U.S. NGO Faces Criticism for Karimova's Role at Cannes AIDS Fund-Raiser
HIV/AIDS campaigners recently found themselves caught between the desire to help a persecuted colleague in Tashkent and deference to diplomatic niceties for a star-studded fund-raising event coming up this week in Cannes. Andrew Stroehlein, Communications Director for the International Crisis Group writes about the disconnect between two positions taken recently by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) regarding Uzbekistan.
On the one hand, amfAR has supported jailed psychologist and HIV/AIDS educator Maxim Popov as a human rights cause. On the other, amfAR is organizing a high-profile AIDs event at the Cannes Film Festival May 20 with Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's autocratic President Islam Karimov. Karimova, 37, currently Tashkent's ambassador to Spain, recently described by El Pais as “part Princess Diana, part Sarah Palin, part [James] Bond girl, part Cruella de Vil" and "her father's right hand".
The independent Uzbek website uznews.net asked May 17 whether the American organization had been swayed by Karimova's large contribution to their cause, although amfAR was among 107 organizations that signed a petition to the Uzbek government urging Popov's release. Popov, 27, was detained in January 2009 and sentenced in September 2009 to seven years of imprisonment on charges of alleged "mismanagement of funds" and "corrupting youth" for his work on HIV/AIDs prevention among young people, despite support from UN and other international agencies.
Cub Barrett, a spokesman for amfAR, pleaded for patience in waiting for an explanation from his organization, and vowed to continue campaiging for Popov's release, uznews.net reported. Last weekend, Gulnara Karimova's name was removed from amfAR's website about the Cannes event, but then inexplicably restored.
Stroehlein wrote several emails inquiring about what he saw as inconsistent positions, and received a statement today from amfAR:
Based on the level of Gulnara Karimova's financial contribution to amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS event in Cannes last year, she was made a co-chair of the 2010 event. This is routinely done from year to year by amfAR’s fundraising staff in Europe. Unfortunately, they were not aware of the policy issue -- the response to the imprisonment of Maksim Popov -- that our policy office was dealing with here in the U.S. amfAR remains deeply troubled by the imprisonment of Maskim Popov and continues to work for his release, and we are taking steps to address the situation in the most appropriate manner.
Karimova is believed to have contributed at least the $150,000 required to be listed as a co-chair of the event.
Stroehlein continues to ask why amfAR only temporarily removed Gulnara's name from their website when the scandal broke out, and wonders how the decision was made to work with a representative of the Uzbek government on the event in the first place.
Designers Giorgio Armani and Kenneth Cole and Hollywood stars Sharon Stone and Harvey Weinstein are among the event's chairs. The celebrity black-tie gala, now in its 17th year at the Cannes Film Festival, features a cocktail reception, dinner, and live auction. According to amfAR, since 1993, Cinema Against AIDS events around the world have raised more than $50 million for AIDS research.
Human rights activists are concerned that the high-profile fund-raiser will distract from the jailing of activists in Uzbekistan and add luster to the controversial Karimova, who is often discussed as a possible heir to her dictator father.
Karimova is under scrutiny again this week as Zeromax, a powerful Uzbek conglomerate involving in deals ranging from oil to supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and reputedly under her control, is being dismantled by the Uzbek government amid reports of layoffs, debts, and an arrest of a senior executive, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported May 16.
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