27 October 2005

State's Fried Says Human Rights, Democracy Key in Central Asia, October 27, 2005

(Security, economy, freedom remain top goals, assistant secretary tells Congress)

By Vince Crawley
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States is not prepared to abandon President Bush’s “freedom agenda” in Central Asia, despite human-rights abuses, corruption and authoritarian governments in the strategic region, a senior State Department official told a House panel October 27.

Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said the Central Asian republics still face numerous challenges nearly 15 years after gaining independence from the former Soviet Union.

“Nevertheless, we find civil society and democratic activists in every country in the region,” Fried said in testimony before the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia.

“I can’t look those people in the eye and say, ‘Democracy isn’t for you and isn’t for your country,’” Fried testified.

President Bush’s freedom agenda seeks to inspire American values throughout the world.

“We in the administration may be ambitious or idealistic in our objectives,” Fried said. However, this “vision of freedom” is balanced with what realistically is achievable on a day-to-day basis, he added. This balance “is actually the hardest part of the job, because you come up clashing between what you want to see and what you can achieve.”

Some members of Congress said they are concerned about the slow pace of reforms in the five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. All the countries have a legacy of living under Soviet communism for 70 years, testified Congressman Christopher Smith, vice chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

“Moreover, in all countries in the region, ‘super-presidents’ dominate the political arena while their family, friends and favored few exploit the country’s natural resources,” said Smith, Republican of New Jersey, in a written statement.

In his testimony, Fried said the U.S. strategic goals in Central Asia are security, energy and regional economic cooperation, as well as freedom through reform.

“We believe these objectives are indivisible and ultimately consistent,” he said. “Political reform, economic reform and security all are mutually reinforcing.”

“AMPLE CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM”

Despite challenges, Fried said, “there is also ample cause for optimism.” For example, “every year, more and more people throughout the region are finding new opportunities to thrive in economies that are privatizing and diversifying, and growing rapidly.”

Kazakhstan, he said, “is the best example of the region’s potential economic dynamism, as it moves to take its place among the world’s top energy-producing nations. In Kyrgyzstan, civil society is gradually finding new political space to assemble freely and call for reform.”

The five republics lie along the Silk Road, the historic crossroads between Europe and East Asia. “Throughout the region,” Fried noted, “1,000-year-old traditions of tolerant faith and scientific learning continue to provide a natural shield against imported and narrow interpretations of Islam that breed extremism and violence.”

Three of the Central Asian republics border Afghanistan, and all five have provided support for U.S. and Coalition operations in Afghanistan, Fried said.

However, he said, the United States does not value military basing rights above human rights and other democratic ideals. Despite the threat of losing basing rights for U.S. forces in Uzbekistan, the United States took part in U.N. efforts to airlift 450 Uzbek refugees from neighboring Kyrgyzstan to Romania as part of a resettlement process.

The Uzbek refugees fled their country after their government used violent force against protesters in Andijon in May. The United States and other governments have called for an independent inquiry into the several hundred deaths in Andijon. (See related article.)

The same day the 450 refugees were airlifted from Kyrgyzstan, Fried said, the United States “received a diplomatic note terminating our basing rights.”

In a meeting with Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov several weeks ago, Fried said, “I reaffirmed the need for an independent inquiry into Andijon, and I made clear our concerns regarding the deteriorating human rights situation there.”  Other U.S. officials have also spoken out about Andijon. (See related article.)

In visits throughout the region, Fried said he has been trying to convince leaders that “democracy increases sovereignty because the government can rely on support from within and does not need to rely on support from without.”

The five republics lie between Russia and China, but Fried said the United States does not believe closer relations between those republics and Washington should undermine relations with Moscow or Beijing.

A century ago, Russia and Great Britain engaged in a “Great Game” of colonial control over Central Asia; however, Fried said the United States has no such ambitions. “We look at them as independent countries,” he said. “We don’t believe in spheres of influence or dividing the world or Great Games.”