FANFARE, CRITICISM FOR OSCE SUMMIT
Moscow Times
Nov 30 2010
Russia
ASTANA, Kazakhstan – Heads of state flying to Kazakhstan’s showpiece
capital for a security summit this week will be met with fanfare as
Astana shrugs off critics of its year at the helm of Europe’s top
security and rights watchdog.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected at the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s first summit since 1999,
the crowning achievement of Kazakhstan’s year as the first former
Soviet republic to chair the 56-nation body.
The OSCE says it aims to address urgent problems such as terrorism
and trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, as well as protracted
conflicts in the Eurasian region and Afghanistan.
The Astana summit on Wednesday and Thursday is also a source of pride
for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run his oil-rich
country for more than 20 years and is keen to display his brainchild –
the fast-rising capital on the windswept steppe.
“First and foremost, the OSCE summit is a foreign policy advertisement
project and President Nazarbayev’s personal public relations project,”
said political analyst Dosym Satpayev.
“He is very ambitious and is keen to position himself not as a
regional but, rather, a world leader,” he said. “The presentation
of the new capital – the president’s pet and pricey toy – also means
great promotion for him personally.”
The OSCE has not held a heads of state summit since its Istanbul
meeting 11 years ago. A spokeswoman for the Vienna-based body said
members would discuss the reaffirmation of the OSCE’s key commitments
to regional security.
President Dmitry Medvedev will attend, the Kremlin said. German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Herman Van
Rompuy are also expected in Astana.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia are expected to attend and
may discuss a long-awaited peace deal for the breakaway region of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Amid unprecedented security measures, Kazakh television and print
media have posted splashy advertisements of the summit, calling it
“a great achievement of all people of Kazakhstan.”
But, souring the official pomp, human rights bodies say Kazakhstan
has reneged on democracy and rights commitments that it promised to
implement during its year as chair of a group dedicated to democratic
progress as well as security.
“We are deeply convinced that Kazakhstan has not made good on all those
obligations which it undertook when acquiring the right to chair the
OSCE,” said Vyacheslav Abramov, deputy head of the U.S.-based rights
watchdog Freedom House.
“No progress has been made in any of the spheres in which Kazakhstan
pledged to conduct democratic reforms,” he said.
Criticism of Nazarbayev remains taboo at home. The parliament this
year adopted a law that bestows upon him “Leader of the Nation”
status and toughens punishment for insulting his dignity in public
or for desecrating his pictures.
The veteran leader neither signed the law nor vetoed it.
Last year, Nazarbayev endorsed a bill allowing officials to block
Internet sites containing information deemed illegal. At least one
journalist and one human rights activist are in jail, while authorities
have closed or fined some critical newspapers.
Officials respond that Nazarbayev’s rule is softer than that in other
Central Asian states. They say the country has preserved political
stability and multinational harmony in a region where Islamist
militancy and ethnic violence is rife.
Higher living standards are also cited by the leaders of Central Asia’s
largest economy and oil producer. Nazarbayev has overseen more than
$150 billion in foreign investment and implemented textbook reforms
of banks and the pension system.
Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Roman Vasilenko said the West had
not called Astana’s democratic credentials into question. Only the
speed of democratic change has been debated.
“The two principles of Kazakhstan’s approach are: ‘Economics first,
politics second’ and ‘Evolution, not revolution,'” he said. “As
we have seen, these sane and justified principles have ensured our
country’s stability and economic growth.
“We in Kazakhstan believe that you can’t build a democracy on an
empty stomach.”
From: A. Papazian