Over 60 people gathered in the ASEAN auditorium last night for the first lecture sponsored by the Central Asia Initiative, titled "Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy in Central Asia: Where National Interest and Moral Conscience Collide."
Seniors Ross Johnston and Sarah Newton, both international relations majors interested in post-Soviet states relations, started the group they call the Central Asia Initiative (CAI) this fall "to raise awareness about an important region that needs more attention," Johnston said.
He added that that "it has provided a cool opportunity to foster and create dialogues about the region from different angles."
Johnston describes Central Asia as "all the '-stans': Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and to some extent, Afghanistan, although it's not technically Central Asia."
Many students' exposure to Central Asia depends on whether they have seen the popular mockumentary now in theaters, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
CAI effectively used the film as a springboard a few weeks ago when Tufts students joined other Boston students to watch and discuss the film and its impact in Kazakhstan, receiving coverage in the Boston Globe.
As fictional Kazakhstani reporter Borat Sagdiyev, Sasha Baron Cohen's satirically rustic portrayal of Central Asia has raised eyebrows across the world.
As a region of increasing strategic importance thanks to its richness in oil, the panelists made it clear that Central Asia is hardly irrelevant.
CAI gathered a panel of four experts on the region of Central Asia, including the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the United States, Zamira Sydykova. Each spoke on a different aspect of the United States' relationship with the region, particularly the gray area where U.S. national interests in both spreading democracy and securing oil collide with the basic human rights of the inhabitants of Central Asian countries.
The speakers were "helping to look at the role of the U.S. as a global superpower and how - or how not - we're responsible for human rights there," Newton said.
Dr. John Schoeberlin, the director of the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus at Harvard University which he started in 1993, introduced himself by making it clear that while "I am the only American by background on the panel, I cannot be expected to support the American government's policy in the region."
He discussed the prospect of democracy in the region, emphasizing that it is "very much in our national interest to support human rights in this region."
Sydykova, known around the world for encouraging free speech in central Asia, starting Kyrgyzstan's first independent newspaper, and for her current position as ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the United States, discussed the changes and corruption in Kyrgyzstan's government - the only democratic government in Central Asia.
While the corruption associated with the government has improved over the past few years, Kyrgyzstan's new constitution has increased Parliament's power and decreased the president's power.
As a result, Sydykova is "not sure the new constitution will guarantee political stability in the near future in our country," she said.
Dr. Oidinposha Imamkhodjaeva, visiting professor at Tufts, spoke about Islam in Central Asia, expressing frustration that the authoritarian governments in the region have forced "all of the well-educated people to leave the region because of the high rate of unemployment and poverty," she said.
Dr. Rinat Akhmetshin, Director of the International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, concluded the panel by speaking candidly about his experiences traveling in Central Asia both before and after Soviet rule.
"I'd never seen so much poverty - or such hospitality - in my entire life," Akhmetshin said of his travels to the region.
He emphasized the need for "increased dynamics in the relationships between the central countries," adding that "it would benefit them to work together on international issues, because they all have common threats."
All four panelists stressed the importance of creating stable governments in Central Asia to help foster more stable economies and fight poverty in the region, making their frustration clear that oil wealth was going straight to the authoritarian leaders.
Johnston and Newton have preferred to keep CAI a so-called "non-official" Tufts group to avoid bureaucracy and also to allow it to cooperate with the Central Asia awareness groups from other universities with greater ease.
Professor of Russian Nancy Petrov moderated the lecture and the question and answer session that followed.
