Before the

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

United States Congress

Hon. Christopher Smith, Chairman

May 6, 1999

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I would like to thank you for inviting me to testify before this distinguished committee.

Mr. Chairman, I recently read your very thoughtful statement in the Congressional Record about my country's presidential elections, and I wish to commend you on your insights and understanding of the process and problems of elections in Kazakhstan. Your assessments of the challenges of democratization and the need for political, social, economic reform and human rights are correct.

Democracy still eludes us. Our president not only called surprise elections two years before the due date to throw his opposition off guard, but he extended the presidential term from five to seven years, and unconstitutionally repealed the age restriction on candidates, allowing himself to run again, in violation of the Constitution. These actions were carried out by the office of president with impunity, an impunity resulting from the dismissal of the two preceding Kazakhstani parliaments and a revision of the Constitution. As it now stands, our Constitution can not sufficiently protect the people against presidential authoritarianism. The sitting president can manipulate the parliament and pass self-serving legislation at will. We, the Kazakhstani democrats, are guilty of having allowed this situation to develop. However, the West must also bear some responsibility because it remained silent and did not speak out forcefully for the cause of democracy in Kazakhstan.

To outsiders, President Nazarbayev may appear to be a popular leader, but that is a thin veneer that conceals serious underlying problems. The most telling evidence that this is a leader who fears his own people was his decision last fall to call surprise elections. By advancing the elections by nearly two years, the regime sought to prevent opposition candidates from organizing viable campaigns. In addition, charges were trumped up to keep me or any other popular opponent from contesting President Nazarbayev's election. I was charged with attending an unauthorized meeting of the movement "For Free Elections," as well as with disclosing "state secrets," and evading taxes. I testify before this committee that these charges were and are false. The documentation I am submitting along with this testimony will demonstrate that they were brought to bear only in order to bar my return to my country and prevent me from running in the presidential elections

As you yourself have observed, Mr. Chairman, we cannot rely on any of the Kazakhstani government's statistics concerning either voter turnout or the actual vote count. The numbers have been cooked; and they leave a terrible taste in one's mouth. The only mystery in the January 10 elections held in Kazakhstan was the size of Nazarbayev's landslide victory. The Kazakh Administration exercises a sophisticated form of control over election committees. For example, a school principal may be appointed as a chairman of a local electoral commission, and teachers are nominated as members, so they are professionally dependent on the commission chair.

The elections were moved up because Nazarbayev simply did not want to run on the dismal record of his stewardship of our national economy. It has been deteriorating since 1998, and all indications are that it will be in very serious trouble by the end of 2000, when the elections were originally scheduled to be held. So with the stroke of his pen, Nazarbaev's regime decreed early elections, and then with another stroke he disqualified me, his only serious rival, on the absurd charge of speaking to an unregistered political organization called "The Movement For Free Elections." Perhaps it was that name which was so threatening. The mere thought of free elections strikes terror in the heart of any tyrant.

We in the democracy movement are very grateful for the strong support the American government has shown us. On November 25, 1998, the State Department condemned the decision of the Kazakhstani Supreme Court upholding the Central Electoral Commission's ruling which barred my registration as a candidate in the January 10 presidential election. The State Department spokesman, Mr. Rubin, said "the decree... contravenes international commitments that Kazakhstan assumed as a participating state in the OSCE and ...follows a patter of harassment of independent media and opposition political figures...." Mr. Rubin also declared "The conduct of this election has set back the process of democratization in Kazakhstan."

I wish to personally thank Vice President Albert Gore for his phone call to Mr. Nazarbayev asking that I be permitted to run for president. Sadly, I must report to you that the very next day after that call, Mr. Nazarbayev's puppet supreme court disqualified my candidacy. Not only was I barred from running, but some critics and opponents of the regime were briefly jailed because they protested Nazarbayev's unfair election practices. These decent people can not participate in elections. They include the leader of the pensioners’ movement, Ms. Savostina, the leader of the ecological movement, Mr. Eleusizov and a former minister of my cabinet, Mr. Svoik, who is present in this room. The election itself was condemned both from Washington and by the OSCE as well as by Human Rights Watch as unfair, and they all refused to recognize it.

I wish to endorse wholeheartedly the words of Ambassador Stephen Sestanovich, who has said that the January elections "fell far short of Kazakhstan's international obligations and commitments." He pointed out that "the formation of democratic political institutions is essential because they are the long term guarantor of stability and prosperity."

The United States and the OSCE called for democratic reforms to repair the damage that has been done to their relations with Kazakhstan, but so far we have seen no sign of change. There is no Election Law that meets either international norms or OSCE standards. Instead, the parliament accepted the presidential decree regulating elections, arbitrary and undemocratic as it is, without either question or comment. Yet this decree is full of provisions designed to bar candidates such as myself from running on mere technicalities.

We can only hope that you are serious about your determination to be persistent in pushing for adherence to clear standards of democratic practice, improving the climate for elections and strengthening freedom at the grass roots level. I urge the United States Government, the Congress and the OSCE to demand review of this draft law and to help guarantee that Kazakhstani elections are fully free and fair. If the law is not fundamentally revised, the elections should not be recognized by the Western community.

The Republican National Party of Kazakhstan, which I chair, were finally registered by the government on March 1, 1999 for a period of only one year. However, three important questions remain unanswered:

* First, will we be able to field candidates in the next election, and under what conditions,

* Second, will President Nazarbayev allow us access to the media he controls or allow the emergence of free media, and,

* Third, will the next parliament have any real power or just be a rubber stamp legislature

The separation of powers exists on paper but not in practice in Kazakhstan. There are no truly independent branches of government, notwithstanding what the Constitution promises. The judiciary is controlled by the president himself, who until March 8, 1999 was Chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council. Now he has appointed another person as Chairman of the Judiciary Council to serve in his stead. Nothing has changed. He appoints most mayors and governors by issuing decrees which are then approved by his rubber-stamp parliament. He has promulgated and largely ignored two constitutions and dissolved two parliaments. Now that he has a parliament which is more pliable and to his liking, he largely ignores it. He has amassed power unto himself over all institutions of government This is a textbook definition of authoritarianism.

There are no independent newspapers or radio stations in Kazakhstan today with the exception of one or two. Newspapers must have a government-issued permit to publish. Last August, more than eight months ago, a group of us wanted to start a newspaper called The Republic. We applied to the Department of Justice for registration. According to the law, the process should take three days, but so far all we have gotten is endless delay. The government even refuses to tell us why it has failed to act. We appealed to the court, but it refused to consider our appeal.

The Nazarbaev regime is testing the waters for the introduction of even harsher censorship. A letter by some of the country's most reactionary professors has been published in the media, demanding the introduction of wide ranging censorship. It calls upon the government to introduce quotas for Kazakh and Russian broadcasting. In specific, this letter demands that Kazakh language radio and TV programming be given preference over Russian language programming in both public and private broadcasting on an 80-20 ratio. In language that sounds like nothing less than Stalin era demagoguery, it attacks the Russian speaking media and Western culture, and calls for the establishment of a state run censorship committee which would pre-screen all radio and TV broadcasting. It highlights the practices of China and Saudi Arabia as models for Kazakhstan. This is a sure prescription for ethnic strife in a country where ethnic Kazakhs enjoy only a slim majority. If implemented, the recommendations of these pro-regime professors will trigger further mass migrations of the skilled and educated urban population from my country, and may even lead to the kind of ethnic violence that the world has witnessed in horror over the last few weeks in Kosovo.

Kazakhstanis are deprived of what Americans take for granted as basic rights. Our people do not enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition for redress of grievances. Try it and you can land in jail. Without basic rights, we lack the privilege of calling ourselves a democracy.

Repressive governments may keep the lid on dissent as well as ethnic and national rivalries for a while, but the only lasting antidote to such conflicts is democratic institutions that provide the means for resolving disputes, protecting minority rights and making government accountable. In the absence of freedom of press, leaflets and political graffiti appear. In the absence of free and fair elections, a hated leader may be removed by a bullet. Democracy is the only formula for national stability, which is essential to creating an environment hospitable to foreign investment, trade and tourism and those are far preferable to government-to government assistance.

As we witnessed earlier this month, government policies caused an abrupt drop in the value of Kazakhstan's national currency, an indication that both its own citizens as well as foreigners lack confidence in our economy under its current and inefficient management.

Lack of the rule of law remains an acute problem in my country. New criminal codes and procedures that were promulgated only last year look good on the books, but they are widely ignored by the courts and police. It is not unusual for a person to be arrested, not to be told of the charges against him or her, not to be informed of their rights, kept from their lawyer for prolonged periods, and held months or even years without trial in subhuman conditions. Pre-trial detention, which should be reserved for unusual circumstances, such as prevention of flight or public danger from violent criminals, has become the norm. Even those suspected of committing non-violent crimes for the first time are held for extended periods, and to make matters worse, they are thrown in with aggressive, violent criminals. Compounding the situation is the serious lack of adequate food, health care and medication in the prisons and jails.

Such treatment can be compared to the international definitions of torture and the denigrating treatment and punishment that is banned by the UN Declaration Against Torture. There is no valid excuse for such conduct.

The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law estimates that more than six of every thousand Kazakhs is currently in custody, and over 20% of those have not been convicted of any crime. Restrictions on the right of the state to detain and hold citizens under investigation are flagrantly ignored. Sadly, Kazakhstan still retains ugly remnants of the old Soviet legal system which puts the interests of the state above those of the individual.

I am aware, Mr. Chairman, of America's particular concerns about stability throughout Central Asia and the impact of the growing threats of Islamic extremism, narcotics trafficking and the development and spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Radical Islamic movements are fed by corruption, repression and the failure to meet basic citizen needs by existing governments. These forces are neither more able nor more interested in offering the fundamental services or the democracy and human rights which people crave, but they prey on the loss of hope among the citizenry and use it to take over.

Kazakhstan can easily become a fertile breeding ground for extremists if the present trends are permitted to continue. And if Islamic or nationalist extremism, fed by desperation, raises its head, the Russian minority may be in jeopardy. Discrimination against the Russian citizens of Kazakhstan may breed extreme nationalism, which might ally itself with chauvinist/nationalist movements in Russia proper. Under that scenario, neighboring Russia, as weak as it may seem, is still powerful enough to march across Kazakhstan's northern borders to protect ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in my country. And today's Kazakhstani leaders, lacking military experience, will not lead the fight, rifle in hand, against such an invasion. Moreover, with only 16 million inhabitants, barely over half of them ethnic Kazakhs, there won't be enough soldiers to stand against the Russians.

Mr. Chairman, I have come to warn today, that the policies of the current government of Kazakhstan are endangering the territorial integrity of my country. They lead to hatred and popular despair. The specter of Yugoslavia may start haunting the steppes of Central Asia. Irresponsible leaders tend to manipulate desperate masses through virulent nationalism, as Slobodan Milosevic has shown. Once that happens, all bets are off. Radical nationalism is a witch's brew, which tends to poison both the brewer and the drinker.

The United States has poured over a billion and a half dollars into our region during this decade to promote democracy, human rights, free market economies, border security and stability. However, this investment has not been very effective. Your tax dollars so far did not buy you real democracy, institutional development, civil society, or equitable economic development -- not in Kazakhstan, not yet. Instead, more investment in education and information, and in particular, international broadcasting, is necessary. Over the last several years, budgets for international broadcasting, including Voice of America and Radio Liberty, have been declining. The hours for these broadcasts are extremely limited, hardly an hour a day. The people of my generation were motivated to get rid of communist propaganda by listening to Western broadcasters, such as VOA and Radio Liberty. We understood a lot, but slept little. However, today, the quality leaves much to be desired. Some of the correspondents and stringers are part of the ruling establishment. I am calling on the US government to rekindle the fire of international broadcasting we remember from the earlier decades. More hours on the air and more focused broadcasting promoting democracy and the rule of law are essential. Otherwise, the West will be called upon later to spend more on refugee resettlement and humanitarian assistance.

One persistent problem has been endemic corruption in law enforcement and government. You have seen it portrayed in the international media most vividly in Russia, but many other countries throughout the region suffer as well, particularly Kazakhstan. Too many of our police are not fighting crime but are themselves the criminals. In other words, they are the problem, not the solution. Bribery is the norm for too many of our police, government officials and judges. Moreover, corruption in the justice system results in the guilty and the corrupt walking free, while

the innocent rot in jails. The bureaucracy itself has become the breeding ground of corruption. As they say, the fish rots from the head. President Nazarbaev's own daughter, Dariga, is the head of the principal broadcasting and media company which controls most of the airtime in the republic. His nephew is the Minister of Media, and controls the press. His son-in-law is the head of much feared tax police. Thus, glasnost (openness) in Kazakhstan has failed. The media is denied its role as society's immune system, and the opposition can be destroyed using not only quasi-legal, but also fiscally punitive means.

Mr. Chairman, the very health of our citizens is declining. So is education. There has been a steady diminution of public health services amid growing affliction. Our educational system is deteriorating through neglect, which threatens a brain drain as our young people decide to seek opportunity elsewhere.

The governments of the United States and Kazakhstan has signed twice in 1994 and 1997 a Charter on Democratic Partnership and a Charter for Strategic Partnership, in which Kazakhstan committed itself to democratization, the rule of law, respect for human rights, economic reform and strategic partnership. Tragically, the hopes that these agreements kindled have not been fulfilled.

Kazakhstan's need for direct foreign investment is your opportunity to make a contribution to the people of Kazakhstan and the future of our region, but this is a castle built on quicksand.

Central Asia may be a land of opportunity for foreign investors and traders, but you must not let the lure of commercial deals blind you to the underlying problems in these countries. Human rights activists in Central Asian countries had complained that your Embassy is ignoring their concerns because too much emphasis on freedom and democracy might offend the government officials who make the commercial deals. However, I am pleased to report that in recent months that American diplomats in Almaty are exhibiting renewed concern for human rights.

Without democracy, Western foreign investment is jeopardy. And when Western oil companies build model villages for their workers, they are not safe against the background of widespread poverty and desperation. Oil companies have built tennis courts which cost a million dollars. But only the Kazakhstani elite plays there. One large tobacco company has repaired the President’s garage. I am wondering how many children could be cured of TB or how many computer education classrooms could be equipped with these funds. I do understand that it is the Kazakh bureaucrats who force Western companies to waste money in such a way, and that your managers are as sorry about it as I am.

One of the best things you can do to protect these investments is to defend human rights and promote democracy. Your companies also need to make sure that the benefits of foreign investment in Kazakhstan find their way to the ordinary people and do not go to line the pockets of the power elites and their friends.

I am sure you have often felt here in the Congress that the Executive Branch resents your looking over its shoulder, but nothing could be healthier, and my country needs a meddling parliament that knows how to ask smart questions. I commend you and want to follow your example.

Mr. Chairman, Kazakhstan is a large country. It is the size of Western Europe and is home to more than 100 ethnic groups. We have great natural resources, particularly oil, but they can be at once a blessing and a curse. Do not be blinded by the alluring gleam of our black gold or you will not see the tarnished society our government would like to hide. The West's thirst for oil must not blind it to its moral and practical responsibility to promote democracy, human rights and a free market economy. A tolerance for autocratic regimes cannot be excused by that thirst. Unfettered and unregulated exploitation breeds ecological disasters and exerts a corrupting influence.

My friends and I are trying to help that society, we are collecting money to install medical equipment to help cancer and TB patients, to develop computer literacy. The current government is preventing us from conducting even such humanitarian activities.

Mr. Chairman, the Kazakhstani authorities, including the President, have retroactively accused me of divulging "state secrets" – our budget figures. In that, they took a leaf from a Soviet-era criminal practice which was used by the KGB to suppress dissidents. They also are falsely accusing me of tax evasion. I guess even Kazakhstan is undergoing modernization. But all of this is being done for one purpose only¾ to prevent me from returning to my home country, to prevent my participation in presidential and parliamentary elections. All these materials are posted on my Internet site and my lawyer has the originals.

The people of Kazakhstan today need the right to chose, to make decisions. That includes the right to choose their own lifestyle, to determine their own life goals, and, yes, to participate in the free and fair election of all branches of government from top to bottom, the right to change the regime and to control the political power. First and foremost, we need a viable parliament. That means a parliament that can effectively oversee public spending, economic development and commerce as this Congress does.

Mr. Chairman, the people of Kazakhstan, the ordinary people, are very grateful for the support that you, your colleagues and the American government and American people have given our struggle for freedom and democracy. I am especially personally appreciative of the assistance extended towards me and my colleagues in our efforts, and I look forward to working with you in the future to achieve our common goals.