Oppressive Kazakhstani regime continues harassment of the opposition members

Oppressive Kazakhstani regime continues harassment of the opposition members
Rashid Nougmanov was detained and held incommunicado by tax police
Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation Press Release

For Immediate Release

May 24, 2000

1155 Connecticut Ave., NW, # 400

Washington, DC 20036

In the latest attempt by the oppressive regime of Kazakhstan to harass and intimidate the democratic opposition, Almaty tax police, has detained, and for several hours held incommunicado, Mr. Rashid Nougmanov, member of the Republican National Party of Kazakhstan.

Mr. Nougmanov, famous Kazakh movie director, who for the past 7 years has lived and worked in France and holds dual French/Kazakh citizenship, was detained upon his arrival to the airport in Almaty. After passing a passport control, Mr. Nougmanov was stopped by the tax police officers and was subjected to the several searches. Mr. Nougmanov was escorted by Almaty tax police officer Myrzagaliev "for a talk" into the small room where he was held incommunicado for several hours and was subsequently released after being handed a summons to appear on May 25 at the Almaty office of the tax police. Mr. Nougmanov had neither residence nor any business or commercial involvement in Kazakhstan during the past 7 years.

These unmotivated and utterly groundless action of the Kazakhstani regime took place only one day after the departure from Kazakhstan of the European Parliament (EP) Delegation. Coincidentally, just three weeks ago Rashid Nougmanov met with Jan Kurleman, Head of the EP Division for Human Rights and William Newton Dunn, Co-Chair of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights and briefed them on the political situation in the country. In April Mr. Nougmanov has met Mr. Bart Staes MEP, the chairman of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Kazakhstan to discuss the current political situation in Kazakhstan.

These crackdowns on the democratic opposition only the latest steps in the alarming pattern of abuses of human rights and basic freedoms by President Nazarbayev's increasingly autocratic regime. It is no coincidence they come in the wake of internationally condemned presidential and parliamentary elections that were marked by the firebombing and closures of opposition newspapers along with physical assaults on political activists and independent journalists by government thugs.

On May 3, 2000 the Committee to Protect Journalists placed Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev on its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press (http://www.cpj.org/enemies/enemies_00.html) along with Sierra Leone's Foday Sankoh, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, China's Jiang Zemin, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.

We hope the United States Congress, European Parliament, OSCE and the Clinton Administration will take notice of the continuing and alarming slide into authoritarianism by the Nazarbayev regime and demand the Kazakh government immediately comply with the commitments it made when it joined the OSCE, and the promises President Nazarbayev made only last month when he met with the Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

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The Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation is a non-profit, independent organization devoted to the development of democratic values, free market economic policies, social progress and constructive international relations in Kazakhstan. The Foundation, created in 1998, is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and maintains an U.S. office in Washington.

Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation Press Release, 24 May 2000