Ambassador's introductory roundtable with Azerbaijani human rights activists

Date: 2006 August 8, 10:36 (Tuesday) Canonical ID: 06BAKU1163_a

Original Classification: CONFIDENTIAL Current Classification: CONFIDENTIAL

To:Group Destinations Commonwealth of Independent States | Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe | Secretary of Defense | Secretary of State

1. (U) SUMMARY: In a July 31 roundtable meeting, nine of Azerbaijan's leading human rights activists told the Ambassador that Azerbaijan's elections in 2003 and 2005 were not free and fair, citing bias in the composition of the election commissions as part of the problem. The NGO leaders stressed that freedom of assembly remained restricted and that media freedom was under assault. The group also told the Ambassador that widespread public corruption undermined the rule of law and hindered democratic reform in all branches of the Government, but especially in the judiciary and the executive. The result, two activists argued, was a capitalist system mired in mafia-like corruption that ill served the public interest. The Ambassador reaffirmed USG commitment to political and economic reform as a key pillar of our bilateral relationship. The Ambassador highlighted USG support for civil society and stressed that we remained committed to defending and protecting human rights. END 

SUMMARY.  

ACTIVISTS CITE ELECTIONS, FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND MEDIA FREEDOM 

2. (SBU) Saida Gojamanly, chairwoman of the Bureau for Human Rights Protection NGO, told the Ambassador that Azerbaijan's November 2005 parliamentary elections did not meet international standards for a free and fair election. 

Gojamanly said that it was disappointing to see the United States continually endorse perceived "improvements" to the electoral process when, as Gojamanly argued, the presidential election of 2003 and the parliamentary elections of 2005 were both far from free and fair. Saadat Benanyarly, Chairwoman of the local chapter of the International Society for Human Rights, added that the Unified Election Code (UEC) needed to be changed in order to reform the currently pro-government system of local election commissions that contributes to bias in the electoral process. (OSCE ODIHR made this recommendation to the GOAJ in its final report on the 2005 parliamentary elections.) Benanyarly added that GOAJ restrictions on the public's constitutional right to freedom of assembly further undermined democratic development in Azerbaijan.  

3. (C) In a comment echoed by other speakers, Saida Gojamanly highlighted the increasing number of attacks on journalists and the failure of the GOAJ to extend the license of ANS television as evidence of imperiled media freedoms. 

Underscoring her message, Gojamanly cited the unsolved 2005 murder of prominent opposition journalist Elmar Huseynov, several assaults on opposition journalists in 2006 and the recent arrest of opposition journalist Mirza Sakit on charges of carrying heroin as further evidence of the deteriorating media freedom climate. (OSCE and Western Embassies are actively urging the authorities to renew ANS' license. In addition, the Finnish Ambassador to Azerbaijan who recently visited Baku in connection with Finland's EU Presidency raised the Sakit cases with senior GOAJ officials.)  

ANTI-CORRUPTION, JUDICIAL REFORM VITAL 

4. (C) Benanyarly added that the GOAJ officials' "need for control" was a key factor in widespread public corruption, noting ironically that officials believed to be the most corrupt were now members of the GOAJ Anti-Corruption Commission itself. (Benanyarly's comments met with nods of agreement and references to Presidential Chief of Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev.) Benanyarly also commented on the poor condition of the health and education sectors stressing that the low wages paid to most employees created incentives for corruption for which the GOAJ was responsible. Public pensions, for example, at around $50 per month, were grossly out of line with the growth in current prices and the cost of living.  

5. (SBU) Novella Jafaroglu, Chairwoman of the Society for the Defense of Women's Rights, underscored the difficulty that many women face in Azerbaijan's patriarchal society, particularly prevalent in the regions outside of Baku. She emphasized that her organization (which maintains nine, partially Embassy-supported, resource centers around the country) works closely with women in need of legal redress for abuse, sexism or other crimes. However, Jafaroglu noted that the extraordinary level of corruption in the Azerbaijani judiciary meant that fair verdicts were few and far between, a view echoed by several of the activists. (Jafaroglu also highlighted the Department's Human Rights Report as a powerful tool in the democracy and human rights discourse.) Jafaroglu stressed the importance of building women's coalitions to advance social and political reform that cut across party lines. She said that she and colleagues had reached out to ruling YAP party women leaders in addition to the opposition party women leaders to encourage coalition-building on issues of mutual concern.  

6. (SBU) Murad Sadaddinov, a former political prisoner and the head of the Azerbaijan Foundation of Democracy and Human Rights Protection, said that he had three ongoing human rights concerns to bring to the Ambassador's attention. 

First, Saddadinov reiterated earlier comments on the absence of the independent courts as a central failing of the system. 

Second, he said the country was yet to have a truly democratic election in its modern history. Third, Saddadinov remarked that the GOAJ continued to hold political prisoners adding, without a specific reference, that even as President Aliyev has decreed the release of several hundred political prisoners in the past two years, others continue to be arrested on trumped-up charges. 

 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE; DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY 

7. (SBU) Elchin Behbutov, a former Interior Ministry official and now prison system monitor, told the Ambassador that police misconduct and human rights violations continue to be critical problems. Behbutov, noting the importance of prison and pretrial detention monitoring, said that there have been three deaths of Azerbaijanis in police custody, likely to due abuse and torture in 2006, and doubtless others of which he was unaware. (Post continues to work closely with Behbutov's NGO to investigate and follow up these reports.) 

THE DANGER OF DIRTY CAPITALISM 

8. (SBU) Eldar Zeynalov, Chairman of the Human Rights Center, told the Ambassador that the United States was transparently focused on "realpolitick" when it came to Azerbaijan because of the country's rich energy resources and strategic location on the border of Iran and Russia. As a result, he said, the U.S. was far too willing to put aside democracy and human rights in pursuit of our national interests. Drawing a comparison with U.S. policies toward pre-revolutionary Iran under the Shah, Zeynalov ominously warned that the gains from  oil for the U.S. would be short-lived if more was not done to advance democratic development.  

9. (SBU) Zeynalov emphasized that economic reform - improving the bottomline for ordinary Azerbaijanis - was key to long term democratic development. He highlighted the need for greater anti-corruption efforts and transparency in government, describing the current economic development model as "dirty capitalism" in which the market was not free to allocate resources on its own but rather was stymied by corruption in a mafia-like economic system. 

10. (SBU) Nazim Imanov, an economic and political analyst, told the Ambassador that the advancement of democracy in Azerbaijan was hindered by the fact that it was suppressed for the past 200 years of Russian tsarist and then Soviet rule and was therefore difficult for the public adapt to. 

Imanov described democratic reform as either a "top down"  process in which Ilham Aliyev gives democracy to the people, or a "bottom up" process in which revolutionary change is brought about the people, motivated by the political opposition. Imanov added that Azerbaijan lacked the capacity to carry out the revolutionary reform from the bottom up because the opposition is weak and ineffectual, the direct result of U.S. policies that were indifferent to democratic development due to U.S. policy focus on Azerbaijan's energy resources. Imanov urged the Ambassador to support actively the human rights community.  

AMBASSADOR: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE ESSENTIAL 

 11. (SBU) The Ambassador stressed U.S. support at all levels of government, from President Bush to Secretary Rice and on down, for protecting human rights and advancing democratic  development. The Ambassador affirmed the USG's commitment to advancing tangible democratic reform and supporting the growth and development of civil society. The Ambassador further remarked that economic and political rights were inextricably linked, adding that freedom of economic opportunity was also a human right. The Ambassador told the group that adherence to the rule of law, anti-corruption and  a transparent and accountable government were core interests  of the United States in its bilateral relationship with 

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Azerbaijan. 

HYLAND 

In the Wikileaks:

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06BAKU1163_a.html