[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2356-E2357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            KAZAKHSTAN'S DICTATOR UNDERMINES U.S. INTERESTS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 19, 2001

  Mr. ROHRABACHER Mr. Speaker, I understand that the corrupt and 
repressive dictator of oil-rich Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, plans 
to visit Washington soon. He is looking for a White House Good 
Housekeeping Seal of Approval and a consequent dampening of the 
Administration's criticism of the Nazarbayev regime's deplorable human 
rights record. He thinks that his vague offers of assistance in the war 
against terrorism will tilt U.S. policy concerning such repression and 
corruption as is found in Kazakhstan. That

[[Page E2357]]

would be a tragic mistake. We cannot permit the war against terrorism 
to be manipulated into an affirmation of the status quo in countries 
that are ruled by tyrants. In the long run, that would pit the United 
States against those struggling for honest and democratic government, 
which would lose whatever goodwill our country has in this world.
  Nazarbayev, as with his fellow dictators in other former Soviet 
republics of Central Asia, assumed the title of president through sham 
elections. He is so repressive and corrupt that his regime will 
eventually collapse of its own weight. Islamic extremists--already 
active in the area--as well as China, will be scrambling to pick up the 
pieces when these gangster regimes fall apart. But we need not let that 
dismal scenario come to be. Now is the time to press Nazarbayev, as 
well as other Central Asian strongmen, to hold early free and fair 
elections monitored by international observers. If he needs to save 
face, Nazarbayev could simply confirm the many rumors that he plans to 
step down and retire to one of the countries where he stashed his ill-
gotten financial gains.
  Of course the Nazarbayev regime, like other human rights abusers, 
threaten more than their own people. Moscow's Centre TV on February 17, 
2001, accused the Nazarbayev regime of illegally selling weapons, like 
advanced Russian-made S-300 air defense system and heavy tanks, to 
rogue regions. The United States has had many run-ins with the 
Nazarbayev regime over arms sales. Early last year, for example, 
Kazakhstan sold forty MIG fighters to North Korea. And on June 4, 1997, 
the Washington Times reported that the U.S. had protested plans by 
Kazakhstan to sell advanced air defense missiles to Iran. This pattern 
of weapons trafficking must stop. Clearly, this is a policy endorsed by 
Nazarbayev himself.
  Finally, on September 14, 2001, the Swiss Federal Department of 
Justice made available to the U.S. Department of Justice the findings 
of a lengthy investigation of corruption involving President Nursultan 
Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. These issues raised by this report needs to 
be addressed. What we have here is a regime condemned by leading human 
rights organizations, that has trafficked in arms with the dregs of the 
world, that has been ambiguous in its support of the war on terrorism, 
and is under investigation for corruption by both Swiss and U.S law 
enforcement agencies.
  Maybe our message to Mr. Nazarbayev is that it is time for him to go. 
At the very least, he should not be allowed to leave Washington 
thinking that the U.S. will acquiesce to the status quo in exchange for 
platitudes about joining us in the war against terrorism. Kazakhstan is 
a country rich in natural resources. Its people should be enjoying 
prosperity, peace and yes, freedom. Instead, the iron grip of despotism 
is strangling the democratic alternative, and with it the hopes of 
economic progress for the country as a whole.
  Let us be on the side of the people of countries like Kazakhstan. Let 
us use our influence with those in power in such repressed socieities 
to show them a graceful way of exiting power, rather than giving them, 
and their repressed populations, the mistaken notion that we are the 
friends of such corrupt and tyrannical regimes.

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