Text of report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan on
20th August

Almaty, 20th August: Kazakhstan's opposition Progress [Orleu]
public movement declares that its "high-profile activists" are
being subjected to persecution, the Progress press service told
Interfax-Kazakhstan agency on Friday [20th August].
The press service gave as an example of "the targeted
compaign of persecuting opposition members" the fact that at
the moment a member of the Progress presidium, the professor of
cybernetics and doctor of technical sciences Marat Telemtayev,
who used to work at the Arman [Dream] international centre on
market economy, "has been effectively dismissed from his post
on a far-fetched pretext". The press service noted in addition
that Telemtayev had not been given his salary for the last six
months.

In addition to that, according to the press service's
data, another member of the Progress presidium, Vasiliy
Vasilenko, had been dismissed from Kazakhstan's Institute of
Strategic Research in April this year [1999] . He later "had to
emigrate to Russia". The press service noted that such persecutions of Progress
members were being observed in almost all Regions of Kazakhstan.

The Progress movement was organized in the spring of this
year. Its leader, Seydakhmet Kuttykadam, says that the movement
advocates changing the presidential form of rule in the
republic for a parliamentary one. Kuttykadam himself was
registered by the Central Electoral Commission last Thursday
[19th August] as a candidate for a seat in Majlis [lower house
of parliament, in order to run] in this autumn's parliamentary
elections [10th October, 1999].

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian
1000 gmt 20 Aug 99
BBC Mon CAU 200899/** VA/DG