which was refused registration eight times, was turned into the Compatriot NGO, and decided to join Atameken. With the agreement of the party members, meetings were held with Russian politicians, analysts and Kremlin officials. As a result, during a three-week period the decree of the Russian Federation President about representation of the Federal Immigration Service in Kazakhstan was prepared and signed.
In the West the political work is more scrupulous, professional and systematic in nature. It is not just an episode for the press prepared as a conference discussion. There are regular meetings with politicians, statesmen, analysts, journalists - in short, with all those who participate in forming political policy concerning our country. Unlike Kazakhstan, democratic countries have elements forgotten in our country: the separation of powers and an independent press. By the way, last year, partly due to the endeavours of yours truly, the party reviewed personalities such as Mr. [Lakshmi] Mittal. His wealth is enriched with a steady annual flow of miner victims in Karaganda, who work for next to nothing in monstrous conditions. Work has also begun on a documentary film called Democracy in Kazakhstan. There are many aspects to political work, and we want to accelerate the process of real democratization in our country by means of international instruments. Unfortunately, these are the only available instruments nowadays.
A few words about my enthusiasm. I had already staked out my position in 1997, when some leaders from the present opposition admired the President and sent flowers to his wife. I refused to keep a lid on the corruption within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I appealed to the court with all the necessary documents and refused to accept other state work in exchange for my promise to keep silent about the revelry of our elite in the hardest times during our first year of independence. During the academic stage of my post-diplomatic career, and before the emergence of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), I criticized the systemic problems in Kazakhstan and its so-called political modernization within Western academic circles. You remember my public speeches and my civic stance after my five-year stay in England.
My enthusiasm was very different from those eager people who were pushed back from the feeding trough, or those who were not yet allowed to come near it. It was also very different from an impulsive psychosis, like that demonstrated by Raimbek Batalov who, in the presence of 25 members in the Atameken Union, rushed into the fight, having exhausted his intellect and verbal acumen. In my case, enthusiasm is a core trait of my personality. I was brought up in a simple family. My parents are teachers who grew up in an orphanage. Since my childhood, I have had an acute sense of social justice, eager to help the deprived and to oppose the unjust. And no matter how much force - by propaganda, repression or diplomacy - our state apparatus may waste on me, my resistance will only increase.
A few words about my meetings with politicians who emigrated from Kazakhstan. In the context of the forthcoming chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the OSCE, there are many events that are being organised on Central Asia and on Kazakhstan in particular. So therefore there are enough forums for meeting with these politicians.
You have announced that you will answer the question of who murdered Altynbek Sarsenbayev. What has prevented you from revealing this information?
In one of my interviews last year, I said that European law enforcement bodies have commenced the necessary procedures for investigation of the circumstances of this murder. The work is ongoing. Naturally, whatever information I might get, I have no right to violate European procedural and material criminal law through detailed announcements for the press. I want to emphasize, though, that if it had not been for my interview last year, "Why did [Nurtay] Abikayev come to Klagenfurt?", the investigation could have taken a more conservative course. Now it is being closely monitored by the Western press. And so no diplomatic agreements in the clandestine, Kazakh style have had any effect and will have hardly any at all.
At first you settled in London. Now you live in Vienna. Did you get a resident permit in this country?
I spend most of my time in Great Britain. As for Vienna, you know that the OSCE headquarters are here. That explains my frequent visits for meetings with diplomats and experts, and participating in various consultations and conferences. I have visited Vienna as often as I have visited Warsaw and Strasburg, where the headquarters for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the European Parliament are found. I don't understand why diplomats from Kazakhstan don't inform taxpayers about political work performed by citizens of Kazakhstan. Lately we have had to associate with each other at international meetings. They conscientiously informed the Ministry of Internal Affairs about my speeches, meetings and travels.
Forgive me for asking an indiscreet question, but it interests many. On what do you live in the most expensive cities of Europe? They say your traveling expenses are paid by politicians who emigrated from Kazakhstan.
Only in Kazakhstan can intelligent people with three degrees starve. Atameken was also created with the purpose of raising intelligent Kazakhs up from supplicant poverty.
The information you have is not quite correct. I already answered this question last year. It is not so difficult for me to find work in the Western labour market. At the same time Atameken has many members and compassionate friends, sincerely concerned that the middle class, businessmen and the intelligentsia should be the real political means to influence the ground rules in our society. Their support surely is important. I did not take money from any of the political emigrants. Though as far as I know, there is a political emigrant who received a considerable sum of money from Astana for "good behavior" a year and a half ago. But that is a topic for another conversation.
Do you plan to return to Kazakhstan and find a permanent place of residence, and if so, under what conditions? Do you visit your relatives remaining in Kazakhstan?
What do you mean by permanent place of residence? Kazakhstan is my native land, the land of my ancestors. The conditions of my return are the same: the registration of Atameken and the guarantee of my personal safety for further political activity.
What effect did your departure produce both in Kazakhstan and abroad?
In the West, it was certainly noticed. Immediately after my departure, I was received in the U.S. by senators, congressmen, State Department representatives, the Defense Department and the National Security Council, that is, those people who are in charge of forming U.S. foreign policy towards Kazakhstan. The monitoring of our party registration is undertaken by the OSCE and its Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the European Parliament, the parliaments of individual European countries and the United States Congress. As for the reaction in Kazakhstan, it is entirely controlled by the authorities. And as always, the authorities first try to scare and suppress, and then they try to deride and ignore. In his book the late Vice-President Yerik Asanbayev wrote about these methods of suppressing opposition.
Were you in contact with your former boss Timur Kulibayev after your departure?
No.
With whom among Kazakhstan's politicians and statesmen do you communicate?
I have good relations with many politicians and statesmen. From talks with them, I can sense that even inside the state apparatus there is a growing understanding that the present system is not merely rotten to the core, but also immoral, anti-populist and inhuman in its essence.
Interviewed by Yulia Kistkina
WILL EX-AMBASSADOR RAKHAT ALIYEV MANAGE TO CLEAN UP THE KAZAKHSTAN POLITICAL FIELD?
Deutsche Welle Radio (Germany)
23 January 2008
Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov,
