Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·December 24, 2002

RUSH TO INJUSTICE -- The Nazarbayev government ignored international pleas for delay and charged ahead this week with the hasty trial of an opposition journalist on trumped-up rape charges. The case of Sergei Duvanov, who "already has been pronounced guilty by President Nursultan Nazarbayev," Reuters reports, "is the latest to focus international attention on Kazakh press freedom." The defense requested more time to prepare its case and get access to government evidence and witnesses. Duvanov has been the target of harassment and beatings in the past, was arrested for insulting the "dignity" of the president, and most recently charged with raping a minor female. Many independent observers say his real crime was not rape but publishing an article alleging financial abuses by Nazarbayev and his family. The arrest came as he was about to leave for Washington to report on democracy, human rights and press freedom under the increasingly authoritarian thumb of the Nazarbayev dictatorship. He has been refused bail, apparently to prevent him from speaking to the media or foreign diplomats and human rights advocates. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/top_stories/

THE NEW VAST WASTELAND ­ Importing nuclear waste will be good for Kazakhstan, said the head of the Kazakh Atomic Industry, defending the government's plan to bring radioactive waste from abroad and store it in the country. Mukhtar Zhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, attacked environmentalists who criticized the proposal, accusing them of being indifferent to the national interest. When pressed to identify the national interest, he pointed to the employees of Kazatomprom and their families. It's not as if Kazakhstan doesn't already have enough nuclear waste of its own left over from the former Soviet Union; in fact it has some 237 million tons, which experts estimate will cost $1.2 billion to bury. The Nazarbayev regime hopes that by importing other countries' radioactive leftovers it will make enough money to bury both the new and the old. http://www.rferl.org/bd/ka/

WHEN AN AGREEMENT IS NOT AN AGREEMENT -- Just because a contract is agreed to and signed, that doesn't mean the Kazakh government can't unilaterally decide to change it later off if it feels like it. That's the gist of legislation adopted by the Kazakh parliament this month. It would "deny new investors immunity of their contracts to possible future changes in the republic's laws," reports Interfax-Kazakhstan. The parliament rejected a provision making the terms of a contract valid for the life of the agreement regardless of changes in the law. The new provision could discourage foreign investors who fear that their agreements could be drastically changed by whim without regard to the rule of law since Kazakhstan is an autocratic dictatorship and not a democracy. Adding to the uneasiness of potential investors are reports that Nazarbayev himself along with family members and top advisors are currently under investigation by Swiss and American authorities in connection with bribes and money laundering schemes linked to awarding contracts to international firms. http://www.interfax-news.com/

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