Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. Apr. 30, 2003

NOT MY DADDY -- My daddy's an honest man and all those charges of corruption against him are a plot concocted by his political opponents and the Western media, declared Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of the Kazakh dictator. President Nazarbayev has been implicated in ongoing investigations by American and Swiss authorities into bribery, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption. One of his closest advisors and confidantes has already been indicted for collecting and funneling millions of dollars in illegal payments to a very senior Kazakh official, reportedly Nazarbayev himself. His daughter was the first member of the Kazakh ruling elite to comment on the corruption investigations, according to WMRC Daily, published by the World Market Research Center. Her charges that the western media are plotting against her father were made at the Eurasia Media Forum, which she chaired in Kazakhstan last week. http://www.wmrc.com/

SHOW ME THE MONEY -- American authorities are trying to seize approximately $100 million in 11 Swiss bank accounts linked to Kazakh President Nazarbayev, reports the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. The funds represent illegal payments from several American oil companies to obtain oil exploration rights in Kazakhstan. The money included at least $74 million allegedly paid by Mobil, Amoco, Texaco and Phillips Petroleum to James Giffen, who deposited it in Swiss accounts controlled by Nazarbayev and his minister of petroleum, Nurlan Balgimbayev, the paper reported. Nazarbayev's lawyers are claiming the money belongs to the state and demanding it be turned over to Nazarbayev, but Swiss authorities have frozen the accounts. American authorities have not yet formally requested restitution. http://www.letemps.ch/.

FREE TO REPORT WHAT I TELL YOU TO REPORT -- The Kazakh government believes in a free press, said a senior official, but only as long as the regime gets to define and restrict that freedom in order to protect the people from knowing too much about what is really going on. That was the message from a top aide to the Kazakh dictator. Marat Tazhin told the Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty that government must impose some restrictions on media coverage to protect civilians against psychological trauma, the BBC reported. He believes "the international media must adhere to the principles of openness," but he defended government-imposed restrictions on the media as necessary to protecting the sensibilities of the public. His own government has been internationally condemned for its often-brutal attacks on independent and opposition media, and the conference at which Tazhin spoke was an image-polishing effort organized by the dictator's daughter. http://news.bbc.co.uk/, http://www.interfax news.com/

SPEAKING WITH FORKED TONGUE -- While government officials were holding a conference in Almaty extolling free speech in their country, they were busy pulling the plug on Internet websites critical of the country's authoritarian regime, reported the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). RSF called on the Nazarbayev government to "end all censorship of news websites, whatever their editorial line. The near-monopoly of the state-owned Kazakhtelecom as an Internet service provider must not be used to block independent and diverse news," according to Agence France Presse. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6122

HOW TO SCARE A DICTATOR: TELL THE TRUTH -- Here are some of the banned websites that Nursultan Nazarbayev finds so threatening to his regime that he's had his state-owned Kazakhtelecom prevent the Kazakh people from seeing them: http://www.navigator.kz, http://www.eurasia.org.ru, http://www.kub.kz, http://www.ablyazov.info, http://www.zhakiyanov.info, http://www.kazhegeldin.addr.com, http://www.vestipavl.com, and http://www.respublika.kz.

CENSORSHIP IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD -- For a kinder, gentler view of Kazakh media intimidation, click out http://www.eurasianet.org/cartoons/rall042803.html

For the full stories, see the web citations above or contact us at News@Kazakhstan21.org or see VOD Archives . The Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation promotes democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan through public affairs and educational programs in the United States and Europe. This material is distributed by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation.