From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Mon Jan 03 2005 - 11:22:58 EST
Kazakh paper slams land reforms
Since 1991 Kazakhstan has passed several laws and decrees on land
reforms one after another, which have ended up creating serious problems
for farmers, Karavan newspaper has suggested. The following is the text
of report entitled "Who is the owner of the land?" published in the
Kazakh newspaper Karavan on 24 December; subheadings inserted
editorially:
Laws, bylaws and resolutions are being drawn up under slogans such as
"Land for its owners!", "We are creating a land market!" and "Stability
for the village!" People in rural areas do not understand half of them -
they are not aware of the other half.
Laws on land reforms
We recall what all that started from. Following the adoption of the law
on land reforms in 1991, all village people were given plots of land.
They received 2.3m certificates [for land ownership] in their hands. In
1994 by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's decree those who had the right
to ownership of a certain plot of land were allowed to sell it, give it
away, lease it to anyone and mortgage it. However, in 2001, all of a
sudden the right to use land permanently was replaced by the temporary
use of land, for a term of 49 years. Last year, in 2003, the Land Code
came into being after a fierce battle between the government and the
Majlis (lower house of the Kazakh parliament) over land surveying
(incidentally, it cost Imangali Tasmagambetov his post of prime
minister). Now land owners should lease land from the state.
"Urban peasants"
Incidentally, if a land owner does not cultivate the land but has leased
it to a partnership or a cooperative, this will be a sublease, and this
should be abolished from 1 January 2005. This is the decision taken to
fight against "urban peasants", living allegedly on dividends from land
which they do not cultivate. However, not only they were hit by this.
Not only are public-funded "urban peasants" expecting this St George's
Day with particular fear but so are the pensioners who have so far been
receiving their shares of agricultural products from leases - grain and
fodder for their own housekeeping. That is 628,000 people. Now, instead
of them, plots of land will be leased to agricultural workers by local
executive commissions headed by mayors.
Actually, peasants have been given a choice - to buy up their own shares
of land from the state for what is described as privileged prices - for
75 per cent of their cadastral values - and set up peasant and husbandry
farms or give the right to use land as a contribution to the authorized
capital of an enterprise.
The first version - to buy up land - did not work at all, although the
agency for land resources expected to receive about 8m dollars from
that. Firstly, the purchasing power of people in rural areas does not
meet even the "privileged" prices; Secondly, the very price turned out
to be virtual
- the real price for land failed to develop because of an abortive land
market. One or two plots of land bought up by people in a region is a
minute quantity. That is more of an exception rather than a rule.
Farmers face problems
Not everyone is capable of setting up and running a peasant farm. A
total of 22 per cent of people in rural areas have decided to deal with
land. Half of the land owners decided to give their land to various
enterprises. However, they were faced with problems even at this stage.
The managers of many partnerships were not interested in accepting their
shareholders on an equal footing at all. If the shares of land were to
be assessed at values offered by the state, the authorized capital would
go up by a factor of hundred, and that means the re-registration of land
and awful taxes. Therefore, the village people are forced to give their
rights to use land for the lowest prices which do not correspond to
their real prices. And that means that they get nothing when they leave
the partnership. Prices are low - many leaders do not want to have
anything to do with the shareholders of land and their rights. It is
more convenient for them to obtain land later through local executive
commissions. They can find their own man there, and they can lure him
in, too.
According to information provided by the Union of Farmers of Kazakhstan,
the situation is much worse: a quarter of village people are not aware
of the gravity of the problems and in general they do not know where
their certificates for land ownership are and who has them - in a
cupboard belonging to the last owner of the land or at the Land
Committee. Meanwhile, according to official reports, 99 per cent of them
have already re-registered contracts.
They have been so badly informed about the land reforms that they
provide fertile ground for crooks to cheat them at the next
re-organization of the land.
MPs to review state of affairs
Majlis [lower house of the Kazakh parliament] deputies have decided to
go to villages to look at the real state of affairs and report on the
results of the implementation of the reforms by 17 January. It is
expected that two key issues - extending the terms of legally-registered
documents on the right to use land and the contractual prices during the
transfer of plots of land to limited liabilities partnerships - will be
brought to the fore.
Many people still remember the picture in school textbooks, in which a
peasant in clogs is standing with one foot on his own plot of land
without knowing where to set the other foot. Our peasant is altogether
hanging in the air since his plot of land is so virtual - without a real
place, border or prices. "Mind we don't end up with rationing instead of
land [because they will have no land to grow food on]," sceptics
bitterly joke.
Source: Karavan, Almaty, in Russian 24 Dec 04 p 8
BBC Mon CAU 020105 jl/qu
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