The cadastral update in Palmira aroused a protest from the Palmira Interunion Civic Committee (CCIP), which brings together unions, businessmen and representatives of civil society from that city in Valle del Cauca.
The letter to the Mayor is signed by the Chamber of Commerce of Palmira, Asocaña, Procaña, Fenavi, Fenalco, Asodolores, Acopi, Andi, Pacific Free Zone, Lonja de Cali and the Inter-Guild Business Committee.
In a statement, the CCIP asks for a comprehensive review for “the oversized increases in cadastral appraisals, which could represent disproportionate increases in the payment of property tax with values above 100 percent up to more than 500 after the 2022 validity” .
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In the letter signed by Jhon Hardi García Ortiz, director of the CCIP, it is stated that “we understand that within the framework of national regulations, the country is migrating to having a multipurpose cadastre, but the convenience of when to do it and how to do it, in a situation of economic recovery, is a responsibility of the Municipal Administration”.
The Committee says that the measures taken to mitigate the increase in tax payments are recognized, but they are transitory short-term measures that leave the business community exposed, and in general, to a disproportionate increase in the medium and long term.
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Measures taken to mitigate the increase in tax payments are recognized, but they are transitory…they leave the business community exposed and, in general, an excessive rise in the medium and long term
“Such an increase will not be able to resist taxpayers in a fragile economic and social environment, with high unemployment rates, uncertainty in international trade, high costs of raw materials, high inflation rates, among others,” says the letter. .
It also warns about “possible effects related to tax aspects due to increases in assets and wealth; properties that cannot be sold because their cadastral value is higher than the commercial value; affected purchase-sale processes; and loss of competitiveness of the territory to attract investment”.
The CCIP asks the Mayor for “a comprehensive review of the cadastral update, as well as to form a dialogue and dialogue table seeking a solution to the problem. Likewise, we extend our call to the Municipal Council to seek and approve measures that are not necessarily transitory, that add to the request that we make to the Municipal Administration. We are sure that in an environment of respectful dialogue and political will we will be able to jointly solve this problem.”
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Amid growing pressure from rights groups, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, will update the 49th session of the Human Rights Council on March 7 on her efforts to assess the situation in Xinjiang, a spokesperson from her office told VOA.
In recent weeks, rights activists and U.S. politicians have been pressuring Bachelet to release a report on human rights in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is home to Uyghurs who are Muslim and a minority group.
Mainly Western countries, including the United States, and rights organizations accuse China of human rights violations, including forced sterilization of Uyghur women, torture, forced labor and the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in internment camps in Xinjiang. The U.S. government has described the violations as genocide and crimes against humanity.
The push for the release of the report comes after years of unsuccessful efforts by Bachelet’s office to negotiate the terms of a visit to Xinjiang to assess the human rights situation there.
In a video speech to the 49th United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “The door of Xinjiang is open, and we welcome people from all countries to visit Xinjiang and have exchanges.”
He went on to refute allegations of abuse and said, “The so-called genocide, forced labor and religious repression, are lies that are completely fabricated.” China says the facilities in Xinjiang are only vocational training centers – and that Beijing’s Xinjiang policies are aimed at fighting extremism, terrorism and separatism.
While discussions between Bachelet’s office and Beijing are ongoing, “the parameters for a visit will have to be such that the High Commissioner has unfettered, meaningful access, including unsupervised interviews with civil society,” the high commissioner’s spokesperson, Liz Throssell, told VOA in an email.
Doubtful Uyghurs
Uyghurs’ rights groups are doubtful there will be changes to the status quo. “We don’t expect the visit will take place soon, given that the high commissioner has failed to reach an agreement with the government of China for the past three years,” said Zumretay Arkin, program and advocacy manager at the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.
A Uyghur government official in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, told VOA that for any Uyghur “to be able to speak [freely] and tell what is happening, they [would] have to be out” of China.
“There’s a tragedy in every [Uyghur] family, at least someone has disappeared without a trace. But I can’t tell you in detail,” the Uyghur official who requested anonymity for his safety said. “No one is calm. Every family is weeping over someone.”
Abdulhakim Idris, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Uyghur Studies, accuses Bachelet of being mostly passive on Uyghur human rights since she assumed her position in September 2018.
“These are not only my words; even her official told us that she had been disregarding the reports and documents detailing Uyghur human rights” in China, Idris told VOA.
Idris said that in late 2018, he and other Uyghur rights activists met a Bachelet office staffer in Geneva who was working on the China human rights issue. “We were told that when reports and documents got into her office, the reports they had submitted would be ignored,” Idris said.
“Every year Uyghurs hoped that on behalf of the U.N., Bachelet would say something about the Uyghurs’ dire human rights situation,” Idris said. “All these years, Bachelet had been careful not to anger China, that’s why she has been delaying this urgent report.”
In an email, Bachelet’s office told VOA the accusations are false and that since allegations of “human rights violations in Xinjiang emerged, the U.N. Human Rights Office has been consistently gathering, documenting and analyzing the information that has come to our attention.” Bachelet’s office also said she has been working on visiting Xinjiang “based on meaningful access” while continuing to monitor the situation and assess the situation there remotely.
Last September, Bachelet expressed regret at not making any progress on her “efforts to seek meaningful access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” to probe human rights.
“In the meantime, my office is finalizing its assessment of the available information on allegations of serious human rights violations in that region, with a view to making it public,” Bachelet said at the opening of the Human Rights Council in September in Geneva.
In December, after an unofficial tribunal in London said that China has “committed genocide and crimes against humanity and torture against Uyghurs, Kazakh and other ethnic minority citizens” in Xinjiang, a spokesperson for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Rupert Colville, said that Bachelet had hoped to publish the report on Xinjiang in the coming weeks.
Adrian Zenz is director and senior fellow of China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington. Zenz said the only way to make genuine progress on documenting China’s actions would be to take Uyghurs out of Xinjiang for completely unsupervised conversations with U.N. officials.
However, if it is a visit as suggested by Wang, Beijing will “closely control what people see on the ground, and that’s all the more because actually a fairly substantial number of internment camps have been securitized or closed down,” Zenz told VOA. “People have been shifted into forced labor or sentenced to long-term prisons.”
U.S. experts agree on the need for Washington to rethink its strategy for Central Asia in light of its withdrawal from Afghanistan but are divided on what shape that new strategy should take.
Until 2001, few Americans knew this remote region. But it played a key role in U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan hosting air bases and helping the coalition transport critical goods.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lesslie Viguerie said Central Asia is still strategically important, despite the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. “Many things have changed over decades, but our overarching goals remain the same: sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” Viguerie said.
Lesslie C. Viguerie, the U.S. State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Central Asian and Pakistan Affairs.
At a recent U.S. Institute of Peace forum, Viguerie said the nations of Central Asia— which include Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — have become more concerned about their own security since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
As the State Department’s top official for the region, he said Washington steadfastly supports political, economic and social reforms.
“Pluralism and democratic governance are the foundational bedrock for a free and prosperous society,” he said. “We continue to advance the rule of law, promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and fight corruption.”
In 2015, Washington created the regionally focused C5+1 forum to discuss common challenges and “to enhance connectivity, economic integration and energy linkages.” That discussion included links with Afghanistan, but whether that continues will largely depend on the actions of the Taliban, officials said.
Viguerie said regional cooperation could help the five nations to deal more effectively with problems as diverse as the pandemic, climate change and disinformation campaigns.
“Recent events in Kazakhstan remind us of the importance of addressing the underlying social and economic factors that can lead to instability,” he said in reference to nationwide protests sparked by a sharp spike in fuel prices.
“We continue to highlight the positive role civil society can play in examining the root causes of economic and social frustrations.”
Mistaken presumption
Richard Hoagland, a former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, said that while Washington speaks publicly about democracy and economic development, it is more quietly focused on countering Russian and Chinese influence in the region.
In the 1990s, Hoagland recalled, U.S. policy presumed that the nations of Central Asia “would surely become free market democracies if only we could offer enough assistance. But they didn’t. And in retrospect, that’s not the least bit surprising.”
The ways of the West were too foreign to Central Asians who had long lived under repressive rulers, Hoagland said.
Going forward, he said, these five countries will need to resist outside pressure in order to balance their relationships with Moscow, Beijing, Brussels and Washington. “Russia would not be at all displeased to see the West and especially the U.S. pack up its bags and go home.”
Leaders of five Central Asian states hold a virtual forum with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Jan. 25, 2022. (president.uz)
Beijing, the largest investor in the region, made further commitments during a virtual meeting last week between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the five Central Asian presidents. India showcased its own interest in investing in the region during a similar summit a day later.
Presidents of five Central Asian states hold a virtual summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jan. 27, 2022. (president.uz)
Hoagland argued that U.S. concerns over governance and human rights problems should not lead Washington to dial back its relations with the region.
“We need patience,” he said, noting the rise of a new generation in Central Asia, including some with Western education and values.
Jennifer Murtazashvili, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said U.S. strategy for the region does not take current realities into account.
“The U.S. can play a very constructive role in Central Asia but has to understand their needs, desires and goals,” she said at the USIP forum.
She urged Washington not to look at the region through the lens of Russia or China, saying, “We can’t be reactive to what other countries are doing, but proactive.”
Murtazashvili said U.S. engagement with the region should focus on the intersection between economic development and public administration, including efforts to combat corruption and work with emerging civil society. “Without reforms in these areas, it will be difficult for Central Asians to achieve their goals,” she said.
She considers education the biggest area of demand for cooperation with the U.S. because of youthful populations.
Security cooperation first
But Fred Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, contends that security cooperation should instead be front and center. “A discussion with the countries that honestly includes security, sovereignty, self-government and self-determination is what’s been missing,” he said.
Speaking at the same virtual forum, Starr said Central Asia is the only region in the world that doesn’t have its own intraregional organization without outsiders and urges Washington to support such initiatives.
“The C5+1 is thin. The concept is good, they have meetings, but it’s been very passive by comparison to what China and Russia are doing,” Starr said.
“We have to be more patient and tenacious with those who are underperforming in areas that are important to us,” he added. “Treat them as a region, treat them with respect, foster a regional thinking in our programs.”
Murtazashvili sees Afghanistan as a place with potential to foster positive relationships among Russia, China and the United States. Now that the geopolitical implications of a major foreign presence in Afghanistan no longer overshadow more immediate regional interests, she said, major powers could collaborate on development and investment opportunities in this part of the world.
Afghans wait for food rations from the World Food Program in Pul-e-Alam, Logar province. Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2022. The Taliban’s sweep to power in August drove billions of dollars in international assistance out of the country.
“Having a Central Asian strategy that was so dependent on what happened in Afghanistan was a huge risk,” she said. “We weren’t seeing the strong mutual interests that many countries in Central Asia had with Afghanistan regardless of who is in power.”
Starr and Murtazashvili recommend the United States make Afghanistan part of a renewed strategy. “Central Asians are more confident in dealing with Afghanistan than we are,” said Murtazashvili, specifically referring to Uzbekistan’s humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.
Values-based approach
Steve Swerdlow, professor of human rights at the University of Southern California, argues for a values-first strategy toward the region. In an interview with VOA, he said America’s reputation as a defender of human rights and democracy has been damaged in recent years but argued that the Afghan withdrawal frees up the U.S. to reclaim a more values-based approach to Central Asia.
“Washington should speak out more about the harassment of journalists and create greater recognition that support for civil society is a core national interest of the U.S.,” he said.
“Global Magnitsky sanctions against bad guys should be used more in Central Asia in a strategic way,” he added. “Go after corrupt individuals; curtail some of the globalized, offshore asset holdings by” a close circle of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Swerdlow said Washington should utilize the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations to raise human rights issues in Central Asia and negotiate with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as members of the U.N. Human Rights Council about their obligations.
