This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ALMATY 000746 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE), DRL/PHD (PDAVIES) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2015 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: DAS KENNEDY'S MEETING WITH KARLYGASH 
ZHAKIYANOVA 
 
REF: A) 04 ALMATY 4314 B) ALMATY 545 AND PREVIOUS C) 
     ALMATY 24 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  In a February 5 meeting in Almaty, EUR DAS 
Laura Kennedy and Karlygash Zhakiyanova discussed the state 
of jailed Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) leader 
Galymzhan Zhakiyanov's health and increasing pressure on him 
by settlement colony authorities.  Zhakiyanova handed over a 
letter to President Bush asking for his attention to her 
husband's plight.  In the meeting with DAS Kennedy and an 
earlier conversation with POEC chief, Zhakiyanova detailed 
the growing split within DCK as a result of exiled party 
leader Mukhtar Ablyazov's insistence on provoking conflict 
with the GOK.  End summary. 
 
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Conditions of Zhakiyanov's Detention 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (C) On February 5, EUR DAS Laura Kennedy met with 
Karlygash Zhakiyanova, wife of jailed DCK leader Galymzhan 
Zhakiyanov, in Almaty.  The Ambassador, DCM, and POEC chief 
also participated.  Zhakiyanova indicated that her husband's 
mood was good and that the conditions of his detention at the 
settlement colony in Shiderty were somewhat better than when 
he was in a regular prison.  Due to increasing pressure from 
the authorities, however, conditions were deteriorating. 
Zhakiyanov was no longer allowed to meet with visitors in the 
house he rents in Shiderty; instead, he is required to have 
all meetings in the colony administration building. 
 
¶3. (C) Zhakiyanova told DAS Kennedy that on January 21, 
Zhakiyanov had been accused of missing work and placed in a 
special punishment cell.  His clothes were taken away, and he 
was given only a thin robe to wear in the unheated, very 
small concrete cell.  In an earlier meeting with POEC chief, 
Zhakiyanova explained that her husband had left the 
settlement colony with the permission of his employer to 
obtain painkiller for a toothache.  She claimed that colony 
officials had pressured the employer to state that Zhakiyanov 
had left without permission, and had punished him on that 
basis.  Zhakiyanova called Security Council chairman Bulat 
Utemuratov, whom she described as an old acquaintance, for 
help late on January 21.  Due to his intervention, Zhakiyanov 
was released the evening of January 22.  Zhakiyanova said 
that the experience had caused him to fall ill, but he was 
now recovering. 
 
¶4. (C) Zhakiyanova told DAS Kennedy that her own health had 
suffered due to her husband's situation and her ceaseless 
work to dispute the "violations" that had been assessed while 
in Shiderty (Ref A).  Authorities have threatened to return 
Zhakiyanov to prison to serve his full seven-year term if 
there is one more violation.   Zhakiyanova had been 
hospitalized in Almaty around the New Year for heart 
problems. 
 
------------------------ 
Appeal to President Bush 
------------------------ 
 
¶5. (C) Zhakiyanova said that she and her husband had noted 
President Bush's expression of support for political 
prisoners around the world during his inauguration speech. 
She gave DAS Kennedy a letter to the President outlining her 
husband's plight, including a copy of a signed photo of the 
couple with then-Governor Bush, taken during a 1995 visit to 
Texas when her husband was akim (appointed governor) of the 
Semipalatinsk region.  DAS Kennedy agreed to convey the 
letter to the White House.  (Note:  Pouched to EUR/CACEN on 
February 7.) 
 
¶6. (C)  Zhakiyanova emphasized to DAS Kennedy that her 
husband was not seeking early release (at present he is 
scheduled to be released in October 2005 on good behavior) or 
political rehabilitation.  He is asking only to be 
transferred to Almaty so that he can live with his family, as 
the law provides in such cases.  DAS Kennedy noted that 
Zhakiyanov's case had been one of the first matters she had 
dealt with as DAS, and expressed hope that the GOK would 
relent. 
 
---------------------------- 
Discord among the Opposition 
---------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Noting that she had recently met with the Opposition 
Coordination Council (OCC) to discuss her husband's 
situation, Zhakiyanova informed DAS Kennedy that there had 
 
 
not been agreement on what approach to take.  She expressed 
frustration that opposition leaders claim to be concerned 
with the fate of the country, but are not interested in 
working on the "small steps" - such as advocating for her 
husband - that might lead to progress. 
 
¶8. (C) In a February 3 meeting with POEC chief, Zhakiyanova 
indicated that she disagreed with the OCC's decision not to 
participate in the work of the National Commission on 
Democratization and Civil Society (NKVD).  She expressed 
frustration that the opposition put forward unrealistic 
demands, including the invalidation of September 
parliamentary elections and her husband's release, as 
prerequisites for taking part in the NKVD. She thought that 
opposition leaders were using her husband's name unfairly as 
a slogan.  If opposition forces were really interested in 
helping him, she said, they would make his transfer to Almaty 
the sole condition for participation.  By including her 
husband's release in a list of unreasonable demands, such 
leaders were only providing an excuse for increased 
government pressure on Zhakiyanov. 
 
¶9. (C) Zhakiyanova told POEC chief that the December 28 
motion to liquidate DCK (Ref B) had provoked a true split in 
the party between supporters of her husband and those who 
sided with current party leader Assylbek Kozhakhmetov and DCK 
funder Mukhtar Ablyazov.  Ablyazov has lived in Moscow since 
being released from prison here; he exerts his influence 
within DCK via Kozhakhmetov and press spokesman Vladimir 
Kozlov.  The December 11 statement that provoked the 
liquidation motion had been Ablyazov's and Kozlov's doing, 
with Kozhakhmetov's support.  Others in the party had opposed 
taking such a harsh approach; some had suggested specifying 
that the call for civil disobedience should be qualified 
"within the framework of the Constitution," to underscore 
that they were talking about lawful actions such as hunger 
strikes. 
 
¶10. (C) Zhakiyanova stated that at a DCK political council 
meeting after the motion was filed, Kozlov announced that 
"Ablyazov pays the bills and you're therefore going to do 
things his way."  He then stated that Senator Zauresh 
Battalova, Petr Svoik, and Gulzhan Yergeliyeva should be 
kicked out of the party.  At another political council 
meeting in late January, according to Zhakiyanova, the 
decision was taken to exclude Svoik and Yergeliyeva, but not 
Battalova since she is DCK's only member of Parliament. 
Commenting sarcastically that "wife of the party founder" is 
not an official position, Kozlov had even objected to 
Zhakiyanova being allowed to speak at the DCK meeting. 
Zhakiyanova stated that Ablyazov and his supporters had 
planned the January 29 unauthorized DCK rally in Almaty as a 
way to create conflict with the authorities by provoking mass 
arrests; they had been disappointed that only eight 
participants were arrested. 
 
¶11. (C) When asked why Ablyazov was leading the party on a 
collision course with the GOK, Zhakiyanova said that there 
are numerous theories.  One is that, since cooperation with 
the KNB was a condition of his early release from prison, 
Ablyazov is doing the GOK's bidding to splinter and weaken 
the opposition.  The other theory is that Ablyazov is angling 
for the 24% stake in Bank TuranAlem (BTA) that became 
available when BTA president Erzhan Tatishev was killed on 
December 19 in a suspicious hunting accident (Ref C). 
Zhakiyanova told POEC chief that Tatishev and Ablyazov had 
long-standing financial ties; Tatishev had helped Ablyazov 
liquidate his assets and move them offshore after his arrest. 
 
¶12. (U) DAS Kennedy did not have the opportunity to clear 
this cable. 
 
 
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