights. She said that US
engagement over the past year had started to achieve
some minor successes in Central Asia which would have
been unheard of just a few years ago. Among them,
Fitzpatrick cited Uzbekistan's decision to allow the
United Nations' special rapporteur on torture to visit
last week to inspect Tashkent's notorious prisons. She
also noted its recent registration of a nongovernmental
organization - a first in post-Soviet Uzbek history.
Other observers have cited with approval Tajikistan's
decision to allow the International Red Cross to inspect
prisons and signs that Turkmenistan is beginning to
tolerate nongovernmental organizations and recognize the
need to ease the flow of people and goods across its
borders.
Fitzpatrick said that all these steps
may be merely symbolic, but they were important in a
region she believed would be unlikely to change its ways
even if threatened with isolation. "I work backwards
from the premise that if you cut it [aid] off, you will
not improve human rights. It's not like South Africa;
there you cut off, you get their attention, they change.
But you don't get that with the Uzbeks. They're not
going to change."
Fitzpatrick had praise for the
US diplomat in charge of Central Asia, assistant
secretary of state Lorne Craner. She said, however, that
Craner could use a bigger staff and a stronger presence
in the region. After meeting with Uzbek officials in
Tashkent earlier this month, Craner said further
expansion of bilateral ties was contingent on
improvements on human rights. He also criticized
official reaction to three recent deaths in custody and
noted complaints from Christians of persecution. Craner
said that religious education should be opened up, not
repressed.
Ian Bremmer is president of the
Eurasia Group consultancy in New York. Bremmer also
supports US engagement in Central Asia, but said that
the Bush administration could help its cause by speaking
more clearly about what constituted legitimate
counterterrorism activity. He said that Central Asian
leaders were not alone in using the US war on terrorism
as a blanket to cover their questionable treatment of
opponents. He cited Russia and the Chechens, Israel and
the Palestinians, and China and the Uighurs as other
examples.
But like Fitzgerald, Bremmer said that
there had been some small improvements in Central Asia
as a result of US engagement. He cited moves to
liberalize Uzbekistan's cotton industry, more
transparency in its trade legislation, and support for
small and medium-sized businesses. "These are economic
reforms and these reforms will certainly make it more
possible for Uzbekistan to feed their people and develop
economically and grow economically over time. I think we
would be hard-pressed to say Uzbekistan has become more
democratic."
Luong-Jones also acknowledged that
building democracy from the ground up was a tall order
in Central Asia, and a long-term project. In fact, she
agreed that the best way to achieve democracy was by
working to build up vested interests for reform through
poverty-alleviation and economic programs.
To be
sure, many reports of persecution, torture and media
repression still flow from Central Asia. The cause of
Kazakh journalist Sergei Duvanov, who was detained last
month on what observers call politically motivated
charges of raping a girl, made headlines again this week
when three leading US human rights groups urged Bush to
take up the issue with Kazakh officials.
The US
State Department has weighed in on the case, saying that
Duvanov's arrest followed a recent pattern of media
harassment in Kazakhstan that began after reports of
high-level Kazakh corruption first surfaced earlier this
year. But US officials are counseling patience in
Central Asia, saying that any meaningful change will
take time to achieve. "Our enhanced engagement has been
in place for only a short time," Lynn Pascoe, the US
deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian
Affairs, wrote recently. "It is too early to tell if our
calculated risk will lead to success."
Copyright (c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
20036
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