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DE RUEHTA #1068/01 1750708
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 240708Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5668
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 1689
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001068 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/RPM, SCA/CEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM OSCE KZ
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  EMBASSY INPUT FOR OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION 
IMPLEMENTATION MEETING 
 
REF: STATE 59944 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (U) This cable responds to reftel's request for post's input on 
Kazakhstan for demarches in advance of the OSCE Human Dimension 
Implementation Meeting (HDIM). 
 
DEMOCRATIC REFORM 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The September 26 - October 9 HDIM is the last one before 
Kazakhstan takes over the OSCE chairmanship in 2010.  As such, it is 
an important opportunity to encourage further progress on key 
democracy and human rights concerns.  When Kazakhstan was selected 
to be 2010 OSCE chairman at the November 2007 Madrid OSCE 
Ministerial meeting, Foreign Minister Tazhin promised his government 
would amend Kazakhstan's election, political party, and media laws 
in accordance with OSCE and ODIHR recommendations.  The amendments 
were signed into law in February.  While key civil society figures 
criticized the legislative changes for not going far enough, they 
were nevertheless a step in the right direction.  We should 
encourage Kazakhstan to take additional steps and to continue 
cooperating with the OSCE and ODIHR in bringing its laws in line 
with OSCE standards.  One specific democratic reform we should 
recommend is the establishment of independent election commissions 
composed of representatives of all political parties. 
 
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Kazakhstan's diverse print media includes many newspapers 
sharply critical of the government and of President Nazarbayev 
personally, but the broadcast media is closely aligned with the 
government and provides very little coverage of the political 
opposition.  Amendments to Kazakhstan's media legislation adopted in 
February eased some of the registration requirements for the print 
media, but journalists and editors remain subject to criminal 
penalties, including prison time, for libel.  In February, an 
appellate court ordered the opposition newspaper "Taszhargan" to pay 
a 30 million tenge (approximately $200,000) damage award for libel 
to a parliamentarian, increasing ten-fold the damages imposed by a 
lower court.  Neither the paper nor the journalist involved in the 
case has the means to pay the fine.  The paper has ceased 
publication, though the editor plans to re-open it under a different 
name.  We should urge Kazakhstan to fully decriminalize libel and to 
ensure that civil libel judgments are not so punitive as to force 
the closure of media outlets. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) We remain concerned about a draft Internet law that is 
currently being considered in parliament.  Although the latest text 
represents an improvement over the original version, it retains a 
number of problematic provisions.  In particular, the legislation in 
its current form would reclassify all Internet sites as "media 
outlets," making them subject to Kazakhstan's media law.  It would 
also broaden the definition of "dissemination of a media product" to 
include posting information anywhere on the Internet -- a provision 
that civil activists believe would open the door for the government 
to legally block any Internet site, including web-chats and blogs. 
In addition, the draft legislation includes provisions that would 
make it easier to shut down media outlets for legal violations 
during elections and violations related to inter-ethnic relations. 
If parliament passes the legislation, we should urge that President 
Nazarbayev veto it, or send it to the Constitutional Council (Court) 
for that body to review its constitutionality. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The editor of "Alma-Ata Info" newspaper, Ramazan 
Yesergepov, is currently on trial for publishing an article that 
contained information from classified internal memos of the 
Committee for National Security (KNB), which he allegedly received 
from a contact within the KNB.  Yesergepov has been charged with 
divulging and disseminating state secrets leading to "grave 
consequences," a crime which carries a maximum penalty of eight 
years in prison.  Civil society activists have come out in defense 
of Yesergepov, arguing that the KNB documents should not have been 
classified in the first place. 
 
ASTANA 00001068  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
FREEDOM OF RELIGION 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  At this time last year, the Kazakhstani parliament was 
considering a package of amendments to the country's religion law 
which was aimed at asserting greater government authority over 
so-called "non-traditional" religious groups, such as evangelical 
Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, and Scientologists. 
 At the urging of the U.S. government, our like-minded partners, and 
Kazakhstani civil society leaders, President Nazarbayev sent the 
legislation to the Constitutional Council for review.  The Council 
ultimately ruled the legislation was unconstitutional. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) "Non-traditional" religious groups nevertheless continue 
to report pressure from the authorities.  In January, an Almaty 
district court found Elizaveta Drencheva, a Unification Church 
member and Russian citizen, guilty on charges of "instilling a sense 
of inferiority in citizens based on their tribal association" and 
sentenced her to two years in jail.  The case was based on several 
religious lectures given by Drencheva in which she articulated the 
Unification Church's teachings.  In March, an appellate court upheld 
the guilty verdict, but vacated Drencheva's prison sentence.  Two 
local branches of the Church of Scientology are currently under 
investigation on allegations they have illegally engaged in business 
activities.  Some "non-traditional" religious groups, including 
evangelical Protestants and Ahmadi Muslims, have reported that KNB 
agents attend their religious gatherings and sometimes tape the 
proceedings.  We should stress to the government that the problems 
encountered by the "non-traditional" groups are inconsistent with 
Kazakhstan's tradition of religious tolerance. 
 
FAGIN