Cambridge is one of six British universities to have established links with higher education institutions in Uzbekistan, a country whose human rights record is described by Human Rights Watch as “atrocious.”

The collaborative project, entitled 'Continuity and Modernity on the Great Silk Road', is now in its third year.  The Cambridge Centre for Development Studies is running the project together with the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, Uzbekistan.  The project is financed by the British Council INSPIRE grant project, which funds partnerships between universities in the UK and Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.  The University declined to provide details of the size of the grant.

A spokesperson for the University said that the collaborative project is “an entirely academic research project,” and as such the University’s involvement should not be construed as tacit support for the Uzbek state.  Dr Siddharth Saxena, who is involved with the project, told Varsity: “Our long standing links are with the fellow academics, not with the state.”

However, some commentators have expressed doubts about the University’s ability to separate the academic from the political. Robert Chenciner of St Antony’s College Oxford, an expert on Uzbekistan, condemned the University’s links with the country, stating: “You can’t get an academic job if you are an oppositionist.”

According to the Guardian, partnerships with Uzbek institutions were carefully managed in the years following 9/11 as Britain sought to strengthen its relationship with the strategically crucial Central Asian state.  Uzbekistan remains an important point of transit in Nato’s supply lines to Afghanistan.

During the period in which these links were established and developed, however, there have been serious questions over Uzbekistan’s worsening human rights record.  Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say that the abuse of human rights has increased in severity since 2001.  In 2002, there were reports of two men belonging to an outlawed Islamist party being boiled alive. In 2005 in the city of Andijan the Uzbek militia shot several hundred protesters.  Human rights abuses continue to take place on a daily basis as the state places drastic and violent restrictions on freedoms of religion, speech, assembly and the press.  There are established reports of forced labour.

Craig Murray, former British Ambassador in Tashkent, suggested there is “no academic freedom of any kind” in the country.  He heavily criticised the University’s engagement with Uzbek institutions: “Involvement which taught young Uzbeks under conditions of genuine academic freedom would be great.  Unfortunately, what we rather see is academics legitimising the regime, for cash. That stinks.”

A US State Department report from 2011 highlights extensive restrictive measures placed on higher education institutions: “Authorities occasionally required department head approval for university lectures or lecture notes, and university professors generally practiced self-censorship… Numerous students reported that universities taught mandatory courses on books and speeches of the president and that missing any of these seminars constituted grounds for expulsion.”  The report also notes that there is a government decree in place that prohibits cooperation between Uzbek universities and foreign bodies without the explicit prior approval of the government.

Doubts are cast over claims of the purely academic nature of the project by its apparent diplomatic links.  On 27th March this year, the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan George Edgar gave a speech at an international conference for the Cambridge-Tashkent project, where he spoke of President Karimov’s interest in bolstering relations with neighboring states.  He also talked about the positive role that Uzbekistan is playing in the stabilisation of Afghanistan, helping to rebuild infrastructure.  This came one month before a treaty was signed between the UK and Uzbekistan governments about the transit of military vehicles out of Afghanistan and through Uzbek territory, an agreement that demonstrates the ongoing strategic significance of Uzbekistan to British interests.

In response to criticisms, the Director of Education at the British Council Dr Jo Beall wrote a letter to the Guardian, published Monday, which stated: “At the British Council, we make no apology for working to build greater understanding – and ultimately trust – between young people in the UK and other countries.”  She added that the British universities involved “deserve praise, not condemnation, for their commitment to creating international opportunity in less open societies.”

What is clear, however, is that British universities that partake in such programmes are liable to become enmeshed in the complicated world of Central Asian diplomacy.  As such, the University’s involvement with this project risks being seen as tacit support for one of the world’s most illiberal, repressive states.