U.S. State Department - 02.25.2004

U.S. Department of State
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2004
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
12:33 p.m. EST
BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman Daily Press Briefing Index

[EXCERPT]

QUESTION: The Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister who sees the Secretary later
today spoke this morning of the two menaces, as he put it: drugs and
radical fundamentalism; and an appeal for help, and of course, stated his
friendship with the United States. Is there something the U.S. can do?

He affirms, as the Georgian does, you know, they're trying to have a
democratic society, but they've got problems that are hard for them to
handle.

MR. BOUCHER: Well, there are a lot of things that we are doing with
Kyrgyzstan. We have been working very closely with the Government of
Kyrgyzstan against terrorism, against narcotics trafficking in Central
Asia, against trafficking of persons. And so that remains one of the
important issues, several of the important issues on the Secretary's
agenda today with Kyrgyzstan talking about how we can further our
cooperation in those areas.

We'll also be discussing the human rights situation, particularly the
democratic parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in 2005 in
the Kyrgyz Republic. Human rights is always on our agenda with
Kyrgyzstan, and at this moment a particular focus is the 2005 elections to
make sure they meet international standards.

We've had a variety of projects with Kyrgyzstan on drugs where we've
worked to try to prevent drug trafficking. We have a passport security
project underway that helps improve border security. We've got -- we're
working with the UN as they put together a new drug control agency in
Bishkek that's -- where we've got $6.3 million of U.S. funding that's
going in to helping them set up a facility to work on drug control in that
country.

We've had a senior law enforcement advisor, or we will have a senior law
enforcement advisor that will go out to Bishkek by the end of this fiscal
year to work more directly with them and to help target assistance in law
enforcement, counternarcotics and legal reform.

In the area of democracy assistance, I'd say that the fiscal year 2003 is
approximately 14.2 million, including money for exchanges, training and
technical assistance to civil society, rule of law, independent media,
political party development. So we're active with grants to
nongovernmental organizations supporting democracy there.

If you want to know more about the human rights situation, you can talk to
the briefer who will come later and talk about the Human Rights Reports.

QUESTION: Well, without getting into depth, he does speak of -- he
mentions the group that's been around for 50 years that has more than
3,000 adherents in this country, and it's a sponsor -- it's pushing for a
worldwide caliphate of Sharia law. I mean, you think democracy is the
answer to (inaudible) --

MR. BOUCHER: Who are we talking about there?

QUESTION: Talking about Kyrgyzstan.

MR. BOUCHER: The IMU?

QUESTION: No, it's called the Hizb ut-Tahrir, I believe.

MR. BOUCHER: Again, we've been working in a variety of ways with the
government against terrorism to improve border security generally, to
improve their ability to control their territory and fight terrorism. We
recognize the threats that they face, but we also recognize that the most
stable way, the most long-term way, to fight terrorism is to create the
hope of democracy and the reality of democracy that gives people in the
nation a say in their own affairs and lets them participate peacefully and
politically in the affairs of the nation. And that tends to withdraw the
support for the extremist elements, but the extremist elements do need to
be fought.