Nazarbayev has been delaying the full registration of our political party, ATAMEKEN, for more than four years since its Founding Convention held on October 27, 2006. The archaic reason is my refusal to give him a secret oath of personal loyalty on the Qur’an and thus become his puppet to fool the Kazakh people and Western public opinion. This procedure is not stipulated by the Constitution. Thus, my party’s refusal to be a pseudo-democratic rattle in the hands of the dictator prevents it from official registration.
US and European politicians, who made the decision to grant Kazakhstan the 2010 OSCE presidency, were well aware of the antidemocratic nature of the Nazarbayev regime. They were therefore insincere when publicly arguing that the presidency of the OSCE will contribute to the process of democratization of Kazakhstan.
My colleagues and I welcomed the election of President Obama. But to this present day, we feel overlooked and somehow betrayed by the world's leading democracy. We believe that the US administration turns a blind eye to the gross human rights abuses by the despotic Nazarbayev regime in exchange for petrodollars which are generously used to perpetuate its survival and further crackdown on the remaining political opposition.
President Obama's words on the support of democracy are inspiring nevertheless. The US Administration and the free world must now show unwavering support for democratic forces in Kazakhstan, or else risk the recreation of dictators who have cost the Western allies so much blood and treasure in the recent past.
A Roadmap towards Democracy
What should the US do now in the context of the 2011 State of the Union?
The constant amendments on the extension of President Nazarbayev's authority, by referendum or premature elections, confirm Mr. Nazarbayev's inability to change and his plain thirst for power, not democratization.
The world's leading democracy should therefore set out clear expectations that Kazakhstan should not lapse back into authoritarianism for yet another decade. Any legislative attempt to further curtail democratic freedoms should be strongly condemned. The best instant message would be to urge President Nazarbayev to step down and let the fair and open elections take place this year.
One immediate step which would demonstrate President Obama’s genuine willingness to support our democracy would be to freeze all the assets of Nazarbayev, his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, and other cronies acquired or kept in the democratic jurisdictions.
All the prisoners of conscience – opposition activists, independent journalists, and dissidents - must be freed.
All the political parties earlier denied official registration must be allowed to exercise their freedoms and rights.
The Kazakh people want economic opportunity, political participation and the chance to build a better future. Young Kazakh people especially need to have a meaningful role in the decisions that shape their lives. Addressing these concerns will be challenging after 20 years of authoritarian rule by Nazarbayev, whose regime was aptly defined as "despotic" by the British Times.
We hope that the United States will stand ready to help the democratic forces of Kazakhstan, which is highly educated, secular, geographically and culturally close to Europe and thus is a good candidate for democracy in Central Asia.
The new amendments to the Kazakh Constitution are the road to the final execution of the remaining democracy. If this wrong turn is again ignored by the United States and its democratic allies, it will be paved by new assassinations, economic mismanagement, tortures, religious discrimination, corruption, misery, and the poverty of millions of ordinary Kazakhs.
The naive unwillingness of the US administration to stop the ever-growing appetite of President Nazarbayev and his highly corrupt family and cronies, in exchange for US aircraft flying rights or lucrative uranium and oil transactions, says more than the sincerity of President Obama's commitment to defend democracy around the world. We Kazakhstanis pay too high a price for miscalculations by the US administration.
We still trust Western democracies, so when the change comes, I surmise the vacuum will be filled with democratic and progressive ideals, not the anti-Western extremism of an impoverished and angered nation hopelessly disappointed in the Western approach to development.
We hope that the current administration will get on the right side of history and at last give us its hand of support.
THE MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY
Der Standard (Austria)
14 January 2010
Dr. Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov is Chairman of the Kazakhstan opposition party "Atameken" and lives in London since 2007. He served as advisor to Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan, at the National petroleum company "KazMunaiGaz", and deputy ambassador to Germany.
For the first time an Asiatic, post-Soviet and predominantly muslim Republic of Kazakhstan has taken charge of the Organisation for Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The world's major human rights defender is headed by the despotic and anti-democratic regime for the first time in its history.
Kazakhstan's chairmanship undermines the integrity of the institution's fundamental principles.
Kazakhstan's human rights record may now rival Zimbabwe and Burma in its ferocity. Facts speak for themselves:
Prominent opposition leaders like Altynbek Sarsenbayev were killed in Kazakhstan by the KGB special forces.
President Nazarbayev amended the Constitution and proclaimed himself a president for life literally after the decision by 55 OSCE member-states to grant Kazakhstan the 2010 Presidency.
The recently released documentary book by the exiled former Kazakh Ambassador to the OSCE and chief of the KGB confirms the fact of gross falsification of the presidential elections which makes the regime illegitimate, but still acceptable for the OSCE presidency.
The Kazakh journalists operate in an environment of anxiety, facing intimidating lawsuits, personal threats and physical attacks. Just four months ago, Ramazan Yesergepov, my friend and editor of an opposition newspaper Alma Ata Info, was jailed for reporting on the KGB anti-democratic methods of activities.
Public assembly is very tightly controlled, and any politically motivated public meeting is to be denied a permit or broken up by police, or both.
The 2009 Report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has now officially confirmed the state-sponsored practice of torture in Kazakhstan.
President Nazarbayev has been delaying the full registration of our political party - ATAMEKEN - for more than 3 years since its Founding Convention held on 27 October 2006. The archaic reason is my refusal to give him a secret oath of personal loyalty on the Quran and thus become his puppet to fool the Kazakh people and Western public opinion. This procedure is not stipulated by the Constitution. Thus, my party's refusal to be a pseudo-democratic rattle in the hands of the dictator prevents it from official registration. My relatives remaining in Kazakhstan have become hostages in order to control my mind and political activities.
All the above facts prove a genetic systemic unwillingness of Nazarbayev's regime to transform Kazakhstan into a genuinely democratic society.
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