Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·Oct. 22, 2003

SOME FOLKS NEVER LEARN -- The Bush administration is making the same mistakes in Kazakhstan and Central Asia that it did in the Arab world that helped nurture terrorist movements like al Qaeda, the Washington Post charged on its editorial page yesterday. "U.S. toleration of corrupt Arab autocracies in exchange for their oil wealth and military cooperation was a mistake" that created global terrorist threats to American security. Now it is "repeating the mistake in the Caucasus and Central Asia" by coddling dictators like Nursultan Nazarbayev "who crush opponents by force while seeking favor from the United States with offers of energy supplies and help with Iraq and Afghanistan." The administration is trading short-term gains for long-term problems, said the Post, by overlooking human rights abuses, rigged elections, repression of the media and persecution of opposition politicians. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61897-2003Oct21.html

IF YOU CAN'T CONVINCE 'EM, CONVICT 'EM – A favorite tactic of the Nazarbayev dictatorship to intimidate and silence its critics is to charge them with tax evasion. The latest victim of this type of censorship is Amirzhan Kosanov, chairman of the Republican People's Party (RPP), reports the Associated Press. The head of the country's leading pro-democracy party was convicted of tax evasion and falsifying official documents; he was given a one-year suspended sentence and fined about $900 US. Kosanov, who insists he is innocent and says the charges are politically motivated, announced he would appeal. Kosanov told reporters, "The judge has carried out a political order." The U.S. government and various international agencies have charged the Kazakh courts are not independent and the country lacks due process of law. According to the AP, Kosanov, allegedly evaded taxes on about $20,000 US in grants to the Reforma Center for Socio-Economic and Political Initiatives, which he heads; he insists the money was not subject to taxation because his group is a nonprofit organization. Kosanov, a 39-year-old journalist, charged his case the latest episode in a "banal attempt by the authorities to criminalize the Kazakh opposition" and discredit it at home and abroad. Politically motivated charges of tax evasion were also used to go after RPP's founder, former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, who has been forced to live abroad because of threats to his and his family's safety. AP reported Nazarbayev "has become increasingly authoritarian and impatient with dissent [and]…has cracked down on independent media. http://www.ap.org, http://www.interfax news.com/

RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA MOVE TO OUTFLANK U.S. -- Moscow and Washington could be on a collision course as Russia moves to reassert its influence and military presence in the former Soviet Central Asian republics. China and India, also nuclear powers, also are interested in extending their spheres of influence into the region as they confront Islamic extremism, simmering ethnic and political rivalries, deepening unrest under autocratic regimes and competition for the region's new petro-wealth, according to Ed Blanche of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He quotes a Heritage Foundation paper on the region that sees a looming "threat of Muslim insurrection" in the region, where the ruling regimes "suffer from a lack of legitimacy and are bereft of democratic process. With economic reforms spluttering or stalling, corruption is running rampant, GDPs are flat, and living standards are abysmally low. These conditions provide fertile ground for Islamic radicals, who are busily recruiting and training the next generation of jihad warriors." http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/04_10_03_e.asp

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