Jackson Diehl on the Future of Democracy in Central Asia

Washington Post, June 20, 2005

Jackson Diehl, in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday, June 20, writes of a dilemma facing the U.S Administration. Simply a few months ago the fact that “strategically important Muslim countries” of Central Asia were ruled by undemocratic regimes placed them at odds with President Bush’s freedom policy. However, he notes, many of these countries are now also “emerging as key partners of the Pentagon, both in support of operations in near by Afgananistan and as potential locations of long term U.S. bases.”

In Diehl‘s words the Administration has now taken on “schizophrenia: The State Department criticizes The Central Asian despots even as the Defense Department embraced them.”

President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov recently ordered the killing of hundreds of his own citizens and now refuses the demands of the United States and the European Union for an investigation. Diehl says “the Pentagon still behaves as if there is no choice…. the Defense Department insists that there is no alternative to continued coddling of the dictator in exchange for access to the Uzbek airbase at Kashi Khanabad.”

The Post columnist notes that in Kyrgyzstan on the other hand, Uzbekistan’s neighbor, real democratic reform is taking place. Rosa Otunbayeva, the acting foreign minister of the transitional government and the first senior Kyrgyzstani official to visit Washington since the rebellion drove autocratic president Askar Akayev into exile, made two points during her visit. Despite the skepticism she says she was met with in “Washington about whether the attempted transformation will take hold”, she first reaffirmed the determination of her government to make the upcoming July 10 elections, not only free but fair, and secondly stressed the need “to preserve a finely balanced security policy that involves alliances with both the United States and Russia.” Speaking to a group at the Carnegie Endowment Otunbayeva said, “The 10th of July election is our most challenging final examination, which we have to pass in order to prove our intention to become a democratic country...” Otunbayeva further sought the help of Condoleeza Rice to “help and build democracy” through things such as funding independent media and training Kyrgyzstan’s security forces.

Jackson Diehl concludes with the question: ” Why should the Bush administration not begin to focus on Kyrgyzstan as a military and political partner, while conspicuously leaving Uzbekistan, and Karimov, in the cold? It's possible logistically…” He then goes on to note "…it would give a large boost to Kyrgyzstan's democrats, who could argue to their countrymen that democracy brings vital rewards, in the form of a privileged partnership with the world's superpower. And it would send a clear message to the Muslim nations of Central Asia: The United States will not support dictatorship, even in exchange for a landing strip.”