Embassy Row

By James Morrison - The Washington Times - Sunday, July 25, 2010

WARNING KAZAKHSTAN

The chairman of a key congressional human rights panel is complaining that Kazakhstan is failing to promote democracy as promised when the Central Asian nation won U.S. support to lead a major European civil rights council.

“We have significant concerns about media freedom and political freedom in Kazakhstan,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s president since 1990, promised free and fair elections and respect for human rights when he campaigned for his country to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which represents 56 nations in Europe and Central Asia.

The OSCE has never certified a Kazakh election as meeting democratic standards but, nevertheless, awarded Kazakhstan the chairmanship for 2010. Chairing the OSCE gave Kazakhstan a level of prestige within the organization.

Mr. Cardin, in a statement last week, appeared to reluctantly endorse the OSCE’s decision to hold a summit meeting in Kazakhstan before the end of the year.

“We continue to call on Kazakhstan … to respect all its OSCE commitments and to fulfill the promises it made regarding democratic reforms,” he said, adding that Mr. Nazarbayev must remove criminal penalties for libel and allow opposition political parties to participate in elections.

Mr. Cardin also criticized Kazakhstan for convicting Kazakh human rights activist Yvgeny Zhovtis on manslaughter charges for killing a pedestrian in a traffic accident last year. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Tuesday

• Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition politician from Kyrgyzstan, who testifies on instability in the Central Asian nation at a hearing of the congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe at 2:30 p.m. in Room 210 of the Cannon House Office Building.

Wednesday

• Lawrencia Adams-Simpson of the Ghana Research and Advocacy Program and David Skully, a professor at Poland’s Jagiellonian University. They discuss African agricultural exports to the United States in a forum sponsored by the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council.

Thursday

• Munir Akram, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations; Pandit Jatinder Bakhshi of the Jammu Kashmir Forum for Peace and Reconciliation; Ambassador Yusuf Buch, a former senior adviser to the U.N. secretary-general from Kashmir; Farhan Chak of Qatar University; Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference; Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider of Azad Kashmir; Sen. Mushahid Hussain, the secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid; Attiya Inaytullah, a member of the Pakistan National Assembly; Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States; Mohammad Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front; Rita Manchanda of the South Asia Forum for Human Rights in Nepal; Zahid G. Mohammad, editor in chief of the Kashmir Times; Kuldip Nayar, former Indian ambassador to Britain; Rajinder Sachar, former chief justice of the Delhi High Court; Mohammad Afzal Sindhu, state minister of Law and Justice in Islamabad; and Ahmed Bilal Soofi, president of Pakistan’s Research Society of International Law. They attend the 11th International Kashmir Peace Conference on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Room 345 of the Cannon House Office Building and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Room 2168 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The conference is organized by the Kashmir American Council and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers.