VZCZCXRO2287
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0331/01 0720554
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 120554Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0420
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 3493
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1311
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1178
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1747
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2310
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000331 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/ACE, DRL 
AID/W FOR EE/EA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EAID KDEM TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN:  COOPERATION WITH INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY 
AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVES FORWARD 
 
REF: A. ASHGABAT 0206 
      ¶B. ASHGABAT 0099 
 ¶C. 07 ASHGABAT 1130 
 ¶D. 07 ASHGABAT 1346 
 ¶E. 07 ASHGABAT 1391 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY:  Over the past two weeks, USAID Country 
Representative has met with the Director of the Institute for 
Democracy and Human Rights to finalize areas of cooperation that 
were discussed in previous meetings.  USAID noted the progress made 
and introduced implementing partner ABA and the Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as a joint partner in 
preparing a legal database.  Although the Director was pleased with 
the new ideas, she made it clear that she was ready to see USAID 
action on the ideas as well.  The Director noted that the Institute 
was ready to start the process of bringing Turkmenistan's Law on 
Religion into conformity with international standards as well as 
begin to review juvenile, family, and election laws.  END SUMMARY. 
 
FEBRUARY 26 MEETING:  GETTING GOING 
 
¶3.  (U) USAID/CAR Regional Director Bill Frej and Program Officer 
John Morgan, along with the USAID Country Representative, met with 
the Director of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Shirin 
Ahmedova and Department Head Shemshat Atajanova on February 26. 
Although it was an introductory meeting for the regional USAID 
representatives, Ahmedova took the opportunity to follow up on 
issues discussed in recent meetings and to begin planning future 
joint activities.  Ahmedova thanked USAID for helping coordinate the 
recent meetings with USAID's regional local governance expert and 
USAID's sub-grantee to Counterpart's Turkmenistan Community 
Empowerment Program (TCEP), the American Bar Association (ABA).  She 
appreciated their suggestions and was ready to move forward with 
planning for local governance and service delivery as well as rule 
of law programs. 
 
¶4.  (U) Ahmedova noted that the Institute was ready to start the 
process of bringing Turkmenistan's Law on Religion into conformity 
with international standards.  Moreover, it had established a 
commission in November 2007 to improve all legislation to 
international standards.  Turkmenistan established an interagency 
process for reviewing laws and has already drafted a list of laws 
that will be reviewed.  In addition to the Law on Religion, it will 
also include juvenile, family, and election laws.  The Institute 
will also partner with international organizations and/or donors to 
coordinate assistance in reviewing and drafting the new 
legislation. 
 
¶5.  (U) Ahmedova also proposed a meeting later the same week to firm 
up plans for USAID-supported computer training for Institute staff 
and assistance with developing a legal database.  She requested 
USAID assistance to create a legal database that would not only 
include Turkmenistan's legislation but CIS legislation as well 
(septel).  (NOTE:  The expanded focus goes beyond what USAID had 
originally proposed, and closely corresponds to an existing online 
OSCE resource, www.legislationonline.org. END NOTE.)  Ahmedova noted 
that Turkmenistan was improving its laws by bringing them into 
conformity with international standards, and would begin by looking 
to its neighboring countries for successful examples. 
 
MARCH 1 MEETING: FOCUS ON RESULTS 
 
¶6.  (U) Ahmedova and Institute Department Head Shemshat Atajanova 
met early on Saturday morning with USAID Country Representative, the 
visiting USAID/CAR Deputy Regional Director of Democracy and 
Conflict Mitigation, and USAID's implementing partner IREX to 
organize logistics for proposed computer training.  Rather than 
simply talk about possible training courses, Ahmedova moved ahead to 
set specific dates for the training courses to begin.  She also gave 
IREX's representative Atajanova's personal phone number and told 
 
ASHGABAT 00000331  002 OF 003 
 
 
them to contact her and continue with the necessary planning. 
 
¶7.  (U) USAID Country Representative informed Ahmedova that progress 
had been made on the previous plans for the legal database.  After 
meeting the day before with OSCE, the two donors proposed to partner 
with the Institute on this project since by working together they 
could deliver a better product in less time.  The OSCE would provide 
the physical components (such as database software, scanning of 
laws, and loading onto the internet) necessary for putting the 
database together and USAID, through Counterpart and ABA would 
provide technical assistance on using the database.  While it was 
possible for Counterpart/ABA and/or IREX to compile a legal database 
for the Institute, the OSCE has already created a single site for 
other CIS countries, and it would be easy for them to do the same 
for Turkmenistan. 
 
¶8.  (U) Ahmedova was very interested to begin working on the 
database and seemed more concerned with getting a product up and 
running rather than a complete version that had all of the laws and 
other legislative acts.  (COMMMENT:  This makes sense, sinces it 
will be almost impossible to get all laws and legislation together 
before posting it online.  END COMMENT.)  She also knows that there 
are other ministries planning on putting together a legal database 
as well.  Based on discussions with other international 
organizations, various ministries appear to be competing to be the 
first one to complete the task (septel).  Despite a very busy 
schedule to prepare for International Women's Day on March 8, she 
asked for another meeting two days later to talk about the next 
steps in getting the database up and running.  She asked that OSCE 
and USAID be present to coordinate and state their plans. 
 
MARCH 3 MEETING: STRICTLY BUSINESS 
 
¶9.  (U) USAID learned before the meeting that the OSCE Ambassador 
would represent OSCE, along with the OSCE Center's Human Dimensions 
Officer.  The OSCE Ambassador was very concerned about the Center's 
project list for 2008, approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
(MFA), which stated that the OSCE would partner with the Ministry of 
Justice for a similar database project.  (NOTE: The OSCE project was 
approved by MFA for the first time this year after being rejected 
for the past three years.  END NOTE.)  He was also concerned that 
the approved project list limited the ability of the Institute to 
work with OSCE on a data base project since it was not listed as the 
partner. 
 
¶10.  (U) Ahmedova read the relevant clause in the agreement and said 
that the agreement does not preclude cooperative work.  She noted 
that the Ministry of Justice and Institute of Democracy are already 
partners on informational matters and that it should not matter if 
the OSCE worked with the Institute on this project.  Moreover, she 
stated the Institute could employ the Ministry of Justice as a 
partner without a specific Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). 
Ahmedova said that she would call the Minister of Foreign Affairs to 
ask the MFA to remove the offending clause from its agreement with 
the OSCE so that the proposed partnership could continue.  She also 
requested that the OSCE Ambassador contact the MFA to have the 
clause removed.  The OSCE Ambassador was surprised by her 
suggestions and perhaps by the speed of her reaction as well. 
 
¶11.  (U) The ABA Country Director made a brief presentation on the 
types of training that ABA could provide both for the database and 
otherwise.  He pointed out that the database would be obsolete the 
day it came online if it were not routinely updated with 
Turkmenistan laws, regulations, and Presidential Decrees in a timely 
manner.  He also stressed the need to establish a central 
repository, to which Ahmedova agreed.  Ahmedova was pleased with 
information and pressed for a workplan with goals and dates be 
submitted as soon as possible.  Ahmedova concluded by giving him 
Atajanova's personal phone number, and noted that he should keep 
Atajanova informed as ABA continued to work in this direction. 
 
¶12.  (U) On the way out of the meeting, the OSCE Ambassador told the 
 
ASHGABAT 00000331  003 OF 003 
 
 
USAID Regional Deputy Director of Democracy and Conflict Mitigation 
that he was extremely pleased with the output of the meeting and 
that he was happy that the two entities could partner together.  All 
agreed that the meeting was extremely productive.  USAID Country 
Representative asked ABA Director to develop a workplan for the 
Institute, since Ahmedova was ready to move beyond meetings to 
actions.  USAID Country Representative further noted that the 
workplan should contain immediate deliverables, such as legal 
training experts, which would illustrate the U.S. side's commitment 
to working with the Institute.  ABA agreed to submit a plan within 
several days. 
 
¶13. (U) COMMENT:  This series of meetings was extremely productive 
and continued the growing working-level engagement with the 
Institute.  The meetings also showed that the Institute is not just 
interested in talking about action, rather its director is extremely 
interested in seeing it as well.  Ahmedova ended each meeting with a 
clear indication of the next steps that she expected.  It is now 
extremely important that the United States delivers on these 
meetings.  This will not only continue to earn her trust, but will 
also show the resources which our partners can bring, and will 
hopefully open up further areas for joint work with the Institute. 
The partnership with the OSCE on the legal database project is also 
important since, despite much talk on donor coordination, it is a 
rare occurrence in practice.  END COMMENT. 
 
HOAGLAND