[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 13591-13592]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NEW ALLIES, OLD FORMULA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. NORMAN D. DICKS

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 18, 2002

  Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my deep concern about the 
undemocratic and totalitarian actions of the President of Kazakhstan, 
Nursultan Nazarbayev. He has recently banned several opposition 
parties, arrested and exiled their leaders, and has made the formation 
of new parties virtually impossible. He has shut down many newspapers 
and television stations in Kazakhstan, preventing its citizens from 
having a free press. Furthermore, President Nazarbayev has reportedly 
placed $1 billion dollars of oil revenue into a secret Swiss bank 
account.
  This behavior should not be tolerated and I believe it is important 
at this time to focus international attention on this situation. 
President Nazarbayev needs to allow for all legitimate opposition 
parties and their leaders to run for public office and allow for all 
exiled political leaders to return to Kazakhstan. He must also allow 
for a free press, the foundation of any democracy. President Nazarbayev 
should be held accountable for widespread corruption, including the 
placement of government funds into secret Swiss bank accounts. I am 
asking that we insert into the Record a July 12th editorial written by 
the Washington Post Editorial Board which more fully describes the 
injustices currently occurring in Kazakhstan. [the article follows]

              [The Washington Post--Friday, July 12, 2002]

                        New Allies, Old Formula

       As the United States rushed to strengthen ties to the 
     countries of Central Asia after Sept. 11, one question that 
     quickly arose was whether the new military agreements and 
     economic packages would serve only to bolster the repressive 
     rule of the region's autocrats or whether U.S. influence 
     would also be used to bring about political and economic 
     reform. Some 10 months later the first answers are in, and 
     they are at best mixed. The region's most repressive ruler, 
     Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, has also proved to be the one 
     most eager to forge a close relationship with Washington; 
     consequently, his government has responded to concerted 
     pressure from the Bush administration with a few modest 
     concessions and promises of more. Elsewhere, however, a 
     couple of new allies may have concluded that their new 
     utility as U.S. security partners empowers them to repress 
     their domestic opponents all the more forcefully.
       Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, 
     certainly seems untroubled by any imperative to accept 
     Western norms of democracy or human rights. Though his huge, 
     oil-rich country once appeared to be leading the former 
     Soviet republics of the region in reforming the old system, 
     it has, since Sept. 11, moved steadily in the opposite 
     direction. Mr. Nazarbayev, a former member of the Soviet 
     Politburo who took over Kazakhstan when it became independent 
     and has ruled it ever since, did not take kindly to the 
     formation of an opposition party by former government 
     officials late last year. He arrested and tried several of 
     its leaders, and recently he had his rubber-stamp parliament 
     pass a new law making the legal formation of such parties 
     virtually impossible. The president also did not like reading 
     reports in the Kazakh media about a secret Swiss bank account 
     in which he deposited $1 billion in oil revenue. A score of 
     newspapers and an equal number of television stations have 
     been forced to shut down in recent months, and a number of 
     journalists have been attacked or threatened.
       Mr. Nazarbayev has arrogantly dismissed U.S. complaints 
     about his behavior, just as he has waved off suggestions that 
     he consider allowing more democracy. Instead, he seems to be 
     modeling himself on the longtime U.S. allies in the Persian 
     Gulf. Rather than reform, he signs drilling and pipeline 
     deals that will allow his country to rake in billions in oil 
     income; rather than respect human rights, he offers 
     cooperation with the U.S. military. Just this week his 
     government formalized an agreement with the Bush 
     administration that will allow emergency landings and 
     refuelings for U.S. military planes at Almaty's international 
     airport.
       Bush administration officials say they understand that 
     accepting a relationship on such terms is more than a 
     political embarrassment. ``Authoritarian governments and 
     largely unreformed economies,'' Deputy Assistant Secretary of 
     State Lynn Pascoe told a recent congressional hearing, 
     ``create the conditions of repression and poverty that could 
     well become the breeding grounds for further terrorism.'' The 
     question, then, is how to break the old model that Mr. 
     Nazarbayev would renew. As in the Persian Gulf, admonitions 
     from ambassadors, and even rhetoric from the White House, 
     will not be enough; Mr. Nazarbayev must understand

[[Page 13592]]

     that his country's relationship with the United States 
     depends on political change. Does the Pentagon really need 
     another landing arrangement in Central Asia? If such 
     agreements were withheld--or frozen--Mr. Nazarbayev and other 
     Central Asian dictators would be quick to get the message.

     

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