18 January 2002

U.S. Lawmakers Thank Central Asia for Anti-Terror Efforts

At the end of a week-long visit to Central Asia, an American congressional delegation held a news conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, January 18 to express gratitude to the countries in the region that have been helpful to the United States in the war against terrorism.

"Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in particular are to be singled out for the extraordinary effort that they have made to provide support and to allow us access to important locations within their countries and to continue our operations as we have maintained our effort now for several months," said the delegation's leader, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

He also said the U.S. presence and relationship with the people and countries of Central Asia "is one that we look upon in long terms," and the recognition of this fact is "critical to our success in this region."

In the delegation's meeting January 17 with both Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, Daschle said the group "emphasized the importance that the United States places on economic and political reform and our concern for human rights and the advocacy of the basic rights of all people who live in Uzbekistan."

Regarding Afghanistan, Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, said it is essential that the United States provide "as much support and assistance to the people and government of Afghanistan as is practical."

The U.S. delegation also included Senator Bob Smith, a Republican from New Hampshire; Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota; Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois; Senator Mark Dayton, a Democrat from Minnesota; and Representative Ellen Tauscher, a Democrat from California.

Following is a transcript of the press conference in Tashkent:

U.S. Delegation: Senator Bob Smith (Republican-New Hampshire), Senator Byron Dorgan (Democrat-North Dakota), Senator Richard Durbin (Democrat-Illinois), Senator Mark Dayton (Democrat-Minnesota), Representative Ellen Tauscher (Democrat-California)

Sen. Daschle: Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us. I'm Tom Daschle, Senator from South Dakota. Senator Byron Dorgan from North Dakota is on my immediate right. Mark Dayton from Minnesota in the far right position. Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois to my left as are Senator Bob Smith from New Hampshire and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher.

We are concluding a week-long visit to Central Asia. As we conclude, the delegation wishes to thank especially our Ambassador and the members of the United States Embassy for the extraordinary job that they have done in accommodating us and ensuring that our trip has gone so successfully. We are very fortunate to have them here. They have done an outstanding job in supporting our presence and maintaining our interests and I wish to thank them for that as well.

We also wish to thank the people of Uzbekistan for their warm hospitality. Each day, with each visit, with each trip they have done all that they can to accommodate our needs and to make us comfortable and to ensure our success.

Our purpose in coming was threefold. First: we wanted to assess our current operations in Central Asia. We wanted to better understand the military and diplomatic progress that we have been making and to make that assessment we needed to travel to several parts of the region. Secondly: we wanted to meet with our troops, the U.S. personnel stationed here from many branches of government to express our gratitude to them for the outstanding job they've done in this entire operation. I know of no recent experience abroad where the United States has had greater success. Our third purpose was to express similar gratitude to the countries that have been so helpful to the United States. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in particular are to be singled out for the extraordinary effort that they have made to provide support and to allow us access to important locations within their countries and to continue our operations as we have maintained our effort now for several months.

I know I speak for all of the American people in expressing our sincere gratitude to the people and to the governments of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan for their extraordinary cooperation and their partnership.

Having traveled, having had the opportunity to meet with leaders of the governments of many countries in the region, having had the opportunity to talk to American personnel, especially our embassy, we are extraordinarily optimistic about the successful conclusion of the first phase of this effort. It has been a remarkable success and I think that is much in evidence.

As we look forward, I would make four observations. First, I would say that we ought to view our military success as the beginning, not the end of our effort. Second, that we must be very wary of leaving a void in Afghanistan in particular but in the region as well. It is very important to recognize that should that void ever be created, we could be right back to where we were six months ago. Third, in that regard, in an effort to ensure that a void is never created, it is essential that we provide as much support and assistance to the people and the government of Afghanistan as is practical. It ought not to be done unilaterally. It must be done in concert with the nations that have already been involved, but it must be done. We would hope that some level of immediate economic and technical assistance could be made available to the people and the government of Afghanistan. It is sorely needed. My fourth observation is that we believe that our country will recognize that our presence and our relationship with the people of Uzbekistan and the countries in the region is one that we look upon in long terms, not simply in immediate terms and a recognition of the importance of our relationship in the long term is critical to our success in this region.

We have created an environment of cooperation, of partnership and of trust and it is important now that we build on that level of cooperation and our success as we look at the presence and the relationship in the long term.

We have very much enjoyed our visit to the region. We have enjoyed learning about the people of Uzbekistan and the people of the other countries that we have visited and we look forward to coming back again.

My colleagues and I would now entertain any questions that you may have.

Question From Russian Information Agency Itar-tass: There are two questions. The first question is: How would you explain that during your visit to Uzbekistan you decided to fly from Uzbekistan to Pakistan and then you decided to visit Bishkek? The second question is: What is your opinion about the outcome of the scandal which is now going on in the United States around the energy company Enron in which the Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for the failures?

Sen. Daschle: I am going to call on my colleagues extensively for the answers to these good questions. Let me ask Sen. Dorgan to answer the first question and Sen. Durbin to answer the second question.

Sen. Dorgan: Let me answer the question with respect to Enron because I have just chaired a hearing on that subject and have another hearing scheduled for February 4th at which point Mr. Kenneth Lay who is the Chief Executive Officer of Enron has agreed through his attorney to present testimony. We don't know all of the answers at this point with respect to what has happened to this corporation. It is the largest bankruptcy in American history. A lot of people, investors and employees, got hurt and we are in the middle of investigating it. But very frankly we do not yet have all of the answers. We hope to get the answers, so that we can understand what happened and how to prevent this from happening in the future.

If I might make just one additional comment, it is not unusual that a private company would fail, but this one was a very large private company and the evidence shows that those at the very top of the company cashed in over 1 billion dollars in stock at the same time, over the same period that their employees and their investors ended up losing their shirts, and that obviously is cause for investigation.

Sen. Durbin: In response to the first question, our war against terrorism is far from over, but we are very happy with the pace of our efforts to eliminate the Al Qaida and their forces of extremism around the world. The success of our effort in Afghanistan has a lot to do with the skill and courage of the men and women in the United States Armed Forces, the dedication of the people of Afghanistan to join us in this important battle, but of course the support of our important allies in the region which include Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Our visit with General Musharraf, really focused on thanking him for the cooperation of Pakistan, making note of his important speech which he gave last Sunday which renounced terrorism, and really, I think, set the stage for a new moderate leadership in this great Islamic nation, and also to do our best to encourage dialogue with India to avoid any confrontation.

Our visit to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, though brief, was I hope an important symbol of our appreciation for the cooperation of that great nation with our effort in Afghanistan and our continued positive relationship.

Question From Turkestan Press: The first question is: along with the political consultation you discussed the multi-lateral, many branch cooperation with the Uzbek government. Could you please specify what directions of economic cooperation with Uzbekistan you envision for the future? The second question is about your visit to Kabul. What was the purpose of this visit?

Sen. Daschle: Let me if I could ask Sen. Smith to answer either of the questions and I'll ask Sen. Dayton to answer the other one.

Sen. Smith: With respect to what economic package might come forth, we all have various ideas to that effect, but I believe that those overtures would be made by the administration as opposed to the Congress. Obviously, Uzbekistan is rich in oil and gas and there are opportunities for our two countries to have economic cooperation in the future. That would be in the long run. In the short term, as Sen. Daschle has already mentioned, we are very grateful for the cooperation of Uzbekistan, by providing us the military installation for our troops to use in the operation in Afghanistan which has been beneficial to both our countries.

Sen. Dayton: Our purpose in traveling to Kabul was to see first hand the conditions there resulting from the war. Certainly the combination of three years of drought affecting the land and the military conflict affecting the city showed us the devastation that has been wrought on that area of the country. We met with Chairman Karzai, the chairman of the provisional government and several of his ministers and talked about what forms of assistance they require. They are, as they said, in very desperate financial circumstances because the Taliban government, according to their report, eliminated the bank accounts of the country. They had less than a million dollars in deposits when they took office. So they need desperately and immediately U.S. and other nations' financial assistance.

Secretary Powell visited Kabul yesterday, just the day after our visit, and stated that the U.S. would be participating in that immediate financial effort and that next Monday in Tokyo during the conference an international agreement will be made on the share of that financing. We also visited the United States Embassy to express our great admiration for the courageous work that the embassy staff has undertaken there under very demanding conditions. And we also had a briefing on the military situation in Afghanistan.

Question From Khaibar, Kazakh TV: My question is about Vozrozhdenie Island or "Renaissance Island" in the Aral Sea. As far as we know the United States allocated six million dollars for the cleaning of this island. I would like to know whether programs such as this will be continued in the future. The second question is, as you know, part of this island belongs to the territory of Kazakhstan. I wonder whether any money has been allocated to Kazakhstan, or whether the six million dollars is for both the Uzbek and Kazakh parts of this island?

Sen. Daschle: I will ask Congresswoman Tauscher to answer that question.

Rep. Tauscher: Thank you Sen. Daschle. I am a ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee on the oversight panel to oversee the National Nuclear Security Administration. We are very interested in increasing our bilateral and multilateral relationships to work on weapons of mass destruction and non-proliferation including clean up of sites like Voz Island. We've been working with the Bush Administration to increase the funding on programs called Nunn-Lugar and Cooperative Threat Reduction funds for these kinds of non-proliferation activities and for clean-ups like these sites.

When we go back into session next week at the end of the month we expect to hear the President's State of the Union Address in which many of these opportunities that the Administration will put forth will be articulated. I think it is safe to say that many of us on this trip are very interested in increasing the funding for these clean-up programs, and that we will work cooperatively to make sure that the countries that have territorial jurisdiction for these clean-up programs will get their fair share and opportunities to help in the clean-up.

Question From Internews: I wanted to say Uzbekistan has enjoyed many official visits from the U.S since the beginning of this year. We have heard repeatedly the theme from these delegations that there will be long-term relations between the U.S. and Uzbekistan should we see reform in the areas of democratization and especially economic reforms. I wanted to know if by your visit you've seen any kind of concrete plans or programs that have been worked out in these areas?

Sen. Daschle: In our meeting yesterday with both the Foreign Minister and President Karimov we emphasized the importance that the United States places on economic and political reform and our concern for human rights and the advocacy of the basic rights of all people who live in Uzbekistan. The independence of Uzbekistan has now been nearly one decade. We recognize that in that period of time there has been some progress. We hope that this country and its government will continue to find ways to assure the world community that they will build upon the progress that has been made thus far. While we leave with an appreciation of the magnitude of the work that needs to be done, we are hopeful that we will come back at another time and witness that progress and express the hope to all of the people of Uzbekistan that indeed human rights, democratic and political reforms can be achieved here too.

As I understand it we are out of time. Thank you all for participating in this news conference.