Text of report by Kazakh Khabar TV on 24th October

[Presenter] A group of people gathered at the US embassy in
Almaty today [24th October]. About 50 people asked to meet the
ambassador [of the USA to Kazakhstan Richard Jones] in order to
hand him an open letter on behalf of the residents of Almaty.
Sergey Nasyrov is at the scene with the report:

[Nasyrov, over video of a handful of protesters with
posters at the US embassy] At about 1700 hours in the afternoon
[1000 gmt], a group of people came up to the US embassy in
Kazakhstan. At first it was not clear who they represented. The
picketers called themselves ordinary voters of Almaty. The
essence of their demand became clear later when they unfolded
posters. On each poster was written the same thing: USA,
protect Kazakhstan's democracy from the OSCE!

On the day of the run-off elections [for the Majlis, lower
house, of Kazakh parliament], a group of people decided to
announce that the OSCE observers incorrectly assessed the state
of democracy in Kazakhstan.

[Aleksey Tsekhovoy, chairman of a sub-faculty of Kazakh
National Technical University, captioned] We noticed that the
OSCE very often gives biased assessments of the process of
democratization in our state. Many of the candidates who won
today had already won. They won in a dignified way. However,
today it is being presented [by the OSCE] almost as being, so
to say, rigged, well, not in a criminal way [as received].

[Nasyrov] The people gathered explained their action by
saying that the USA has a big influence over the OSCE and can
influence the final assessment of the elections in Kazakhstan,
which turned out to be equally difficult for the authorities,
the opposition and for the ordinary people. However, the
picketers consider that the elections constitute a qualitative
step forward on the road to democracy.

[Tsekhovoy] At first sight [the elections] might seem to
have been held in a clumsy way. Yet, we have seen a whole array
of political forces in Kazakhstan. [Political forces] are
awakening and a total of nine parties participated in it. Each
one addressed huge audiences and spoke about everything. They
even spoke about not very pleasant things.

[Nasyrov] The picket passed calmly. Only a few policemen
kept watch over the voters. The embassy's security services did
not show any signs of worry. The picketers handed a letter to
an executive person in the USA embassy. They were promised that
all their demands will be passed to the US ambassador and the
OSCE.

Source: Khabar TV, Almaty, in Russian 1330 gmt 24 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 241099/** KG/QU