ALMATY, July 4 (AFP)
It was the largest unofficial demonstration in Kazakhstan�s largest city in two years and opposition groups say the unrest will only get worse.
Hundreds of elderly Kazakhs blocked traffic on a busy Almaty street last week to demand payment of their pensions now more than two months overdue.
The �protest was a warning because people are dying of hunger. They are in despair,� said Semyon Grabovsky, a spokesman for several opposition groups.
The unrest will only grow unless something is done, he said.
As Kazakhstan�s financial crisis worsens, similar demonstrations, hunger strikes and even threats of self-immolation to protest pension and wage arrears and rising food and utility costs are spreading across this Central Asian republic of 14.9 million people.
With their lifetime savings wiped out by years of hyperinflation and paltry pensions and state aid barely enough to survive on, Kazakhstan�s 2.2 million pensioners, disabled and poor live in dire straits, said Irina Savostina, head of a pensioners advocacy group called Pokoleniye.
�The people don�t have bread,� she said. �From the pension money we pay for our apartments, hot water, heating and everything else and it leaves us with nothing. We need to eat.
�In the bazaars you hear pensioners say, �give me the leaves from the cabbages,� and they collect thrown-away bones to have something to eat.�
On June 1, the broke government cut free public transportation, subsidized utilities and other privileges for pensioners, poor people, the disabled and veterans.
These cuts, coupled with arrears and rising prices on consumer goods that followed the government decision in April to effectively devalue the tenge, sparked this week�s large demonstration, Savostina said.
The government readily admits there is a problem, but the economic crisis prevents the state from raising money to pay pensions which average 3,964 tenge (30 dollars) a month.
�On this money it�s really not possible to survive,� admitted Valentina Sivryukova, vice minister of labour and social protection.
Some 138 billion tenge (1.04 billion dollars) or nearly half the federal budget is going to pay pensions and aid for the poor, disabled and veterans, Sivryukova said.
�To pay these privileges is not realistic in general, not to mention in a situation of economic crisis,� Sivryukova said.
Pension arrears for April and May have already risen to 10.5 billion tenge.
The arrears coupled with Kazakhstan�s failure to negotiate a deal with the International Monetary Fund have already delayed a 100-million-dollar tranche from the World Bank that was to be used for pension reform, the Bank�s representative in Kazakhstan Kadir Yurukoglu said.
While the government struggles to explain why it has failed to pay pensions, public resentment is rising against government officials who have private drivers, mobile telephones and wear designer suits.
Even Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has criticized officials for failing to live within the country�s means, and Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev proposed limits on foreign travel, phones and cars for bureaucrats this spring.
But the opposition says these are just populist measures.
�The government cuts one kopeck (cent) for themselves and 10 tenge from the pensioners,� Grabovsky said.
Sergei MATYUSHENKO
ALMATY, July 3
(THE GLOBE)
�At present, a significant portion of the declared things regarding the industrial policy has been realised,� the Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade of RK announced while summarising the preliminary results at the press conference in Almaty.
According to Mukhtar Ablyazov, beginning from the moment of the announcement of the new industrial policy, the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Trade of RK has taken a number of measures, which have positively influenced the Kazakhstan economy.
To reduce the tax burden on enterprises and to protect the domestic market, the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Trade introduced a number of additional changes to the tax and customs legislation of Kazakhstan. The customs duties for a large number of products that are not produced in the republic were reduced (by about 31%). In particular, the VAT has been reduced from 20 to 10% for agricultural products, while for imported medicines VAT was completely abandoned.
�In the case of supplies from the CIS countries, double-taxation has been abandoned. This was create equal competitive conditions for local enterprises and Russian producers,� the Minister stated.
According to Mr. Ablyazov, we may now confidently announce that the new industrial policy has positively influenced some branches of the Kazakhstan economy.
�For the time being, we may state that tractor manufacturing has been rejuvenated in the republic. The manufacturing shops of the JSC �Kazakhstantractor� (Pavlodar tractor plant) have been put into operation. Presently negotiations for the supply of more than two thousand of our tractors to Uzbekistan are under process,� Mr. Ablyazov said.
A real positive result of the new industrial policy in the oil and gas industry was the recent agreement with Russia to increase the quotes for the transportation of Kazakhstan oil to foreign countries by 50% (i.e. from 3.5 million tons to 7.0 million tons per annum). Another example is the agreements to the increase the capacity of the Samara-Uzhgorod oil pipeline to 15 million tons, as well as the load of the Atyrau and Pavlodar oil processing plants.
�The increase of the quotes may be considered as one of the main achievements in this field,� the Minister emphasised.
Mukhtar Ablyazov announced that to prevent the pressure on the local market by the Russian oil products imported to Kazakhstan at dumping prices, the excises for these products were increased to a level guaranteeing the competitiveness of Kazakhstan petrol and diesel fuel in the domestic market.
�Unfortunately, this has not settled the problem completely: contraband imports continue. That is why we have worked out a number of measures directly aimed to prevent the contraband,� the Minister stated.
Mukhtar Ablyazov mentioned the two main problems that for the time being, prevent us from realising a new industrial policy.
First of all, he said, the orientation of Kazakhstan customers to illegal importers could not be changed. Unlike Russia, we have neither the mass movement supporting Kazakhstani products nor the slogan �Buy only Kazakhstan products.�
�Of course, the local industry should prove its competitiveness, but it would be easier for the producers if the patriotism of the Kazakhstan population was also expressed by purchasing Kazakhstan products,� the Minister emphasised.
Second, a reliable mechanism to realise a new industrial policy has not been created. According to the Minister, to implement the introduced economic innovations it is not enough for Kazakhstan to have one industrial policy for the economy and another separate agricultural policy for agriculture, as all the branches of the national economy are too closely connected and strongly influence each other.
For the time being, all separate programs are being realised in an uncoordinated way. Mr. Ablyazov believes that �Kazakhstan needs a single economic policy to combine all available programs and ideas.�
ASTANA, July 2
(THE GLOBE)
�It is bad and impolite to give directions to such people as deputies and Ministers. I wonder if they are taught at the Ministry of Information to do this,� deputy Albert Schvarskopf announced.
According to the deputy, journalists should not comment and teach �how to live�, though journalists are �attractive people who have good voices, know English and can work on a computer.�
Mr. Schvarskopf said that at many meetings both in the Parliament and the government he had to see operators trying to shoot a moment when �somebody is putting a finger into his nose or closing his eyes.�
According to the deputy, his colleagues who are sleeping at the meetings had to work in the Parliament until morning. When these people �came to the meeting, they were shot�. Albert Schvarskopf believes that if you want to see yourself on �Khabar�, you should close your eyes or sit in a strange pose. �I think we should introduce order, it is not a theatre. It is happening not only in the Parliament, but in the government as well. It is impolite and indelicate,� the deputy Schvarskopf emphasised.
�If we teach journalists by law, there will be nothing journalistic. It is journalists� nature,� the Minister of Information and Public Consent responded.
Altynbek Sarsenbaev stated that there had been some editions that only dealt with such facts, but then circulation of these editions fell. According to the Minister, there are some commentators who do not themselves understand what they say. As far as the method of shooting is concerned, the Minister is quoted as saying that journalists were purifiers of the society. �Sometimes they understand this literally,� he said.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ASTANA, July 2
(THE GLOBE)
The bill on the mass media was considered at the plenary conference of the Mazhilis, approved and submitted to the Senate for consideration. Altynbek Sarsenbaev, the Minister of Culture, Information and Public Consent spoke on the new bill.
According to the Minister, the new bill includes a number of new terms, as well as determinations of old and new terms. The term �proprietor� has for the first time been introduced in the legislation regulating the mass media. According to the bill, a proprietor is a natural or juridical person, or an amalgamation of natural or physical persons having the right to own and use mass media. A proprietor may act as an editorial staff, editor, journalist, publisher and distributor both in respect to his private and other mass media.
�The bill on the mass media is being prepared not only for journalists and mass media, it is the law regulating the sphere of informational exchange in general and inter-relations in the society guaranteeing protection of citizens and the entire society, including mass media,� the Minister emphasised.
Therefore, taking into consideration both the mass media�s influence on behaviour of the population - especially on the youth, and the state and public damage of a breach of the liberty of speech, the norms of responsibility for infringing the legislation on mass media have been determined.
Guaranteeing of national informational security
�We are deeply convinced that one of the key objectives of the development of the local informational market today is the guaranteeing of the national interests of the country and its informational security,� Mr. Sarsenbaev stated.
According to the Minister, the informational sphere is considered the most profitable sector of business all over the world. As any other sector of the economy, the information sector of our country is attracting more and more attention from foreign investors. In connection to this, we think that the provision of the bill restricting the possession of foreign natural or physical persons in the amount of 20% of stocks of Kazakhstan mass media is quite logical and consistent.
The Minister mentioned as an example, the experience of some post-soviet states, when the absence of such restrictions may really result in pressure and a monopoly on information by foreign investors. In particular, the Minister referred to the experience of Estonia, where the largest percentage of mass media, and especially electronic ones is controlled by Swedish capital. At the same time, Sweden has approved a very rigid standard to restrict foreign participation in the information sector. So, in the first article of the Swedish law on freedom of press it is categorically stipulated that only Swedish citizens or Swedish juridical persons may be the owner of the periodical editions. Similar standards are included in the Russian law on mass media (article 7), which stipulates that the founder of mass media cannot be a citizen of another state or a person without citizenship who does not live regularly in the Russian Federation.
As far as the registration of mass media is concerned, the Minister said that registration in the Ministry of Culture, Information and Public consent is obligatory. This will prevent both the creation of a mass media source with the same name, and present the condition of the mass media in the republic. The Minister mentioned that in 1996 the Ministry registered 274 mass media, in 1997 � 312, in 1998 � 324. For the five months of this year, 109 mass media have been registered. The total number of mass media registered by today is 1487, including 71 working ones.
Rights of journalists
The new bill widely and fully stipulates journalists� rights, Mr. Sarsenbaev declared. Unlike the present law, there are a number of rules regarding inquiries for information, the presence of accredited journalists at all events except closed ones, access to documents and materials which are not secret to check of the authenticity of the received information, etc.
While working out the bill, the working group introduced a proposal to extract a separate article of the law regarding journalists� rights and responsibility, the Ministry stated. During the discussion, there were opinions that the state bodies will be able to conceal practically any information. We think that these expectancies are groundless, Mr. Sarsenbaev assured. Taking into consideration the proposals made during the discussion at the Mazhilis, standards were included in the bill providing the right of mass media and its representatives to appeal against the state bodies and functionaries infringing the citizens� rights, and for rejecting the submission of information. The list of information on state secrets is specially stipulated in the law. According to the Minister, state functionaries will be responsible for the concealment of information.
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