Grotesque Human Rights violations in Kazakh prisons uncovered by delegation led by Joe Higgins MEP

international | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Tuesday September 14, 2010 15:09 by Michael O'Brien - Office of Joe Higgins MEP (Socialist Party) michaelobrien at socialistparty dot net 150 Pearse Street , Dublin 2 087 2400331

Seeks meeting with Minister Michéal Martin regarding the OSCE conference due to take place in Kazakhstan to which Taoiseach will be invited

Press conference:
Buswells Hotel
Wednesday 15th September 2010 at 11am

FROM PRESS RELEASE

Repressive governments around the world go to great lengths to prevent the truth about the brutality of their regimes coming to public knowledge.

The worst will simply have their death squads murder citizens who speak out or have them rot in jail for long periods. Others who try to put on a more democratic face use variants of these tactics.

Last week, I was personally involved in one such episode, in this case deployed by the government of Kazakhstan. I was delegated by the United Left Group in the European Parliament to go there and meet groups of workers, human rights defenders and other organisations representing ordinary people suffering under the repressive regime of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

A lawyer and well known campaigner, Vadim Kuramshin, had arranged to meet us in the city of Karaganda on Monday, August 30th. Vadim had been in jail for three years essentially for exposing corruption by local authorities in his home area. In prison, he was subjected to horrific abuse and witnessed widespread brutality against other prisoners. He wanted to give our delegation his testimony and appeal to us to report to the European Parliament the horrors inflicted on prisoners in Kazakhstan as part of a campaign to end this abuse.

Vadim Kuramshin never made it to meet us however. Two days beforehand, he was arrested by the police who attempted to frame him with having assaulted somebody. Not being able to produce any evidence, they accused him of verbal abuse and he was sentenced to ten days in jail with immediate effect. This would mean that he would be in prison for the duration of our visit and would not be able to give us his direct testimony.

.........

In June, a law was passed essentially making him President for Life and prohibiting any criticism of him or his family. Election rules are rigged so that only his party is represented in parliament. There is routine obstruction of critical media, of trade unions which try to be independent of the state, routine arrest and jailing for anybody who organises protests or strikes.

Disgracefully, in view of this brutal regime, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) allowed Kazakhstan to chair the organisation in 2010. This body is supposed to monitor the implementation of human rights! Now, however, all over Kazakhstan, massive posters have photos of Nazarbayev celebrating the OSCE chairship. Ireland scandalously is going along with this cynical exercise.

The full text can be found at the link below

see http://www.joehiggins.eu/2010/09/kazakhstan-and-the-cyn...osce/ for background information