Kazakhstan: Opposition Stifled in Advance of
Elections
Kazakhstan: Opposition Stifled in Advance of
Elections
(New York, April 6, 2004)-The Kazakhstan government
is undermining the prospects for free and fair parliamentary
elections by seriously harassing its political opponents, Human
Rights Watch said
in a new
report released today.
"The government is attempting to keep its fiercest critics out of
the media and out of politics," said Rachel Denber, acting executive
director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division.
"This is going to undermine the integrity of the elections this
fall."
The 53-page report, "Political
Freedoms in Kazakhstan," details government harassment of
Kazakhstan's opposition through arbitrary criminal and misdemeanor
charges and threats of job dismissal, in many cases aimed at
preventing them from running for public office. Among those
imprisoned were Galymzhan Zhakianov and Mukhtabar Ablizaov, the
founding leaders of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, an
opposition group formed in November 2001. Abliazov was released in
May 2003. Also imprisoned and then released in 2003 was Sergei
Duvanov, an opposition journalist and trenchant critic of government
corruption.
The Human Rights Watch report also documents government actions over
the past two years that have prevented some opposition groups from
entering electoral politics. The report describes how the July 2002
law on political parties served to reduce the number of registered
parties from 19 to only nine.
Beginning in 2000, opposition leaders began to allege that
high-level government officials, including President Nursultan
Nazarbaev and his close associates, received kickbacks from foreign
oil companies, and that the funds were held in Swiss bank accounts.
In connection with these allegations, in 2003 a U.S. federal court
indicted two American businessmen on charges of corruption and tax
evasion. Several journalists affiliated with the opposition, who
published articles about the scandal, became victims of physical
attacks by unknown assailants.
"The Kazakhstan government is obviously trying to stop the exposure
of official corruption, especially in the oil sector," said Denber.
The Kazakhstan government has a record of manipulating elections. In
the September 2003 local council (maslikhat) elections, the
opposition claimed that the government attempted to exclude its
candidates from the ballot through arbitrary misdemeanor and other
criminal charges, and other means of harassment and intimidation.
The authorities also manipulated the December 2002 parliamentary
by-elections. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) found Kazakhstan's 1999 presidential and parliamentary
elections to be deeply flawed.
The 2003 local council elections were critical to Kazakhstan's
election system, as under amendments to the elections law adopted
March 15, local councils are now authorized to appoint members of
electoral commissions. The March 15 amendments also opened the
ballot to individuals previously convicted of misdemeanor offenses,
which had previously been leveled against government opponents to
keep them off the ballot.
Political parties that submitted registration documents in
accordance with the law should be immediately registered, Human
Rights Watch said. Domestic election monitors should have access to
the polls, irrespective of whether they are supported through
foreign financing.
Human Rights Watch also called for the immediate release of
Galymzhan Zhakianov.
Please, use the following links to go to:
Summary
Recommendations
Full report
April 08, 2004.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/06/kazakh8396.htm
|