Republic of Kazakstan

Head of state: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Head of government: Kasymzhomart Tokayev (replaced Nurlan Balgimbayev in October)
Capital: Astana
Population: 16.6 million
Official language: Kazak
Death penalty: retentionist
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol

Prison conditions continued to be poor. There were complaints that presidential and parliamentary elections had not been free and fair and that opposition candidates had been barred from taking part. Under pressure from China, Kazakstan forcibly returned at least three ethnic Uighurs to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to face charges of "ethnic separatism".

Background

Monitoring the parliamentary elections in October, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that the process had been "severely marred by widespread, pervasive and illegal interference by the executive authorities". Several opposition candidates gained positions in the Majlis (lower house of parliament) but most were won by the pro-President parties Otan and the Civic Party. The OSCE also criticized the January presidential election, in which the incumbent President Nazarbayev won a landslide victory after banning his main opponent for having allegedly committed minor offences under the electoral system.

Prison conditions

Claims by the government that prison conditions had improved since the adoption of a new criminal code were refuted by released detainees. The President's legal adviser, Igor Rogov, stated in October, "In Kazakstan prisoners lose everything, including their health and lives", and called for alternative punishments to be introduced.

  • Madel Ismailov, who was released from Petropavlovsk prison camp in February, described it as one of the worst detention centres in the country. He alleged that prisoners were deprived of basic rights, including access to medical treatment, that hygiene facilities were grossly inadequate, and that personal belongings were regularly confiscated by prison personnel. Arbitrary beatings with rubber truncheons were a common punishment. According to Madel Ismailov, prisoners were frightened to complain about their conditions and suicides or attempted suicides were common.

Death penalty

The death sentence imposed on Vladimir Nikolayevich Kardash was commuted in April to 25 years' imprisonment as a result of presidential clemency.

On 2 November the Regional Court in Aktyubinsk sentenced two men to death after convicting them of murdering 10 people during robberies carried out at a summer community outside the city. Six accomplices of the men reportedly received prison terms of between seven and 22 years.

Forcible deportations

AI became increasingly concerned that the authorities were complying with China's request to some Central Asian republics to help China fight what it terms "ethnic separatism" in the XUAR.

  • Three ethnic Uighurs, Hemit Memet, Kasim Mahpir and Ilyas Zordun, were forcibly returned in February to China. They had been arrested a few months earlier while trying to cross into Kazakstan from China and were subsequently reported to have sought political asylum. Posters had been distributed in the XUAR indicating that they were wanted for separatist political activities. Reports were received in June that they had been transferred to incommunicado detention in Gulja. There was concern that they might be tortured or face the death penalty.

AI country report

  • Concerns in Europe, January – June 1999: Kazakstan (AI Index: EUR 01/002/99)

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