U.S. AMBASSADORS TO THE CASPIAN STATES TO START DISCUSSING THE CASPIAN OIL ISSUE TODAY. RFE/RL correspondents quote Kazakh News Agencies as reporting that today, April 30, U.S. Ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Iran Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan are expected to gather in New York for discussions of the Caspian Sea oil exploration projects.
UZBEK-KAZAKH ECONOMIC STANDPOINT GOES ON. According to RFE/RL correspondents in Almaty governors of Zhambyl, South Kazakhstan and Almaty Oblasts returned from Tashkent, Uzbekistan this week. They were in the neighboring country in order to negotiate the situation around natural gas delivery. Uzbekistan drastically cut the volume of the natural gas delivered from its territory to Kazakhstan, allegedly because of the Kazakh debts. In addition the Uzbek side warned Kazakhstan that the natural gas price would be increased twice as much in the nearest future. Governors of the three Kazakh Oblasts have reportedly failed to reach any agreement with Uzbek authorities. Kazakh government is reportedly going to bar all the Uzbek trains to cross its territory again, starting May 1. Turkmenistan has agreed to deliver cheaper natural gas to Kazakhstan earlier this year, but there are no alternative pipelines for that project.
KAZAKH JOURNALIST PUT TO PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS. Armial Tasymbekov - a very well-known Kazakh journalist was reportedly arrested at Almaty railroad station on his arrival from Astana by train this week. RFE/RL correspondents quote Mr. Tasymbekov�s
colleagues and officials of the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB) as saying that Armial Tasymbekov was arrested and put to Almaty Clinics for Patients with Mental Disabilities by KNB officers for �his having been involved into making anti-Nazarbayev and pro-Kazhegeldin graffiti on buildings and fences of Astana.� Investigations are underway. Armial Tasymbekov is author of several books on victims of the Soviet regime. One of his Books named ALZHIR (it is a name of labour camps complex for wives of oppressed Soviet leaders - Aktyubinskiy Lager Zhen Izmennikov Rodiny) has been screened by film-makers several year ago.KAZAKH PILOT ARRESTED IN TAJIKISTAN FOR DRUGS TRAFFICKING. Member of the Kazakh air crew, Mayor S. (name is not available) was arrested by Tajik authorities in Dushanbe airport for having in his bags 2,5 kilograms of heroin and 18 kilograms of opium. Investigations are underway. According to RFE/RL correspondents the Kazakh pilot was arrested last week.
UP-TO-DATE DATA ON SIX KAZAKH MILITARY JETS RETURNED TO KAZAKHSTAN BY AZERBAIJAN. Kazakh Defense Ministry announced that 6 MIG-21 military jets returned to Kazakhstan by Azerbaijan after impounding them en route to Eastern Europe, have been brought to Shymkent City area from military airbase in Taldy-Qorghan. The 6 airplanes are being prepared for salesto some foreign states. Military airbase in Taldy-Qorghan area has reportedly tens of more similar outdated military airplanes remained since the former Soviet Military system. All the old MIGs will be sold in the nearest future, said officials of the Kazakh Defense Ministry.
(RFE/RL)
ALMATY, April 30 (Interfax-Kazakhstan)
The Kazakh Defense Ministry plans to sign arms export contracts worth $20 million in 1999, Bekbulat Baigarin, chairman of the ministry�s Defense Industry Committee, told Interfax-Kazakhstan Friday.
Kazakhstan will export $15 million worth of defense hardware in 1999, he said.
Under contracts signed in 1998 and worth $40 million, $14 million worth of development, manufacture and delivery activity has already been implemented, Baigarin said. Arms have been delivered to Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, China, India, Bulgaria, Poland, Finland and Ukraine. The remainder will be sent to Russia, China, India, Turkey Bulgaria and other countries in 1999 and 2000, Baigarin said.
At least 23 plants, of which 17 fall under the Committee, are engaged in defense contracts, he said. �Quite a few of them, like the entire industry of this country, are short of working capital and their output is in decline,� Baigarin said.
Defense factories have signed defense contracts worth nearly 2 billion tenge ($1 = 114.5 tenge).
Bakhytzhamal Bekturganova,
President of the Association of Sociologists and Politologists
Almaty
21-30 April
700 persons were questioned
Who do you think will gain the most, and subsequently have the greatest number of seats in the new Parliament?
(% in the column)
| Total | Men | Women | |
| Parties and movements supporting the President | 50.1 | 61.4 | 38.9 |
| Parties and movements loyal to the ruling regime | 19.9 | 15.6 | 24.1 |
| Opposition parties and movements | 2.2 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
| It�s difficult to answer | 27.8 | 21.9 | 33.7 |
In the bill on elections there is an article prohibiting persons who have committed administrative crimes from taking part in the Parliamentary election.
What is your attitude towards this article?
(% in the column)
| Total | Men | Women | |
| I think it is right | 16.1 | 14.5 | 17.6 |
| I think it is wrong | 42.8 | 48.8 | 37.2 |
| It does not matter to me | 16.1 | 17.5 | 14.8 |
| It�s difficult to answer | 25.1 | 19.3 | 30.4 |
Do you believe that the democratization of society will depend upon the new Parliament?
(% in the column)
| Total | Men | Women | |
| Yes | 4.3 | 8 | 0.8 |
| No | 67.1 | 72.2 | 62.3 |
| It�s difficult to answer | 28.5 | 19.8 | 36.8 |
By Paul Goble
Washington, 30 April
(RFE/RL)
Several post-Soviet leaders are seeking to defeat their opponents in the courtroom rather than at the ballot box, an abuse of still fragile legal systems that threatens not only to poison political life but further limit the chances that these countries will move toward democracy.
The latest example of such an effort and its consequences appear to be taking place in Kazakhstan. Last week, Yuri Khitrin, Kazakhstan�s chief prosecutor, announced that he had reopened an investigation into the affairs of Akezhan Kazhegeldin, a former prime minister who now leads the opposition to President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Khitrin said that he was again looking into charges that Kazhegeldin and his wife had engaged in money laundering and failed to pay taxes on their earnings. Now in Washington as part of a speaking tour, Kazhegeldin has proclaimed his innocence, vowed to fight the charges in court and suggested that this legal move is intended to intimidate him.
Whatever the merits of these specific charges against Kazhegeldin, his suggestion that the Nazarbayev government is using the veneer of legality to drive him from political life appears credible given the ways in which the authorities have deployed the legal system against him.
Earlier this year, officials in Nazarbayev�s entourage prevented Kazhegeldin from running against the incumbent president. And they clearly hope that this latest charge will prevent him from taking part in parliamentary elections slated for later this fall. Indeed, even if he is able to demonstrate his innocent in court, the charges themselves may be enough to prevent him from participating.
Using legal system to block political challengers is hardly unique to Kazakhstan. Legal maneuvering against serious political challengers has taken place in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation.
The advantages of such a strategy to incumbents are obvious. A legal challenge has the effect of discrediting opponents they do not want to face both at home and abroad. Many people in these countries hear such charges and assume that there must be some truth to them. And many abroad find the charges plausible enough to cause them to back away from supporting opponents of the current regimes.
But this misuse of the legal system does far more than exclude opponents from taking part in elections.
First, it sends a chilling message to all citizens of these countries. If the regime is prepared to go after a former prime minister like Kazhegeldin, it will certainly be willing to go after anyone, from the highest official to the most ordinary citizen.
While no one is above the law, this use of legal proceeding suggests that no one can be sure that the authorities in these post-communist countries will employ such measures in a lawful manner. And that reduces the chances that these countries will be able to become democratic and law-based societies.
Second, it undoubtedly reduces the number of people who will think about going into political life and challenging incumbents. Anyone who sees what the authorities can do to someone who challenges their power is likely to think twice before trying to get involved.
Such fears narrow the political class and make it more likely that future political change will come in a ratchet-like rather than evolutionary manner, a pattern that could throw some of these countries into chaos when the current incumbents inevitably pass from the scene.
And third, such actions increase the value of incumbency. Many officials will do what they can to remain in office lest they find themselves subject to legal challenges following their departure. Not only will such efforts tend to further restrict the possibilities of political evolution, but they almost certainly will reduce the opportunities for the development of another generation of active political leaders.
Moreover, such legal actions against political opponents have the effect of increasing the importance of the immunity from prosecution that members of most of the parliaments in this region currently enjoy. Few current members will want to give that protection up by leaving office and thus many of them may be willing to vote for measures that extend their terms or guarantee their reelections.
At the same time, many may try to become deputies precisely to gain that advantage. But such efforts in and of themselves have another and perhaps more insidious consequence: They tend to isolate the political class from the population and thus reinforce the Soviet-era notion that the elite is permitted to do things that the citizenry cannot.
It is a fundamental principle of democratic governance that no one should stand above the law. But it is equally important that no one should be victimized by the political misuse of legal norms.
Bakhytzhamal Bekturganova, President of the Association of Sociologists and Politologists
Almaty, May 3
(Specially for THE GLOBE)
20-30 of April700 persons were questioned
Our governments, both today�s and previous ones have something that can be compared with the amazing creations of the nature: for example, with a butterfly�s wing, or thick tree behind which you cannot see the forest. Is it possible to make them responsible for the things, which they were supposed to do, or to lay a claim against those deeds which they are not responsible for?
The personnel selection of the government leaves the occasional eyewitnesses behind, but the selected people form the unsinkable bureaucratic system, which has a �feather bed effect�. It is impossible to penetrate this �feather bed� either from above or from below. It holds up the reforms, as the reforms are often ignored by all levels of common executors. Every time a new government has tried to step up the reform process, the result is new restrictions - closing the market to the majority of the population.
The percentage in the line indicates distribution of the specific weight of the answers concerning each government.
The percentage in the column shows the comparative situation with the three stipulated governments.
The ambivalence (double character) of the evaluations of A. Kazhegeldin�s government is striking.
In the rating list (the percentage in the column) the government takes the leading place both as the government made the most effective economic reforms, and as the one which caused the greatest damage. The government of S. Tereschenko was named as guaranteeing the highest social protection for the population.
In the answers there is one stunning detail. It was easier for Almaty citizens to evaluate the negative features of the three governments, than to evaluate them positively.
The government of N. Balgimbaev became �the unprecedented champion�. It is the first government in the recent history of Kazakhstan, which using its political power has tried to legalize its right to possess and manage state property. If the Parliamentarians approve this right, we will become eyewitnesses to the beginning of our return to the patrimonial administration, similar to the role of played for several centuries by the dynasty of Chingizids.
The reforms have returned us to the standards of pre-war life. It is not the limit. Let�s begin the history of our independence from the very beginning, from archaic system. If in 2006 Kazakhstan will announce itself a khanate, the people will be the last who to know.
Which of the three governments of the RK do you think:
(% in the column)
| Was the most effective in the economic reformation? | Caused the greatest damage to the economy? | Best provided for the social security of the population? | ||||
| % in the line | % in the column | % in the line | % in the column | % in the line | % in the column | |
| Government of S. Tereschenko | 7.3 | 3.3 | 68.2 | 18.9 | 24.5 | 11.2 |
| Government of A. Kazhegeldin | 25.5 | 14.4 | 58.6 | 20.2 | 15.9 | 9 |
| Government of N. Balgimbaev | 34.9 | 79.8 | 31.7 | 44.8 | 33.4 | 77.1 |
% in the line indicates distribution of the specific weight of the answers concerning the concrete government.
% in the column shows the comparative situation with the three stipulated governments.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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