CA-US Hearing: Hello? Is anybody here?
On April 8th, Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher testified before the House’s subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment. His testimony mainly focused on Kazakhstan’s upcoming chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010 and how the US had put pressure on its current regime to implement reforms. Here is Boucher’s written testimony, journalist Joshua Kucera’s report on the hearings in Eurasianet.org, and here is the actual testimony on Video.
Boucher admitted that the US had led efforts among OSCE members to delay Kazakhstan’s bid for the chairmanship, but that the Bush administration has now come around to support the move after Astana promised to implement several significant reforms. Boucher states;
“We are working with the Government of Kazakhstan to fulfill the commitments it made when it was selected to become Chairman in Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010. The Government committed to modernizing its election, political party, and media legislation by the end of 2008. It also committed to preserve the existing mandate of the Organization’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and defend the Office against any future efforts to weaken it. The Madrid Commitments for the Chairmanship may become a useful catalyst for Kazakhstan to intensify political reform.”
Boucher argued that the State Department had talked firmly with President Nazarbayev and other government leaders and heard from them ‘firm commitments’ about carrying out these promises. The assistant secretary of state also stated that his department had spoken with several Kazakhstan civil society and opposition groups recently and though he admitted they were skeptical, they agreed that ‘if’ the government actually went through with these reforms it would significantly open up the system and society.
Boucher also spoke about Uzbekistan’s ‘progress’ in regards to its human rights record;
“In Uzbekistan, we have made clear to the government that the U.S. desires a broad relationship, one in which human rights and democratic development play a vital role. We continually urge the government of Uzbekistan to take concrete actions to improve the human rights situation in the country. Recently, we welcomed some positive, albeit limited, steps taken by the government, including the release of several prisoners of conscience, the resumption of visits on a trial basis to detained persons by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the passage of new legislation combating trafficking in persons. We have urged the government to take additional measures to address serious human rights concerns.”
There is currently a bill in Congress that would cut off aid and deny visas to Uzbekistan unless the nation’s government ‘makes substantial and continuing progress’ regarding respect for human rights, a multi-party system, and free and fair elections. Boucher commented that such legislation could ‘strengthen our hand’ with Uzbekistan. The timing of this bill in interesting though, as the US has been making strategic progress with Uzbekistan over military basing and transportation rights in the state and one wonders if President Karimov may decide he’s done playing America’s democracy/human rights game, as he did right after the Andijan incident in 2005. Of course, one could argue that this bill and Kazakhstan’s pledged reforms are just window dressing and offer only false promises.
Lastly, Kucera lamented that only 2, that’s right 2, US Congress members attended the hearing and even worse reported that they seemed completely unprepared and uninterested for the day’s discussion. Joshua Foust of Registan.net’s Central Asian blog, chastises not only the Congress members who failed to show or were ill-informed, but also Boucher for his ‘white-washing’ of the issues.
Back to the Art Scene; I apologize for once again mentioning a CA Art showcase that is only presently in New York City, but New York Historical Society is hosting the “Woven Spledor From Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles From New York Collectors” until August 17. Here is a review of the exhibition from the New York Times.