Lawmakers in Kazakhstan seem concerned President Nursultan Nazarbayev is not far enough above the law. A group of parliamentarians have proposed ammending the constitution to give Nazarbayev the title, "Leader of the Nation," and offering blanket immunity for "acts committed during the execution of presidential powers," Radio Azattyq reports.
It's hard not to see a connection to the recent dethroning of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. His immunity was formally abolished yesterday.
In another embarrassing setback for OSCE-chair Kazakhstan, the Open Society Justice Initiative has brought Astana before the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT).
“Kazakhstan has failed to prevent, investigate, or punish torture by police,” a statement said, referring to the case of Alexander Gerasimov, tortured by five police officers in 2007.
Using a technique called "dry submarino," the police tied Gerasimov's hands and held him down on the floor as one officer repeatedly jammed a knee into Gerasimov's back while suffocating him with a plastic bag.
The statement continues:
"Torture is endemic in Central Asia. Police frequently rely on violence to extract confessions rather than conduct proper investigations," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is co-counsel with the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the complaint. "Failure to investigate or punish the perpetrators of abuse creates a vicious cycle of impunity and poisons the criminal justice system."
Gerasimov's case is the first individual complaint against Kazakhstan to be filed with the UN CAT since the country's ratification of the Convention Against Torture. It challenges Kazakhstan for torturing Gerasimov and failing to properly investigate his complaints, punish the perpetrators, or provide adequate reparations for his pain and suffering.
The biggest announcement out of yesterday's meeting between Presidents Obama and Nazarbayev was that Kazakhstan would allow overflight rights of planes going over the North Pole, then south over Russia and then through Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan. I spoke to Andrew Kuchins, a CSIS scholar who has interviewed many American, Russian and Uzbek officials about the Northern Distribution Network for a CSIS project. He pointed out that Pentagon officials were never especially interested in this polar route, that it was originally proposed by the Russians as a concrete "deliverable" that Obama and Medvedev could announce during their meeting in Moscow last July. The Pentagon would rather get permission to transit lethal cargo over its existing routes.
And yet, negotiating that extra route shortly became the top priority in the U.S.'s relationship with Kazakhstan; as one State Department official told me, "the NDN trumps everything." And it was the main achievement of the one-to-one between Obama and Nazarbayev.
My takeaway: There is an interesting behind-the-scenes story to tell about how an afterthought at the Pentagon became the top priority at the White House...
The annual SIPRI report is out, which enumerates every (known) arms sale around the world. In our humble Eurasia region, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan all got some goodies in 2009. Russia and Israel were the top suppliers.
Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan did not receive any arms imports in 2009, the report said.
Azerbaijan got 70 armored personnel carriers (of the BTR-80A variety) from Russia, and arranged with South Africa's Paramount Groups to start producing Matador and Marauder mine-protected vehicles in Azerbaijan. Baku also bought 50 missiles from Israel for use in its Lynx Modular Rocket Launcher systems.
Georgia bought 70 Ejder armored personnel carriers from Turkey and 32 tanks from Ukraine, 20 T-72s and 12 T-84s.
Kazakhstan completed its receipt of 79 armored personnel carriers from Russia, of the same variety (BTR-80A) that Azerbaijan did, as well as three ANSAT light utility helicopters and 12 Mi-8 and Mi-17 attack helicopters, all of which were bought in 2007.
Kazakhstan also last year signed agreements with Russia for 10 S-330 surface-to-air missile air defense systems and Su-27, MiG-27 and MiG-23UB combat planes.
From Israel, Kazakhstan completed its acquisitions of weapons from Israel bought in 2006 and 2007, including 18 Lynx rocket systems, six Semser 122mm self-propelled guns, and 18 CARDOM 120mm mortars for use on armored personnel carriers.
Kazakhstan also acquired 40 uparmored Humvees from the United States.
Turkmenistan bought six Smerch multiple rocket launch systems, two Tarantul fast-attack boats and ten T-90 tanks, all from Russia.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S.'s envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had a press conference today in which he briefly discussed his recent trip through the ex-Soviet 'stans and Georgia. He's trying to drum up support from those countries for U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, and although Holbrooke's portfolio is primarily diplomatic and civilian, it seems most of the support he discussed in the former USSR was military:
In the case of Kyrgyzstan, which doesn’t have a common border with Afghanistan – the very important Manas Transit Center, which will be – which we will renew the arrangements some in the next few weeks, and I wanted to launch that process. We’ve very grateful to the Kyrgyz’s Government for that support.
...
In Tashkent, of course, we talked about the Northern Distribution Network and its importance to us. Most of the supplies coming through that entry point into Afghanistan – the Northern Distribution Network – come through Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, we talked about improving and increasing our over-flight facilities and improving rail transit, which is an issue we’re interested in. And in Tajikistan, we talked about also northern distribution issues. And in addition, we talked about resources. Water is a huge problem, as you all know, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Tajikistan has one of the greatest water potentials in the world, and President Rahmon described that to us in some detail. And we have, on a separate basis we have got a water resources task force now set up in the Department to examine how we can additionally help the countries of the area, and particularly Pakistan with the water issue.
And finally, after the four Central Asian Republics, we went on to Georgia. Now, Georgia – and we visited the Georgian battalion outside Tbilisi which will – will be deployed next month to Afghanistan.
