VZCZCXRO5985
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0634/01 1270309
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 060309Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0464
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0147
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0081
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0119
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0089

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000634 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IIP/NEA-SCA MBRYANT 
 
ALSO FOR SCA/PPD JKAMP, ECA/A/S/A ECLEMENT, AND SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ECON KPAO TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN - WHY AMERICAN CORNERS MATTER 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified - Not for Internet Distribution. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Summary. Despite widespread academic corruption and 
crumbling infrastructure, Tajik students and instructors are 
striving to achieve, as Public Affairs Officer and visiting 
Information Resources Officer learned during a trip to Qurghon-Teppa 
and Khorog April 23-25 to scout locations for new American Corners. 
The Corners would build on local initiative and provide much needed 
English language activities and educational advising to facilitate 
connections between Tajiks and Americans.  Academics and NGO leaders 
enthusiastically welcomed the proposed addition to local resources. 
Local officials in Khorog lauded "good intentions," but made it 
plain that any American Corner would need their consent.  The new 
Corners will considerably widen the horizon of exchanges and 
opportunities for Tajikistan's deserving and hard working academics. 
End summary. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Tajikistan is facing a crisis in education as the 
population continues to rise and the government expends few 
resources to renovate Soviet era educational infrastructure. 
Academic corruption here undermines incentive for professors or 
students to achieve.  University administrators dismiss students 
from classes in the fall to pick cotton for a couple dollars a day, 
an illegal but tacitly accepted practice.  Teachers are underpaid 
and accept bribes from students who pay to stay out of the cotton 
fields or to obtain good grades.  Nevertheless, those willing to 
work hard to advance honestly are striving to learn English to 
qualify for admission to universities abroad.  By providing an 
English language platform and educational advising, our Corners fill 
a gap left by inadequate local facilities and thus stand as an 
alternative to corruption.  To meet the demand for these services, 
Dushanbe's Public Affairs Officer and SCA's visiting Information 
Resource Officer traveled to Qurghon-Teppa and Khorog April 23-25 to 
scout locations for two new Corners. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In Khorog, a beautiful but isolated city of 28,000 on the 
Afghan border which serves as the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan 
Autonomous Region, we found strong traditions of education and 
self-reliance, confirming the city would be an ideal location for a 
new American Corner.  Moreover, the study of English is widespread, 
due to the excellent education offered by the University of Central 
Asia (UCA) and the Aga Khan Lycee, where English is a primary 
language of instruction.  The Community Education Center, a 
non-governmental organization which supports itself by offering 
low-fee English language and computer training, would be a natural 
partner. 
 
¶5. (SBU) We met a Khorog State University professor who participated 
in a Junior Faculty Development program in Kentucky last year.  This 
summer, in a program funded by the University of Kentucky, she will 
return with two of her fellow professors to write a grammar and 
lexicon of the Pamiri language, Shugni. While this success story 
started with a USG exchange, an American Corner with educational 
advising could connect more Tajik academics to American colleagues, 
beyond the limited number of official USG exchanges. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The prospect of a growing "American" presence in Khorog 
provoked a Soviet like reflex from the regional authorities. After 
our enthusiastic reception at the Aga Khan funded University of 
Qour enthusiastic reception at the Aga Khan funded University of 
Central Asia, the hukumat (i.e., regional government offices) 
summoned us to a meeting to remind us of who was in charge.  The 
governor/mayor and the vice rector of the government run Khorog 
State University said an American Corner to support education was "a 
good intention," but would go nowhere without their explicit 
consent.  They reminded us again the next day during the Information 
Resources Officer's informal briefing on United States government 
with a couple dozen Khorog State English students.  Members of the 
local State Committee for National Security (successor to the KGB, 
but still known by that acronym) called the Public Affairs Section 
assistant and threatened to (but did not) interrupt the talk because 
we did not request permission in advance. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Qurghon-Teppa is likewise an excellent host city for a 
Corner, being Tajikistan's third largest city with a population of 
about 80,000, home of Qurghon-Teppa State University, and only a 
hour's drive from Dushanbe in all four seasons.  A committee of 
seven faculty and administrators from the university met us in a 
show of strong approval.  However, some of the good will had strings 
attached.  The rector tried to sell us an "American Center" that 
would fit perfectly in his daughter's three-story house.  When we 
explained the difference between a "corner" and a "center," he said 
the university had no space.  A professor who was afraid we would be 
dissuaded by this gambit took us aside and told us to ignore the 
rector, and said the university had plenty of space. 
 
DUSHANBE 00000634  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) A more likely partner would be the non-governmental 
organization SWORDE-Teppa (Sustainable World Development within the 
Environment), which offers free English courses to the community, 
educational activities for youth, and public health programs to 
eradicate malaria.  In 2007 SWORDE-Teppe signed a three-year 
rent-free lease agreement with the local authorities for a spacious 
two-story kindergarten which the NGO renovated with $75,000 in 
British government funding.  When asked whether the Government of 
Tajikistan was likely to reclaim the property at the end of the 
three-year term, the director considered that unlikely because the 
organization was well established as a community center for Tajik 
citizens, particularly youth. 
 
¶9. (U) To improve the management of existing and future Corners, the 
Public Affairs Section will introduce a strategic shift in the 
Corners' mission.  We will hire coordinators who answer to us 
instead of local university administrators, who do not always share 
our vision.  In response to the great demand from patrons, we will 
also add educational advising services and greatly expand the 
contacts among the Tajik and American academic communities.  Last 
year our existing Corners logged an impressive 18,000 visitors. 
When Khorog and Qurghon-Teppa come on board and the administrative 
changes are in place, we will have considerably widened the horizon 
of exchanges and opportunities for Tajikistan's deserving and hard 
working academics. 
 
JACOBSON