Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. · ·Oct. 27, 2004

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES MUGGED, COPS INDIFFERENT -- Kazakhstan's police and KNB secret police are more interested in going after Protestant missionaries than the criminals who have been attacking pastors and church members, reports Forum 18 News Service. The missionary work is protected by Kazakh law, but that that hasn't impeded the attacks by authorities, which have included punching clergy and their followers, throwing them from a moving truck, stealing and destroying religious literature and stealing their money and cellular phones. After meeting with police and KNB officials, Vladimir Smely, pastor of the Grace Rakym Christian Missionary Centre and one of those who was among those attacked, said, "I have the impression that the authorities consider us to be the main violators of the law and not the hooligans who attacked us." Their crime? According to the KNB, Pastor Smely and five other church members "spent three weeks actively promoting the ideas of the Presbyterian Christian faith," including among Moslems. Kazakhstan is predominantly Moslem. Among their offenses, the Protestants visited people's homes, held religious conversations, gave free gifts "such as pens, bracelets and sweets" and invited them to sporting events and to a "free lunch." At such times, according to the secret police, the missionaries "forced the children to pray and repeat various prayers in praise of Jesus." Pastor Smely denied the KNB allegations that children were forced to pray, F18 reported. http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=429

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? -- VOD isn't taking a position on next Tuesday's election and we all hope there won't be a repeat of what happened four years ago, but Kazakhstan sending monitors to scrutinize the voting is like appointing Tony Soprano director of the FBI. With its own long record of fraud and abuse -- most recently, last month's parliamentary election was called a "disgraceful farce" by a top leader of the winning party -- Kazakhstan hardly seems qualified to oversee voting procedures here. The State Department has invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor the American elections again this year, and OSCE has picked parliamentarians from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia and Romania to be observers. Hopefully they will see how it's supposed to be done and take those lessons home, because they really need it. http://www.nytimes.com/, http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=542998.html

AIDE QUITS WITH BLAST AT NAZARBAYEV -- A top aide to President Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned with a blast at his former boss, calling his appointment of Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov "a mistake," reported Interfax-Kazakhstan. The sooner Nazarbayev replaces his prime minister "the better it will be," said Grigorii Marchenko. He also echoed charges by the former Majilis Speaker who called last month's parliamentary elections a "disgraceful farce. Serious violations marred the voting, Marchenko said, and if they're supposed to be "a rehearsal for upcoming presidential elections," they were "a very unsuccessful rehearsal." Marchenko is the former head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and intends to set up a consulting firm advising foreign investors. http://www.rferl.org/bd/ka/, http://www.interfax-news.com/

YASSER, THAT'S MY BOY -- The Nazarbayev regime is working to establish closer relations with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, the government news agency, Kazinform, has announced. Kazakhstan has accredited an official Palestinian ambassador to Astana and recently presented him The Order of Dostyk, Kazakhstan's highest award to foreigners. Arafat's ambassador, Mukhammed Abdalla Tarshakhani was honored in ceremonies in Astana with the Dostyk (Friendship) Order award. "Despite the tricky situation in the Middle East, one can say that the results of the 12 year development of relations between Kazakhstan and Palestine appeared quite positive," declared deputy speaker of the Majilis Sergey Dyachenko. He called for closer cooperation between the two "countries" and expressed an interest in accessing Middle East markets through the Palestinian port of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea.
http://www.inform.Kazakhstan/txt/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=97177

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