June 30, 2003

Dear Ministers,

We write in advance of the July 22 E.U.-Kazakhstan and E.U.-Kyrgyzstan Cooperation Council meetings, to urge you to seek concrete commitments from these governments to improve their human rights records, particularly in the areas of political and media freedoms.

Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s vast energy resources have made it an important geostrategic partner for the international community. They have not made the country more democratic, however. With the stakes of politics raised significantly, the government has consolidated its monopoly on political and economic life by undermining basic freedoms. At last year’s E.U.-Kazakhstan Cooperation Council meeting, the E.U. expressed concern about the worsening of these trends, particularly regarding freedom of expression, the prosecution of independent media and opposition political activists, and potential restrictions on the registration of political parties. One year later, the Kazakh government has come under scrutiny from the international community precisely because it has not addressed these concerns. Instead, it has placed restrictions on opposition political parties and on nongovernmental organizations, and harassed, arrested, and intimidated political activists and independent journalists. Kazakhstan is also home to one of the fastest-growing AIDS epidemics in the world, threatening the country’s economic and social development. Severe human rights abuses, including systematic police brutality, against those most vulnerable to the infection are fueling the spread of the disease.
Recent E.U. statements make clear that it considers respect for human rights to be a crucial aspect of its political dialogue with Kazakhstan and recognizes that Kazakhstan has fallen well below the human rights criteria set out in its Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. We welcome E.U. statements of February and March 2003 on media restrictions, and a February 13, 2003 European Parliament resolution on the deterioration in human rights conditions. We hope that the E.U. will use the July 22 Cooperation Council meeting to press for implementation of recommendations outlined in these statements.

Many private and public multilateral lending institutions are investing in Kazakhstan and are concerned about Kazakhstan’s poor record on governance. The priorities the E.U. sets at the Cooperation Council meeting will send an important signal to these actors, and serve as a reference point for their own engagement with Kazakhstan.

Political Participation
Extensive research conducted by Human Rights Watch in April 2003 shows a clear crackdown on opposition political parties. Under a new law, a political party must have at least 50,000 members in order to register, an unreasonably high barrier considering the size of Kazakhstan’s population. In part as a result of this new requirement, the number of registered parties has dropped from nineteen in 2002 to seven in 2003. Authorities also continue arbitrarily to obstruct the registration of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), Yel Dana, Alash, and Compatriot political parties and movements. Further, the government has pressed politically motivated criminal or civil charges against fourteen opposition party members and supporters, in some cases in order to prevent them from running for public office. The majority are members and supporters of the more dynamic and well-funded opposition parties, including DVK and the Republican People’s Party of Kazakhstan (RNPK). Law enforcement and government officials also regularly harass party activists by threatening them with job dismissal if they do not end their political affiliations, preventing them from organizing and attending party gatherings, and sometimes intimidating them and their family members.

The Kazakh authorities’ efforts to undermine the development of an open political process were also evident in their blatant manipulation of the December 2002 parliamentary by-elections, which domestic and international observers assailed as deeply flawed. Left unadressed, such manipulation could also skew the outcome of the fall 2003 district council elections and 2004 parliamentary elections.

Political Prisoners
Between July 2002 and January 2003 Kazakh authorities unlawfully convicted the two DVK co-founders, Mukhtar Abliazov and Galymzhan Zhakianov, as well as Sergei Duvanov, an independent journalist and human rights defender. Abliazov and Zhakianov were convicted on financial mismanagment and abuse of office charges when DVK began to pose a serious challenge to President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s rule, while Duvanov was convicted on suspicious rape charges after he published information about the Kazakhgate oil revenues corruption scandal.

International experts found the charges in all three cases to be politically motivated and the trials grossly flawed. In the case of Zhakianov, government persecution has extended to harassment of family members and physical mistreatment of close associates. Apparently in response to international pressure, on May 13, 2003, Abliazov was released under a presidential pardon, and has since stated that he will not contest his conviction, that he will resign from DVK, and that he is quitting politics. Human Rights Watch welcomes his release, but believes that the terms of the pardon set a poor precedent for other political prisoners.

Zhakianov, sentenced in August 2002 to seven years of imprisonment, suffered a recent bout of pneumonia and numerous other health problems since his incarceration. Kazakh officials have failed to respond to recent requests from foreign diplomats for follow-up visits to Zhakianov, while his lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court, and have requested that the OSCE conduct an expert review of the case. Duvanov was sentenced in January 2003 to three and a half years imprisonment; his defense counsel plans to appeal the conviction to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks. An OSCE-commissioned expert review, which has deemed the criminal investigation to be flawed, is pending distribution.

Media Freedoms
Editors and journalists who criticize the president, cover the political opposition, or expose official corruption have been victims of attacks and beatings by unknown individuals. The government also targets them for criminal libel cases. As a result, such vital issues as oil revenue transparency and related governance issues receive either distorted coverage or none at all. The state media virtually ignored Kazakhgate, and local Internet servers in March, April, and June blocked access to websites covering this and other controversial political issues. In the face of these problems, Kazakh journalists have in the past four weeks claimed an ever-growing climate of fear and have increasingly resorted to self-censorship.

NGOs
The government is now adopting new measures to control the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It harasses NGOs though intimidating visits and arbitrary investigations by the tax police and surveillance by law enforcement and security agents. The director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Evgeniy Zhovtis, has recently received telephone threats from unidentified persons, and on May 2, 2003 discovered a substance closely resembling narcotics in his car on the day he was due to depart to speak about human rights in Central Asia at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Tashkent. The government has also drafted a new law that, if adopted, will require NGOs to report to the government on their funding and activities.

HIV/AIDS
More than 80 percent of persons with AIDS in Kazakhstan are injection drug users, but systemic and sometimes violent harassment by police of injection drug users and sex workers compounds their already marginal status in Kazakh society and prevents them from using life-saving HIV prevention services. Police may place drug users under arrest even for possession of tiny amounts of narcotics, find it easy to pin false charges on them, and target drug users in order to fill arrest quotas. In view of these factors and the general fear and stigma they face, a number of injection drug users reported to Human Rights Watch their reluctance to use needle exchange services. Needle exchange is a proven effective intervention for the prevention of HIV transmission. Sex workers, another deeply stigmatized group in Kazakh society whose numbers have grown dramatically since the fall of the Soviet Union, also face abuses that put them at high risk of HIV/AIDS. They regularly face rape, other violence, and extortion by police.

Persons with AIDS confront abandonment by their families, discrimination in access to government services and rejection in the workplace. Some mandatory HIV testing of persons in detention continues in spite of an official announcement of a change in this policy, and many HIV-positive persons in Kazakhstan are segregated in prison. Few people with AIDS in the country have access to antiretroviral drugs, and injection drug users are particularly excluded from this treatment.

The government committed itself in 2002 to conducting a review of HIV/AIDS-related legislation in order to bring it into compliance with international standards on HIV/AIDS and human rights, but as of this writing the review was incomplete. A long-promised pilot program of methadone treatment that would allow some heroin users to be freed of having to inject drugs also remained unimplemented as of this writing.

Benchmarks for progress
Following are measures that the government of Kazakhstan should undertake to address these concerns and meet its obligations under international human rights law and the human rights and democracy clause of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the E.U. and Kazakhstan.

• Allow the OSCE to immediately undertake an independent, expert review of the case of Galymzhan Zhakianov. The E.U. should also encourage the OSCE to distribute as soon as possible the independent expert review of the case of Sergei Duvanov, discussed at the June 5, 2003, meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

• Register opposition political parties and movements that have submitted documentation in accordance with the law. If registration is not forthcoming, the E.U. should encourage the OSCE to review the relevant registration dossiers.

• Provide conditions for the OSCE to undertake a review of politically motivated civil and criminal prosecutions concluded or pending against opposition leaders and members.

• Accede to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

• In line with Europe, Kazakhstan should issue standing invitations to all United Nations special mechanisms.

• Review government legislation regarding HIV/AIDS, in order to bring it into compliance with international standards on HIV/AIDS and human rights. Expand prevention and treatment services for all persons affected by HIV/AIDS.

Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan has long enjoyed a reputation as an “island of democracy” among the newly independent Central Asian states. However, its human rights record during recent years indicates that this reputation is undeserved. Examples of the rapid deterioration of basic protections in Kyrgyzstan include the persecution of leading political opposition figures and their parties, government intolerance of criticism and dissent, legal actions directed at silencing the media, police violence against demonstrators, and harassment of rights defenders. These developments are inconsistent with President Askar Akaev’s vision of Kyrgyzstan as “the country of human rights.” A crucial actor in Kyrgyzstan, the E.U. is particularly well placed to convince the government to stop its backtracking on human rights. We hope the E.U will use the forthcoming Cooperation Council meeting to highlight the steps the government of Kyrgyzstan should take to move away from the more repressive trends that have blighted the rights records of its neighbors.

Political Participation
During the past three years, the Kyrgyz government has narrowed the space for political opposition parties to operate in the country. Opposition figures who evidence a solid base of popular support are made particular targets of government harassment. This pattern tends to intensify during elections or referenda, when the political stakes are high. In 2000, fifteen of nineteen independent candidates were unfairly eliminated from the presidential race, and authorities jailed former vice-president Feliks Kulov, potentially the most serious challenger to President Akaev. He remains in prison to date. Kulov’s Ar Namys (Dignity) party has been subjected to intimidating police surveillance and harassment: some members have been threatened with losing their jobs if they ignore law enforcement officers’ pressure to quit the party. Police routinely harass and arbitrarily detain Ar Namys members and supporters when they attend public gatherings and demonstrations.

This pattern continues today. When Ar Namys documented and publicized blatant vote fraud during the February 2003 constitutional referendum, the government reacted swiftly to discredit the party and persecute one of its members. Prosecutors charged an Ar Namys member, Tynchtyk Dulatov, with having kidnapped a young man who had told him that, at the instigation of city employees, he had voted four separate times on the day of the referendum. The man later recanted the kidnapping story, but, in a move reminiscent of Soviet tactics, Kyrgyz police placed him in a psychiatric institution for some ten days until he reverted to his original testimony. The young man was later released, and signed a statement against Dulatov. A warrant is now out for Dulatov’s arrest.

The hostility of the government authorities is not directed solely at the Ar Namys party. The head of the Agrarian Labor Party, former Deputy Prime Minister Usen Sydykov, was eliminated from the ballot in the May 2003 parliamentary by-elections in the southern Jalal Abad province, on the pretext that he did not disclose all of his property when he filled out his application for candidacy. Sydykov has a strong popular base in Jalal Abad. Local residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch were furious about what they perceived as government manipulation of the election.

Media Freedoms
The independent media in Kyrgyzstan are small and beleaguered. Media outlets and individual journalists covering politically sensitive issues, such as official corruption or relations with China, find themselves particular targets of civil defamation suits brought by government officials alleging that the critical papers insulted their “honor and dignity.” Courts, lacking independence, invariably rule in favor of the authorities.

Civil defamation suits have recently forced the closure of two independent newspapers. The independent Kyrgyz language newspaper Kyrgyz ordo was forced to close following an April 28, 2003 court decision to confiscate the paper’s property and fine Kyrgyz ordo about 350,000 som (approximately U.S. $8,000) for defaming a customs official.

Several weeks later, a court ruled in favor of Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev’s claim that the popular Moia Stolitsa-Novosti newspaper had insulted his honor and dignity. A Bishkek court ordered the confiscation of the paper’s print run and property and levied a fine of more than 500,000 som (approximately U.S. $12,000). Moia Stolitsa-Novosti was known in Kyrgyzstan for its hard-hitting reporting on government corruption and has been the target of thirty-one lawsuits—many instigated by government officials—in its year and a half of existence. Now bankrupt, Moia Stolitsa-Novosti announced that it would cease publication and closed on June 11.

Three of the four remaining major independent newspapers have also been the subjects of civil suits by government officials.

Several suspicious violent incidents this year seemed aimed at silencing the independent press. In January 2003, unknown assailants attacked Moia Stolitsa-Novosti journalist Alexandra Chernik. Police have failed to identify the attackers. During the first week of June 2003, unknown people set fire to the parked car of Moia Stolitsa-Novosti’s editor-in-chief, Alexander Kim.

NGOs
Government officials have jeopardized the work of nongovernmental organizations that work on human rights and civil society issues. Rights defenders, including members of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights, which has branches throughout the country, reported intimidating police surveillance and numerous threats of arrest.

Applying the same method used to silence the press, Prime Minister Tanaev recently brought a defamation suit against the deputy of the board of directors of an election-monitoring and civic education group, the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, for his letter to the editor published in Moia Stolitsa.

Law enforcement agents threatened Natalia Ablova, a well-respected human rights defender, after she said in an interview on May 6, 2003, that President Akaev should not run for reelection. Two days later Ablova received a threatening phone call from a National Security Service officer who said, “Two bags of hexogen will be enough to explode your house.”

In a separate incident, an unknown man attacked rights defender Dmitrii Kabak on May 3, 2003, just prior to his departure for a trip to Denmark to participate in a human rights training course. The assailant hit him on the head, causing a concussion and other injuries. Kabak left the country as scheduled. Kabak had been actively monitoring the case of Galina Kaisarova, a private attorney and member of the Bishkek Helsinki Group who is being sued for a statement she made while defending a client in court.

The Kaisarova case is unprecedented in Kyrgyzstan and has disturbing implications for the rights to freedom of expression and fair trial. Kaisarova had been defending a government official on fraud charges brought by another official. In 2001, during cross-examination of the plaintiff, Kaisarova allegedly asked, “So who’s the con man?” The plaintiff, an advisor to the prime minister, said that he had been insulted by the question and filed a case against Kaisarova. She now faces criminal and civil defamation charges that carry a prison sentence and a hefty fine. An OSCE representative was reportedly denied entry to observe the trial on June 3. The next hearing is scheduled for July 3. In addition, the Ministry of Justice had indicated that her license to practice law might be revoked, but by mid-June appeared to have reversed that decision under international pressure.

Freedom of Assembly
The government of Kyrgyzstan has repeatedly violated citizens’ right to freedom of assembly. In February 2003, the country’s constitution was amended to state that all public meetings, demonstrations, hunger strikes, and other forms of assembly would have to be announced. While the state is within its rights to require notification of public demonstrations, the Kyrgyz government to date has adopted no subsequent legislation or regulations specifying the agency that should receive notifications or the form notification should take. This gap has allowed officials arbitrarily to interpret the limitations on the right to freedom of assembly and detain and fine at least two human rights defenders in May 2003. The government also attempted to silence calls for justice for past police abuse by denying people from outside the capital their right to freedom of assembly in Bishkek.

The Aksy events of March 2002 marked one of the worst incidents of excessive use of lethal force and violations of freedom of assembly in Kyrgyzstan’s recent history, but there has not been a full accounting of it. On March 17 and 18, 2002, police fired on demonstrators in the Aksy district of Jalal Abad province in southern Kyrgyzstan, killing five and injuring dozens. The government vowed to bring those responsible to justice, and was commended by members of the international community, including the E.U. at the 2002 E.U.-Kyrgyzstan Cooperation Council, for allegedly having done so. However, efforts toward accountability to date amount to little more than window dressing. The government refused to file wrongful death and injury charges against the officers involved and their superiors. Instead, seven police officers were charged with exceeding their authority; four were sentenced to up to three years in prison and the other three were acquitted. No charges were filed regarding the dozens of alleged instances of police torture and mistreatment of demonstrators who were detained during and following the March standoff.

In November 2002, relatives of the Aksy victims traveled to Bishkek to lodge complaints with the government regarding the lack of justice for their loved ones. When they arrived in Bishkek, police piled them onto buses and forced them to return to their villages. When a group of thirty-five female relatives returned to Bishkek in May 2003 to request a meeting with President Akaev on the same issue, police immediately detained them for ten hours.

Also in May, police detained Topchubek Turgunaliev and Tursunbek Akunov, who are both opposition activists and human rights defenders, for about twelve hours for holding unsanctioned public gatherings. Akunov had been with about a dozen other people holding protest posters outside parliament when he was detained. Turgunaliev had been walking down the street heading toward the spot where the women from Aksy were being detained when police took him into custody as well. Both men were fined.

Benchmarks for progress
The government of Kyrgyzstan should be required to take the following steps to demonstrate compliance with its obligations under international human rights law and the human rights and democracy clause of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the E.U. and Kyrgyzstan.

• Release political prisoner Feliks Kulov.

• Launch an independent investigation into the charges against Ar Namys party member Tynchtyk Dulatov.

• Follow a recommendation made by the organization Freedom House to declare a moratorium on arbitrary civil suits launched by government officials against journalists and independent media outlets.

• Introduce legislation rescinding criminal defamation and organize a series of round-table discussions with parliamentarians to discuss the need for this reform.

• End the criminal defamation proceedings brought against Galina Kaisarova.

• Ensure a thorough police investigation into the beating of journalist Alexandra Chernik and the arson attack on Alexander Kim’s car.

• Provide the OSCE or another competent international organization with access and all necessary conditions to conduct an independent international investigation into the use of armed force against demonstrators in Aksy in March 2002.

• Issue guidelines to courts clarifying the notification requirement for public assembly, ensuring that these are consistent with the rights provided under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and that the guidelines do not become a restrictive licensing regime.

• Following the example of the E.U., issue standing invitations to all U.N. special mechanisms to visit Kyrgyzstan.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns. We hope that you will find these suggestions useful and wish you productive meetings.