Kazakhstan's Assassinated Democracy. Yerzhan Psy.D. Dosmukhamedov
you probably know, in his book "The Godfather-in law" Rakhat Aliyev accuses the current Prime-Minister Karim Masimov as having a secret affiliation with the Soviet KGB since the times of the existence of the USSR. Having stated this, he produced certain evidence. Your accusations of some leaders of the opposition are unsubstantiated. If a similar accusation will be addressed against you, would you find an effective and exhaustive response?
They are not unsubstantiated. Such information was given to the press by Aliyev and Mussayev - two top generals who led the Kazakh secret service. As far as I know it has never since been legally contested by those who were accused by the two generals.
In particular, the information about Kazhegeldin was given by General Mussayev during his meeting with Michael Laubsch, managing director of a major European NGO, in which I took personal participation.
We are all now within European jurisdiction, which provides anyone with certain legal and court mechanisms. Thus, for any individual willing to defend his name the doors of the European courts are open. If any stated information will be admitted by the courts as incorrect I will be the first one to bring apologies.
In the press the likelihood of a unification of Kazhegeldin, Ablyazov and Aliyev into one mighty "troika" has been discussed and may be on the point of happening. In your opinion, how high is such a likelihood?
Their unification has already happened. All these individuals are in Europe. And, as far as I know, they already have active negotiations and certain common ground has been already found.
This opinion, I think, can be verified. I am sure that you have the contact numbers of all three individuals. From the point of view of uniting their financial and intellectual resources, such a union is fully logical for withstanding against Timur Kulibayev's interest group. There is a reason for uniting their efforts. Thus the emergence of such "troika" is possible.
And what about the leader of the opposition Atameken party with regards to joining such "troika" in case of their unification?
I answered similar questions many times in the past. I reiterate that if we are talking about a genuine rooting out of the evil which exists in Kazakhstan, if the efforts will be directed, not at serving someone's personal selfish ambitions, but at changing the vector of Kazakhstan's historical development towards a modern democratic type of society, I will then join such a coalition.
I see no reasons not to unite our efforts. Such effort is needed in the West, where the oil-rich Kazakh ruling regime throws hundreds of millions of dollars to whiten its darkened image and to mislead Western political circles.
Such enlightening work must be conducted in order to affect the ruling regime through Western democratic mechanisms. The Western mechanism is the only tool through which one can influence the course of events in Kazakhstan.
Within Kazakhstan, sadly, the green civil society has been neutralised, the media's tongue has been torn away. People have been finally intimidated and silenced.
Thank you for your interview.
Interviewed by Sultan-Han Akkuuly
THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE SHOULD EXPECT MORE REVELATIONS
Radio "Liberty" (USA)
8 January 2009
Dr. Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov, an exiled leader of the Kazakh opposition, says that the Kazakh government has allocated a special budget to bribe international observers visiting Kazakhstan to attend the frequent elections.
The presidential stay in London was paid for by Kazakhmys
Dr. Dosmukhamedov, our interview is now taking place in the Prague office of Radio Liberty. What brought you to the Czech Republic? And have you achieved your planned aims?
The last year was a leap year. Some people therefore say that it should have been an uneasy one. I have to admit, though, that after having looked back it was - on the contrary - very successful and fruitful. We have made a major breakthrough in having people understand the continuing under-the-radar process in Kazakhstan, in the West, among politicians, journalists. especially in the United States and Britain.
As a result of this breakthrough Kazakhstan was mentioned - in terms of democratization - by the press no less than Russia last year. This is a major plus. even in Britain, where the Kazakh regime has the strongest lobby, like Lakshmi Mittal, William Hague and other influential individuals. I won't predict forthcoming events, but I assume that there will be new material, which inevitably will be published at the end of the ongoing journalistic investigations.
These investigations are currently being conducted on [Timur] Kulibayev's money, some London-listed Kazakh companies like Kazakhmys, and even the recent visits by President Nazarbayev to London, where he stayed at a most luxurious hotel.
For example, it was discovered that Kazakhmys, which is a public and London Stock exchange-listed corporate entity, paid £70,000 for one of the presidential stays in an expensive hotel.
I cannot tell you about all the details and nuances of the journalistic investigations, which are being conducted by a large group of reporters. I think, however, that this year is likely to be even more successful. I believe that I have achieved all the planned objectives here.
I had meetings with leading Czech politicians and leaders of the opposition movement in other former Soviet republics. We presently take part in developing a united co-ordinating structure in order to combine our potential and resources, making them more focussed on work with Western governments and NGOs.
This is a part of the result achieved during my visit to Helsinki, where I had my initial meetings with the opposition leaders of the post-Soviet democratic movements I just mentioned. After the Czech Republic I plan to visit Sweden, where we also have good working relations with Swedish politicians. Gradual step-by-step work cannot be completed overnight.
We try to put it on a systematic basis, and naturally we will continue working until the Kazakh presidential Administration of Nazarbayev registers our Atameken Party, and until it provides me and my friends with guarantees of personal safety to enable us to return to Kazakhstan to exercise our constitutional freedom to be politically active. This work will continue until the government ceases its persecution and intimidation of members of our party, and until the Kazakh government fulfills all the promises it made in Madrid back in November 2007. I emphasise that I mean the genuine - not cosmetic - fulfilment of those Madrid promises.
Kazakhstan is a country where people are afraid, and the press is completely intimidated
Dr. Dosmukhamedov, since 1 January 2009 Kazakhstan has joined the troika of countries presiding over the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. In the mutual opinion of Kazakh and international human-rights NGOs and the Kazakh opposition, today the first issue is the reform of legislation on the media, political parties and elections. Ak Orda [the presidential palace], however, still has not fulfilled its promises announced in Madrid back in 2007 and, it seems, is unlikely to fulfill them. Do you have anything to say about this?
I fully agree with the opinion of international experts and independent journalists. I believe that Kazakh authorities must fulfill all the promises made in Madrid. And those cosmetic changes that the Kazakh authorities introduced in those laws are aimed at fooling international public opinion. It won't do. It's definitely not enough.
These methods may work in Kazakhstan where the whole country lives in fear, and the press is simply intimidated and its tongue was torn out a long time ago. Look what is happening right now with the editor-in-chief of the Alma-Ata Info newspaper, Ramazan Yesergepov. He is being subjected to torture. His constitutional and human rights are being infringed by the authorities - a man who suffers a serious chronic cardiovascular disease is being subjected to physical and mental torture.
To sum up, I am convinced that these cosmetic changes will not work for free Western public opinion.
Thus I have been undertaking a new tour of leading European democracies since the