By Jeremy Bransten

Washington, 29 April

(RFE/RL)

The degree of press freedom around the world declined in 1998 and most of the countries which emerged from the former Soviet Union continue to censor journalists and limit their citizens� access to information.

These are the conclusions reached by Freedom House, in its 21st annual media study, issued today (Thursday) ahead of World Press Day on May 3rd. The U.S.-based organization has been monitoring civil and political rights worldwide for 58 years.

The 1998 survey, says author Leonard Sussman, paints the bleakest picture in five years. Sussman, a professor at New York University, says investigators looked at four basic categories to evaluate a country�s degree of press freedom.

First, they examined laws which govern the press in a particular country and how those laws are administered. Second, the study�s compilers looked at the degree to which political influences affect news content. Third, they examined the degree to which economic influences affect news content and lastly, they looked at the number and kinds of actual press freedom violations in individual countries � from the harassment of reporters, to the closing down of newspapers or even the murder of journalists.

Sussman told RFE/RL that in the post-Communist countries of East and Central Europe, the situation is the most positive. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, for example, rapidly moved to a free press after the fall of Communism ten years ago. But at the other end of the spectrum, in the states of Central Asia, the press is continually hounded and journalists frequently persecuted.

�There certainly have been major changes since the fall of the Berlin Wall in East and Central Europe and Central Asia. Most of the changes have shown some improvement in the level of press freedom � particularly in those countries that have had some history of democratic backgrounds � for example in the Czech Republic and Hungary, in Poland � there we find a free press in all three countries. They came very quickly out of the Communist era into this new and brighter period. Not so for some of the other countries in East and Central Europe and particularly in Central Asia where we find just about the doldrums with respect to press freedom - Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. There is a complete lack of press freedom in these countries and no sign of a change in the immediate future in any of them. And Belarus would be included in that.�

Tajikistan receives one of the worst scores in the Freedom House report. The survey notes that in that country, most Soviet media laws still apply. All opposition media are banned and all local radio and television stations are operated by the state.

In Turkmenistan, the report notes that despite a relatively liberal media law adopted in 1991, the government completely controls print and broadcast media. Libel is a criminal offense punishable by hard labor and journalists, both foreign and domestic, are regularly intimidated by the security forces.

The situation, says Freedom House, is not much better in Uzbekistan. Although recent laws provide for press freedom and free access to information, most media are state owned and all newspapers, radio and television programs are subject to editorial constraints.

In Kazakhstan, the situation is marginally better, says the survey, but press freedom is limited. Although there are a number of independent newspapers, Freedom House notes that they are subject to controls and a law banning the incitement of ethnic conflict � which is often interpreted very broadly. Another law against insulting the president and against �irresponsible� journalism is often invoked by the authorities to prosecute journalists � leading to much self-censorship to avoid suits.

Much the same situation exists in Kyrgyzstan, where several journalists have been fined or jailed for allegedly defaming state authorities.

Sussman says that in Russia, the picture is mixed � neither as stark as in Central Asia nor as free as in Central Europe or the Baltics:

�Russia itself is a very mixed bag in this sense and a very important one to examine, particularly from the press freedom standpoint, because it did show, immediately after the opening of the country, in the early-Gorbachev, late-Yeltsin period. The press was highly diversified, highly active, very diverse in many respects. But in recent months, or even in the last year, year-and-a-half, the movement has gone in the other direction in Russia, mainly because of the great influence of the industrialists who�ve taken over and bought newspapers, who�ve bought up television and who essentially use them to advance their other industrial interests.�

What all these countries have in common, even in some of the free press countries of Central Europe and the Baltics, is a government inclination to use anti-libel laws to protect officials and prosecute journalists. The report notes that in Latvia, for example, the press is free. Nevertheless, the government brought several libel charges against prominent journalists in 1998.

�What we have also found this year, looking at the full year of 1998, was the trend downward, by use of the rule of law, as an exploitative way of controlling or influencing journalists � mostly by stealth as we�ve said, to govern the source of information, the degree to which journalists can use information and finally to intimidate journalists, very often by increasing the use of what are called insult laws � that is condemning a journalist for libel, for defamation of the ruler of the government, of the government itself and the applying very serious penalties in many cases � everything from imprisonment to other kinds of penalties, which, in the final analysis, produce the result of self-censorship.�

An argument frequently made by the leaders of the countries mentioned, as well as the presidents of Azerbaijan and Belarus, to cite recent examples, is that censorship and control over the media are necessary to maintaining stability. Just this week, Turkmenistan�s President Saparmurat Niyazov said the Western model of democracy was not compatible with the Turkmen mentality. He argued that maintaining censorship was essential to avoid discord among his country�s many ethnic groups. But Sussman says arguing that democracy and a free press are Western models not suitable for other countries is misleading. The better solution, says Sussman, is for the government to allow citizens free access to information and then use its power of persuasion and its actions to earn genuine support:

Zinetulla INSEPOV, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics,

Professor of Kioto University,

Kioto, Japan (Specially for THE GLOBE)

Analysis

(Continued from # 33(351))

Murat Auezov, former Kazakh Ambassador to China

ALMATY, April 25

(Specially for THE GLOBE)

The aim of the policy logical: to decrease the growing tension in the regional relations, as this project is economically profitable for all the participants. At the same time, there is a strategic task to radically change the proportion of the national content in the autonomic republics in favour of the Han people, the migration of which to the developing regions is of unavoidable dynamic and mass character.

The foresight of this measure and its compliance with the interests of stability may only be appreciated in some time. It is possible that pragmatism and ideological relaxation of the seaside businessmen along with the growing dissatisfaction of the �outlying� people will create a situation which will have unexpected political subsequences for the centre.

China faces three problems which came from the past and of serious importance not only for the country, but for the neighboring states as well: the size of the population, water and land.

China was established on the two rivers: Yangtze and Hwang Ho. In the basin of Yangtze there is an excess of water and regular floods. Approximately 500 000 thousand people have died in floods this century. In 1994, out of 90 million hectares of area under crops, 58 million hectares were under the spring flood. Hwang Ho has twenty times less water than Yangtze, and a lot of silt, often changing its route. The water of Yangtze holds 80% of the water resources of the country. In the basin of this river there is only 36% of the area under crops, 49% of ploughed lands require artificial watering, and the reserves are extremely limited.

All the known Chinese history is a history of struggle for lands suitable for agriculture and for water sources

Favourite plots of the ancient myths were heroes� deeds for the sake of agriculture. For today�s Chinese government the problems of land and water are exacerbated by the current difficult demographic situation and are paramount among the other strategic ones. This should be kept in mind to evaluate properly the special readiness and pursuance of the Chinese side in the problems of the bordering lands and rivers. To understand the sincerity of a happy smile at the Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, when the document on the disputable lands was signed by China and Kazakhstan.

Seventeen billion dollars will be required to execute the great project of transfer 5% of Yangtze to Hwang Ho, and to build both the Sansya navigable reservoir 600 km in length and the electric power station (the biggest in the world, with capacity of 18 million kWt per annum). China hopes it has found the required means to both get rid of floods and decrease the country�s dependence upon coal for energy. This project is under process. 1.8 million people were moved from the zone to be submerged, mainly to Sintsyan.

It is useless to search for some analogies between the today�s Chinese leaders and the Gunns, Turks from kaganat and Chingiz-khan, who were insuperably attracted by the Sunset. Though at present it is enough to come along the Turfan roads to understand perfectly well the effect �of people�s movement�. Vehicles full of people and technique are moving like an endless stream round the clock.

In the Eastern Turkestan, as the Uigurs prefer to name their motherland, there are much more Hans, as is confirmed by the official data. Only in the bintuan (manufacturing-constructional erection) situated at the second line after the frontier troops from Altai to Hotan, there are 19 divisions. Their contingent being subordinate directly to Peking, consists only of the Hans, and this fact is not taken into consideration by the statistics. Under pretence of assistance to the regions suffered from flood in 1998 to 1999 three million people were moved to SUAR, and this process is continuing.

The free empire consciousness is an exciting and intoxicating feeling for the most of the Hans. Behind the new virtual Great Wall a spirit of national hegemony is taking shape, which leaves words about ethnical priorities to politicians and diplomats. Assimilation, which recently was the art to liken somebody to themselves, is becoming an imperative action of both the power and the common people. In the famous caves Myn Ui the average man scrapes off faces unlike Chinese ones from the splendid frescos. In the Urumchi museum having the unique materials, a functionary forbids to systematize them scientifically, knowing that the samples exhibited in accordance with the latter will just blow up the great Han conception of the Western Edge. Chinese hydro-technician settles his professional problems making wells near the Uigurian kyarizes drawing water from these ancient and reliable irrigation systems. From 1958, with a break in 1978 to 1986, totally for thirty-five years, the famous writer of million-and-a-half Kazakh people living in Eastern Turkestan Kazhikumar Shabdanuly is being kept at the prison. His four-toms novel �Crime� written in the form of a dialogue with the prosecutor in the manner comparable with �Process� by F. Kafki, was perceived by the authorities as impermissible different trend of thought.

The renewed, expressive, strong and, of course, dangerous China is behind the mountains, but is still nearby. The northern-west direction is ours, the Central Asian one. Taking into consideration geographical and political conditions, at present it is the only perspective direction for an outflow of the dynamic hegemonic energy of China to the outside world. Peking understands that perfectly well, and that is why they willingly support any valuable bordering projects, even such adventurous as construction of the pipeline �Aktyubinsk-Sintszyan� by the Chinese national oil company.

The attitude of the Chinese side to the project NEACB (New Eurasian Continental Bridge) was much more serious. Work on increasing the capacity of the main transit line port Lyanyungan-Alashankou is being executed. Plans on the development of the regions aside the bridge 4131km in length and on development of 200-km wide zone beside it are coming into force. China has completed building of additional railways, widening and modernization of the seaside ports to be connected with it, and construction of the high-class motorway from Lyanyungan to Horgos. Stable development of the Chinese regions located along the transcontinental way was included in the list of paramount objectives of the official political policy in the 21st century, as well as in the project of the long-term development of the People�s Republic of China till 2010.

The works on development lands of Eastern Turkestan are being executed fast and efficiently, involving army, volunteers, and a rapidly growing number of the resettled people. Usually that is a way to prepare the platform for the further rush into the space. It is difficult to get rid of associations� In the middle of the 2nd century BC the Hans having crossed the river of Hwang Ho, constructed the irrigation channels, and capturing lands step by step, began to border on the Gunn country. In 124 to 123 BC the war was transferred to the original Gunn land, with variable success. In 119 BC the gigantic Chinese army captured the headquarter of shanyui and killed about 90000 Gunns� Streams of the night lights along the Turfan-Horgos motor-way resemble to a well-fledged arrow in a tightly drown bow.

There are many stimulus making China concentrate its attention in the northern-west direction. They, along with significance and actuality, are should hardly be mentioned in this article. Along with practical motifs of demographic and economic character, territorial property, there are some geographical-strategic factors. �The axis of the world� is still a geopolitical reality, and control for it is the understandable aim of every state pretending to be the world power, including China, which in August 1994 was placed before the task �to create the new political and economic order� by Den Syaopin. Central Asian region is also a possibility to make the positions of the competing states vague, avoiding conflicts, and hence to weaken them.

V.V. Malyavin accurately determines one of the fundamental peculiarities of the Han intellect:

�Chinese wisdom is a science of a cheer spirit, and of keen following of �the current moment�.

Its main question is not what, even not how, but when? When is better to act and when � be quiet? When they should be and when � not to be? The key conception of the Chinese thought is �an occasion�, which in the life of a wise man becomes his fate; and comprehensive force of situation�.

For the first time after defeat of the Tan army in the Talas battle in 751* China had an �opportunity� to affirm its presence in Central Asia. Weakness of sovereign Kazakhstan which from the very beginning suffered from atavism of its leaders, plays not the last role in creation of a situation favorable for China. Though patriotism of Kazakhstan citizens is been strengthening and �childish diseases� will be overcome. At present we have a lot of vulnerable places in the national security, which were foreseen by U. T. Kasenov and which are now obvious for many people in Kazakhstan.

How at the threshold of the 21st century may the state be viable, if its leaders are motivated by their instincts and find their ideals not in history, but in the subconsciousness, in the peripheral holes of their gene memory? They literally modernized the past, that is easily can be proved if we get acquaintance with Symyz Tsyan. According to his description of the Gunns, in the 3rd century the state was governed by the shanyui. The highest persons after him were his sons and closets relatives. People were appointed to a post according to their �relative� degree with the shanyui. The ruler nominated the temniks himself. He also gave them their subordinate territory along with its population. Within his own territory the temnik alike shanyui appointed commanders of divisions of thousand, hundred and ten people. Only shanyui could dismiss or punish a temnik. In their own turn, the temniks took part in shanyui�s elevating to the throne, having actually no choice, as the power was inherited.

The words of a Chinese high official are about the same Gunns: �they appreciate wealth and disregard land�. He sarcastically explained, that the barbarians believed �wealth� to be gold, jasper, fabrics and silk.

It will be difficult for our national pride to withstand such an opinion of the strange values of our forefathers, if there is no other extract from the Gunns� history which is and will be in future a model for imitation, found and told by L.N. Gumilyov: �� in the 3rd century BC � having known about the civil war in the Hunnu tribe, the neighboring tribe Dunhu decided to take a chance and demanded a beautiful horse, value of the Hunns and the shanyui Mode�s beloved woman. The irritated Hunnu elders were going to refuse, but Mode said: �Why living near neighbors should we grudge one horse and one woman?� and he gave both. Then the Duhnus demanded a site in the steppe that was not suitable for cattle-breeding and was inhabited. The Hunnu elders considered useless to argue about such an unsuitable land: �We may give or not to give�. But Mode declared: �Land is a base of the state, how can we give it!�, and he cut off heads of all who had advised to give.�

Let�s see how actions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on settling the bordering problems look against this background. As far as the �arguable sites� are concerned, it was announced that they were of a miserable economic value. That contradicts all the known documents proving presence of the gold and lead reserves in Saryshild. The Parliament (the Gunn elders!) ratified unanimously the Agreement on the border. Meanwhile the Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, inspired by the obvious success in this matter, ordered the Sintszyan Uighur Autonomous Republic (SUAR) to hasten the utilization of the bordering rivers for Chinese economic purposes. We have received both the texts of that order and the documents prepared in the SUAR on its basis, through the people�s diplomacy channels. There is no word concerning the water-resource problems of Kazakhstan in the basin of these rivers.

A strict schedule of redirecting the Black Irtysh river to the town of Karamai by October 1, 1999 along with an obligatory settlement of all the technical problems �within twenty four hours�, was worked out. Similar documents were prepared for the rivers Ili and Tekes. There was also an order to execute similar works on the rest thirty three rivers connecting All the documents mention �the favorable time� (the initiative belongs to the Chinese side), and the urgent necessity to solve all the questions concerning the bordering rivers before China signs the corresponding international agreements.

China settles its problems coolly and rigidly

The country does not want to take the trouble to confirm its good-neighbourly feelings to Kazakhstan. Having such a neighbour, was it possible to assume that by handing over the disputed land we would settle our border problems? In fact, this was only the beginning of the process. The redirection of a significant part of the bordering rivers, which is planned by the Chinese side, threatens large territories of Semirechye, Eastern and Central Kazakhstan with serious ecological consequences. This is one of the first serious forms of the Chinese expansion.

According to elementary logic, the problem of the disputed sites should have been settled along with the problem of the trans-bordering rivers. This did not happen. Rather, Kazakhstan conceded its strong arguments to defend its bordering interests.

It is obvious that Kazakhstan should have involved Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the negotiation process, in other words, the participants of the Shanhai agreement in 1996. It should have been done not only because Russia is naturally interested in the fate of Irtysh, and Kyrgyz and Tajik rivers were traditionally the factor restrained the hydrotechnical plans of China during the period of establishment of Central Asian sovereign states. The main thing was to give them opportunity to come to conclusion that the Shanhai agreement is of indisputable profitability for the Chinese side only.

Taking into consideration vanity of the new independent states, Chinese diplomats introduced the thesis �be independent� and manage successively to replace multi-sides relations with double-sides ones. China really not only guarantees but confirms its promises to support further sovereignty of its vis-a-vis. The image of a state completely equipped with sovereign attributes resembles to the Daos parable. Thieves broke open the chest and took its content. To save his things, the owner tightly tied his chest with a rope. He was praised for that and called wise. But the big thief came, put the chest on his shoulders and was anxious only about the strength of the rope. �The wise man� is only a plunder of the big thief,� the dialectic Daos man concluded.

From the ancient times the Chinese people knew us better than we do. It is time to know them deeper. Though at first we should look at and understand ourselves. It is clear, China is a great country, friendly links with which are important and desirable for any state. However, it should not been done at the price of lost of our national and state dignity, concessions under pressure, errors of the weak external policy.

The fifth stratagem of the Book of Chinese secrets says: �If an enemy is defeated from inside, capture his lands. If the enemy is defeated from outside, seize his people. If he is defeated from both inside and outside, take the entire state.�

Kazakhsan needs radical reforms not to be �defeated from inside�.

Chinese factor makes this requirement sharp.