“What we have seen over the past year is that violence has broken out in all Central Asian countries, but Turkmenistan. Even though many of the early warning signs were there, we were caught partly by surprise”, – Teri Hakala, EU Special Representative, on massive violations of human rights and freedoms in Central Asia.
The International High-Level Conference on “International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists” was held in Dushanbe on October 18-19.
“We are witnessing terrorists and extremists safely using the institution of ‘refugee’ and abusing the trust of developed countries,” Emomali Rahmon said. European Union Special Representative for Central Asia Teri Hakala also attended and spoke at a conference on counterterrorism. In an interview with CABAR.asia, Ms. Hakala explains the purpose of these events and what agenda the European Union intends to promote in Central Asia, particularly in Tajikistan in the coming years.
How the conference on counter-terrorism went today? Do you consider it a productive high-level meeting?
This conference was an opportunity to come together to ensure coordination in addressing global, trans-regional, and emerging threats. It is important that we continue to support multilateral organizations and processes, we just cannot deal with all the global challenges alone.
For me, as an EU Representative, this conference was an opportunity to raise awareness and deliver messages on several issues that the EU promotes. Just recently the EU has taken up duties as the new Co-Chair of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum. This Forum brings together policymakers and practitioners from around the world to share experiences and expertise, and to develop practical, publicly available tools and strategies on how to prevent and counter the evolving terrorist threat.
When taking up this duty, the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (of the European Union, ed.) Josep Borrell stressed the EU’s role in preventing violent extremism around the world and underlined the global impact of and need for response to terrorism, The importance of an integrated approach to fighting terrorism and violent extremism, of which education – of girls in particular – is a central aspect and we need to continue working on it. In this regard, we also recognize the special role the leadership of women has in all counter-terrorism efforts, so we would like to see more focus here.
You also gave a speech there, and we would like to know what are the main security issues in Central Asia you think we should be concerned about.
There are many common security issues that we should be concerned about. These range from terrorism, violent extremism, and organized crime to hybrid conflicts and cyberattacks, irregular migration, arms proliferation, and trafficking, to name just a few. Financial instability, extreme social and economic divergences can further exacerbate instability and conflict. We have not fully recovered from the COVID – 19 pandemic and its impact. The EU has a war on its borders. I think you feel the impact of it as well.
Developments in Afghanistan are a major concern for all of us. The unwillingness of the Taliban (recognized as terrorists in Tajikistan) to take action against the terrorist safe heavens and the ability of IS- K (recognized as terrorists in Tajikistan) persists. Central Asian neighbors of Afghanistan play a crucial role in helping us understand the developments in the country and work out our responses. The issue of violent extremism has proven to be resilient and resistant, despite the territorial defeat of Daesh (recognized as a terrorist in Tajikistan, also known as Islamic State). It has now embraced many forms and ideological manifestations and proven ability to employ effective and innovative techniques of recruitment and attacks, and we need to be able to respond.
The EU and member states are also concerned about the nexus between organized crime and terrorism. Understanding it is essential not only for the prevention of travel by terrorists and other criminals but also for the effective identification of potential victims of terrorist groups, sexual and gender-based violence, human trafficking, and other related crimes.
As these challenges have an impact on the EU’s security as well, the EU has supported our Central Asian partners in addressing them and sharing our experience and best practices. We do it through political dialogue and through programmatic activities. For example, in our programs, we have focused on border management, countering terrorism while taking into consideration the human rights approach, strengthening capacities of the law enforcement and criminal justice to counter the use of new and emerging technologies, on preventing violent extremism and radicalization, on reintegration and rehabilitation of the women and children returning from Syria and Iraq, etc. Actually, the experience of the Central Asian countries in reintegration and rehabilitation is very interesting for us as well.
You have expert knowledge of the borderline conflicts in the Southern Caucasus. Do you see any similarities between the Nagorno-Karabakh and Tajik-Kyrgyz conflicts? Where do you see a solution to this border dispute? How can the EU contribute to resolving this issue?
There are a few conflicts that are a legacy of the break up of the Soviet Union, and in many conflicts, you can find similarities, but in the end, each conflict is unique and requires a special tailor-made solution. The main prerequisite for a solution is political will and probably bravery on the part of the leaders. We as the international community can support the conflict resolution and transformation processes in different ways, but ultimately it is up to the leaders to lead to peace.
We are, of course, concerned about the outbreaks of violence at the border, each death is a tremendous tragedy and could have been avoided. The EU has offered support through its relevant programs and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
As you may know, this year 7 bloggers and journalists were arrested, one of them is already sentenced to 7 and a half years and another one to 10 years. Trials were held behind closed doors without the participation of any media outlet. What measures EU is going to apply in Tajikistan in order to protect the freedom of speech and the rights of the journalists?
Shrinking space for civil society, including media freedom, is a concern for us everywhere. For the EU access to justice and fair trial are fundamental principles. We continue to raise these and other cases in our dialogue with the Government of Tajikistan. As our relations with Tajikistan develop into new areas, the implementation of the commitments in this area will be monitored more closely, including by the EU member states and the European Parliament which I think will now pay more attention to Tajikistan following a recent resolution.
It seems that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the EU stopped paying attention to human rights violations in Central Asia by allocating all efforts to isolate Moscow from Central Asia and the whole world. What are your thoughts about it?
I would disagree. Indeed, the EU stands by Ukraine in many ways from military support to taking in millions of refugees. Sanctions on Russia are one tool to end this brutal war, and they are very painful for us too. It may seem that our attention has turned completely away from Central Asia, but it is not the case. We continue to develop our relations with the region, negotiating new partnership agreements, developing Team Europe initiatives, and thinking about how to engage with Central Asia on the Global Gateway connectivity initiative in a mutually beneficial manner. We have a broad agenda outlined in the EU – Central Asia strategy adopted in 2019. Now human rights-based approaches and promoting gender equality are part of our engagement.
What we have seen over the past year is that violence has broken out in all Central Asian countries but in Turkmenistan. Even though many of the early warning signs were there, we were caught partly by surprise. We need to better understand why and how we can help address both the root causes of it and the response. Central Asian societies are changing fundamentally.