Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·Aug 18, 2004

BURNED AT THE STAKE -- It's the Kazakh version of the Salem witch trials, but instead of burning the offenders at the stake, Molotov cocktails are thrown in the windows of newspapers. That's what happened early this morning at the office of the newspaper "Southern Express" in the city of Taraz. Eyewitnesses said three men tossed as many as seven flaming bottles at the second-floor office but protection over the windows prevented serious damage. The two-year-old paper had recently published a series of articles about local government corruption and "connections [between] criminal authorities" and candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election, according to Rozlana Taukina, president of the Almaty-based "Journalists in Danger." Kazakh police rarely even bother to "round up the usual suspects" -- instead, they announce they'll investigate but are soon overcome by amnesia. Arson against Kazakh newspapers is increasingly common, reports Taukina, and "as a rule" those responsible "are not found." The police often dismiss the incidents as hooliganism but Taukina said the real "underlying reason" was politics and "revenge for articles which touched corruption, criticism or authorities." Her article was translated and published by the Central Asian and Southern Caucasian Freedom of Expression Network (CASCFEN), a free press and human rights watchdog group.
http://www.cascfen.org/news.php?nid=270&cid=12

SECRET REVEALED -- Every Kazakh should learn English because it is "the world language of business," President Nazarbayev told a recent meeting with businessmen in the western city of Aktobe. "I'll tell you a secret, I am also learning English," he confided to his audience, according to a an Interfax-Kazakhstan correspondent who was there. That's a good idea because English is also the language of the U.S. investigators who want to question Nazarbayev in connection with the largest criminal corruption cases ever brought under the federal Corrupt Practices Act. Every school child in Kazakhstan should know English along with Kazakh and Russia, he said.
http://www.interfax news.com/

YUKOS SCHEME IN KAZAKHSTAN? -- "Is a Yukos-style saga playing itself out in Kazakhstan?" That's the question asked by Time magazine's European edition. Kazakhstan's financial police have accused the British energy firm BG Karachaganak of failing to pay $5.4 million in duties; the company says the charges are completely unfounded. "Still, the move has spooked investors who fear that President Nursultan Nazarbayev may be stealing a page from Russian President Vladimir Putin's playbook by asserting state control over the country's energy resources," says Time Europe. Unlike Yukos in Russia, no one is being threatened with arrest and the stakes are much lower. But there is a chilling similarity. Just as the Putin government is trying to take over Yukos, the Nazarbayev government is trying to buy BG's stake in the multi national consortium developing the highly lucrative Kashagan oil and gas field in the northern Caspian Sea. "Nazarbayev has signalled that his government wants a more active role in managing those vast resources," says Time. "The government's move doesn't necessarily amount to a Yukos style power grab, but it still worries many Western oil executives whose companies have already invested billions in the country."
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/printout/0,13155,901040809-674719,00.html

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