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

OSCE BID IN DANGER -- Kazakhstan can forget about its ambitions to chair the organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe unless it ends its practice of political trials and releases opposition leaders. There is no place at the head of Europe's leading human rights group for a serial abuser of human rights, warned U.S. Ambassador John Ordway. The United States will oppose Kazakhstan's application to lead the OSCE in 2009 unless it sees significant political and humanitarian reforms, he added. "Our position is well known. Any chairman-in-office has to exemplify the fundamental characteristics of the organization," Amb. Ordway told Reuters. He accused the Nazarbayev regime of conducting politically motivated trails; international human rights groups have charged the Kazakh dictator abuses the tax laws and judicial system to punish his opponents in politics and the media.

'LET YOUR PEOPLE GO' -- Kazakh President Nazarbayev must allow banished political figures to return safely and engage openly and freely in the political process, Amb. John Ordway declared last week. One of those the American envoy had in mind was former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, who is in exile, having been sentenced to a long prison term in absentia after attempting to challenge Nazarbayev in a 1999 presidential poll, Reuters reported. Kazakhstan, under 15 years of Nazarbayev's autocratic rule, has never held a free and fair election. As the leading investors in Kazakhstan, American firms have poured billions of dollars into the country's booming oil and gas sector. There is growing concern in Washington that as Nazarbayev becomes increasingly repressive, the opposition pressure will grow and the stability of the government along with the safety of investments will become increasingly tenuous.

LOOKING IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES -- Saudi Arabia is a medieval monarchy with the world's worst human rights record and a judicial system dictated by one of the most extreme forms of Islam, Wahhabism. Beheadings, stonings and the chopping off of limbs are common forms of punishment for such crimes as adultery, drug dealing, theft and heresy. It has been widely condemned by nearly every international human rights group. Only the most brutal and repressive dictator could look at Saudi Arabia as a role model. So why is the government of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who likes to toss people in jail for insulting him and his family, talking to the Saudis about cooperation between the countries' justice ministries? Kazakhstan already has an abysmal human rights record (see above articles) -- albeit not as terrible as Saudi Arabia's -- and is a secular Moslem country. Nazarbayev has asked for American weapons and assistance for what he has said is possibly the greatest threat to his country's security: Islamic extremism. That is the same brand of Islamic extremism spread by al Qaida, the Taliban, the Wahhabis and other extremists with ties to groups in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. None is qualified to be anyone's role model. Yet the Saudi and Kazakh justice ministers have just signed an agreement on cooperation in the sphere of justice. Talks between the two officials reportedly covered joint measures to ensure regional security, the operation of their respective judiciaries, and dealing with terrorism, extremism and illegal traffic in guns and drugs. Both countries badly need modern judicial systems that will protect and enforce the rule of law -- but they're shopping in the wrong neighborhood.
To learn more:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/180f0180f2e75253b11e16dc6cc9b8ff.htm
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/embassy.htm
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=23593
http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?id=104627

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