Kazakhstan: Astana Diplomat, On the Hot Seat, Gives US Congressmen an Earful

Facing mounting criticism over its drift away from democratization, Kazakhstan aggressively defended its record at a recent US Congressional hearing. A senior Kazakhstani official said his country would conduct reforms at its own pace and without pressure from anyone, brushing aside criticism made by several US lawmakers.

"It is very offending to us to hear when someone continuously doubts the sincerity of Kazakhstan's efforts to further our own goals and priorities coinciding with the international community's ones," said Askar Tazhiyev, currently charge d'affaires at the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, but soon to assume a new post as ambassador-at-large in charge of issues related to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"Let me also assure you that Kazakhstan is pursuing its political modernization agenda consciously and independently from anyone's pressure to the East, West, South or North from us," he added during the July 22 hearing in Washington.

At a meeting last November in Madrid, Kazakhstan pledged to undertake several key reforms by the end of 2008. The promise was made in connection with Astana's successful bid to secure the OSCE chair in 2010. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Kazakhstan committed to adopt new laws on the media and elections, and to make it easier for opposition political parties to operate. So far this year, though, Kazakhstan has made scant progress toward implementing changes, according to western officials and human rights groups.

"In practice, the government has made almost no concrete progress towards implementing the pledges," said Andrea Berg, a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, who also testified at the hearing, titled "Kazakhstan and the 2010 OSCE Chairmanship," and sponsored by the US Helsinki Commission.

Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been assuring western officials that his country will fulfill its pledges. Helsinki Commission chairman Alcee Hastings, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Florida, said Nazarbayev personally assured him of his intention to carry out the reforms. Nazarbayev apparently made a similar promise to Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.

"We are pressing Kazakhstan to meet these commitments fully. Despite slow and uneven progress, President Nazarbayev assured me earlier this year that Kazakhstan will stand by its commitments, and he reiterated that commitment before the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly less than a month ago," Boucher said at the hearing.

Rather than take a conciliatory tone toward the panel, as do many foreign officials who testify before it, Tazhiyev, the Kazakhstani envoy, instead went on the offensive.

While he implicitly acknowledged that progress towards the pledged reforms has thus far been limited to the formation of working groups and the holding of round tables to discuss the issues, Tazhiyev emphasized the bigger picture. He pointed to Kazakhstan's record on non-proliferation, and Astana's contributions to US-led military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, he stressed Kazakhstan's energy cooperation with the United States and European Union.

He claimed that Kazakhstan, in prioritizing economic growth, is only following a model established by the United States and other "major Western democracies." Tazhiyev also accused the State Department – twice – of not replying to an official diplomatic note requesting a meeting with department officials to discuss the reforms. He also hinted that the United States harbored double standards, saying that many OSCE member states have laws of the type that Washington is trying so hard to get Astana to change.

Washington should not pressure Kazakhstan too aggressively on human rights and democratization, lest the country dig in its heels against perceived arrogance, said Martha Brill Olcott, a Central Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Kazakhs are likely to continue to reform their political system, albeit not necessarily at a pace that we try and set for them," she said. "The country is in a strategic position, has real regional weight, and has a sufficient, diverse, as well as wealthy economy, to be a donor country in most senses of the term. This kind of country does not take well to lecturing. This leaves us room for attempts at persuasion, but mostly the need to hope that they make the right choices on their own."

Nevertheless, Hastings told Tazhiyev that Kazakhstan needed to improve its treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishnas, both of which groups have recently had high-profile disputes with the Kazakhstan government. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from North Carolina, tacitly criticized the Kazakhstani government for muzzling its domestic opponents, telling Tazhiyev that he hoped Kazakhstan would hold early parliamentary elections in order to allow opposition parties to gain parliamentary representation. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].