Central Asia: The US State Department Paints a Bleak Democratization Picture

The US State Department's annual assessment of global human rights conditions give Central Asian states generally poor marks.

The State Department's 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices were released in late February. Perhaps most notable was the State Department's measured reviews of conditions in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Ashgabat is pivotal in the regional competition to develop and export energy resources. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, has reemerged as an important strategic partner for Washington. Tashkent is now playing a prominent role in a newly developed northern supply network for US troops in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The State Department report noted halting progress made by Uzbekistan in several spheres, including defendants' rights, human trafficking, and child labor in the cotton industry. The 2007 summary of Uzbekistan's situation did not include any positive language. Despite the mention of improvements, however, the 2008 report is also highly critical of the Uzbek government's performance. "Serious human rights abuses continued and torture remained systemic in law enforcement. Authorities compelled many children to pick cotton, at times under poor living conditions. Human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government continued to be subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest, politically motivated prosecution, and torture," the report states.

Uzbekistan's human rights situation will undoubtedly be scrutinized heavily in 2009, as Washington searches for a new military hub in Central Asia to replace an existing base in Kyrgyzstan from which the US forces are being evicted. Uzbekistan kicked American troops out of another base it used to operate, Karshi-Khanabad, after Washington criticized the government's violent response to protests in Andijan in 2005. The German government, which was less vocal in its criticism, still maintains a base in Uzbekistan, at Termez.

The issue of forced child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton industry was highlighted last year after several American and European retailers announced that they would no longer carry products using Uzbek cotton because of child labor. Uzbekistan is taking this threat to its key cash crop seriously, according to Eric McGlinchey, a Central Asia expert at George Mason University. "They definitely want to publicly convey that they are making improvements on this score," he said. Despite the desire to cleanse its image, reports coming out of Uzbekistan indicate that the use of child labor in the sector remains a problem. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The State Department report noted that Uzbekistan voted to adopt International Labor Organization conventions on child labor, and that the central government has made statements criticizing child labor in the cotton harvest. However, the changes may be slow in coming, the report said. "Field observations by international organizations indicated that early in the harvesting season there were fewer schoolchildren picking cotton than in previous years; however, schoolchildren were ultimately mobilized in several regions of the country," the authors wrote.

Turkmenistan, which was not featured in last year's overall report, saw "modest improvements" in 2008, the report said. However, "the government of Turkmenistan continued to commit serious abuses and its human rights record remained poor," the State Department emphasized.

The improvements listed in the report were indeed modest. There were no apparent improvements in political or legal rights, although there was some notable movement in education. For the first time since 1998, government universities admitted graduate students. "However, only one or two graduate students were admitted to each higher educational institution, totaling approximately 80 students. No formal classes or courses were offered at the graduate level. Instead, the main focus was research," the report said.

The writings of the former president, Sapurmurat Niyazov, remained part of the school curriculum, but they appeared to be deemphasized, the report said. "Teachers reported having to spend substantially less class time on former President Niyazov's works than in the past, as the revamped curriculum introduced new subjects and an expanded and more fact-based study of local history and culture," the report noted. "Most secondary school textbooks were revised during the year to remove all text devoted to Niyazov and his family."

There was also a mild opening for civil society organizations, the report said: "In July the government reported it had registered 11 new civic organizations, including the groups that had been denied registration in 2007. These were the first civic organizations the government formally registered since 2005. Although 10 of the 11 newly registered groups were reported to be affiliated with the government, the first community-based NGO in the country, the Ak Bugday Gardener's Association, was also registered. The government deregistered 11 NGOs during the year as well."

Kyrgyzstan, in contrast, took a step backwards, the report said. "Although Kyrgyzstan has a vibrant civil society and independent media, in the past year the government increasingly sought to control various aspects of civil life," the report said. In particular, the summary highlighted the government's removal of US broadcasting from the public airwaves and the case of the "Central Election Commission chairwoman [who] fled the country after claiming she had been pressured by the president's son over registering an opposition candidate for October local council elections."

The assessments do not adequately capture the difference between the human rights situations in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, McGlinchey said. "They've put themselves into a corner," he said. "In 2007, you say things are bad, and they got worse in 2008, but where do you go? You can't put them in the same category as Uzbekistan, that's a qualitatively different regime. At the same time you can't say things have gotten better, because they haven't."

Kazakhstan, too, received a mild rebuke from the State Department. "In Kazakhstan, the political opposition faced government harassment via politically motivated criminal charges and restrictions on freedom of assembly," stated the report, which also criticized a draft law on religion as "a serious step backward for religious freedom."

The report described the allegations against three political opposition figures, Bulat Abilov, Asylbek Kazhakhmetov, and Tolen Tokhtasynov, "for allegedly concealing the whereabouts of a suspect in a murder investigation. The three denied the charges and claimed the allegations were politically motivated. They further maintained that, if convicted, they would be unable to stand for election until the conclusion of their sentences."

"The law provides for limited freedom of assembly; however, there were significant restrictions on this right in practice, and police used force to disrupt peaceful demonstrations," the country report added.

"My sense is that there is frustration with Kazakhstan being next to chair of the OSCE and making all these commitments while, at the same time, domestically running roughshod over these commitments, so this might be a soft way of saying to the Kazakhs, 'we're not convinced that you're keeping the OSCE promises.' I read it as a bit of a reprimand," McGlinchey said.

In the country report for Tajikistan, the State Department criticizes President Imomali Rahmon's administration for obstructing "political pluralism."

"The government's human rights record remained poor, and corruption continued to hamper democratic and social reform," the Tajikistan report added.