[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 39 (Thursday, March 22, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E421]]



        KAZAKHSTAN SHOULD RELEASE OPPOSITION POLITICAL PRISONERS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 22, 2001

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, on March 7, I chaired a hearing of the 
International Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International 
Operations and Human Rights on the Department of State's annual report 
on human rights for the year 2000. In the section on Kazakhstan, the 
report states that ``the Government's human rights record remained 
poor'' and that ``serious problems remain''.
  The report discusses one specific situation that concerns me greatly. 
In the section on ``Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile'', the report 
points out that two security agents who had served as bodyguards to 
Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the exiled leader of the main opposition party and 
a former Prime Minister, were sentenced a year ago to 3\1/2\ years in 
gulag-style prison where they are vulnerable to mistreatment by both 
prison officials and fellow inmates. Their names are Pyotr Afanasenko 
and Satzhan Ibrayev.
  As stated in the Department of State's report--referring to the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to 
international and domestic observers, their arrest was politically 
motivated. As a member of the OSCE, Kazakhstan should reverse what the 
OSCE has said were convictions for political reasons and imprisonments 
under conditions that violate the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan.
  If, as it claims, the Government of Kazakhstan is truly paying more 
attention to human rights, then these two political prisoners, whose 
very lives are in danger, should be released. In the meantime, they 
should be removed from the general prison population and placed in a 
separate facility as provided under the Criminal Corrections Code of 
Kazakhstan. I call upon the government of Kazakhstan to do just that.

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