In this issue:
President Nazarbayev, Recalling FDR’s Four Freedoms, Says Kazakhstan Enjoys Them Today
Kazakh Environmentalist Wins Goldman Prize
Majilis Deputy Calls on Gov’t to Help Victims of Nuclear Testing
Corruption Targeted by President
Kazakhstan Finishes Third at First Islamic Solidarity Games
Universities from Arizona, Almaty Become Partners
SHOPPING:
I need a…--- Magan kerek…
a shirt --- zheide; pair of pants --- shalbar; pair of shoes --- ayak kiym; a dress --- koeilek; a hat --- kalpak; a tie --- galstuk; a belt --- taspa
President Nazarbayev, Recalling FDR’s Four Freedoms,
Says Kazakhstan Enjoys Them Today
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, recalling the famous phrase from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said Kazakhstan has ensured those four fundamental freedoms which make democracy live.
In his keynote address to the IV Annual Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty on April 21, the President recalled “four essential human freedoms” called for by Roosevelt in his 1941 speech to the U.S. Congress: freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God each in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
Speaking to a largely news media audience, President Nazarbayev said: “We ensured freedom of religion, establishing interreligious harmony. We ensured freedom from want, having successfully carried out economic reforms. We ensured freedom from fear by bringing stability and national security. We ensured freedom of speech and expression, creating all the necessary conditions for free functioning of the news media.”
He added: “We created an open and free society; that is the major achievement of Kazakhstan’s democracy.”
In his address, the President recited the economic successes of Kazakhstan over 13 years of independence, including a fivefold growth of income of the people and a GDP per capita growth from US$700 to an expected US$3,000 this year. He also noted the more than 2,000 news media outlets of which 80 percent are privately owned, and the fact that more than 1.5 million people in Kazakhstan regularly use the Internet.
President Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan is looking forward optimistically to its future, planning to raise GDP per capita to 5,800 dollars by 2010. “We will simultaneously pursue political liberalization aimed at improving state management, introducing local self-government, reforming our judicial system, and developing civil society.” He called on the news media to support the continued growth of democracy in Kazakhstan.
Retired U.S. General Wesley Clark and Richard Perle, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, will speak on the last day of the event. Also participating from the U.S. are Ariel Cohen from the Heritage Foundation, Zeyno Baran from the Nixon Center, and Sergei Gretsky from the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department.
Overall, several hundred media executives, reporters and experts are taking part in the forum whose focus is on the role of news media in an increasingly globalized and interdependent world.
Kazakh Environmentalist Wins Goldman Prize
Kaisha Atakhanova, a Kazakh environmentalist who energized a campaign by 100 nongovernmental organizations in Kazakhstan to block the commercial importation and storage of nuclear waste, has been awarded the 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize.
Atakhanova, a biologist specializing in the genetic effects of radiation, is founder and director of the Karaganda Ecological Center, also known as EcoCenter. In 2001, she launched a public campaign to sink draft legislation which would have allowed commercial importation of nuclear waste into Kazakhstan. She won, and in 2003 the Parliament voted down the bill.
Kazakhstan, which was home to the Soviet nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk, had endured almost 500 nuclear explosions at the site with a total impact equal to 2,500 Hiroshima sized bombs. More than 1.5 million people are believed to have suffered from the effects of radiation, producing high rates of cancer and birth defects. Lands the size of Germany are contaminated with radiation to one level or another.
The original reasoning for the proposal to bring in foreign nuclear waste to a country which already had 237 million tons of its own was the US$40 billion it could bring over several years which could be used to clean up the contamination left by the Soviets. Thousands of people across Kazakhstan, energized in a grassroots campaign, wanted none of it and got their way.
Atakhanova became one of the group of six individuals selected by an international jury from across world for the 16th annual Goldman Environmental Prize. The prize, including US$125,000, is the world’s largest for grassroots environmentalists and is sometimes referred to as the “environmentalist Nobel prize”.
The awards were presented in San Francisco on April 18, and two days later the National Geographic Society in Washington hosted a special program in the U.S. capital honoring the recipients.
Speaking at the Washington event, Mrs. Atakhanova said she and her colleagues in other Kazakh NGOs call themselves “Democracy in Action” and are keen to continue their work.
Moments later, visibly moved and joined by her husband, she said she had “unbelievable feelings of responsibility and pride for herself and her country.”
Majilis Deputy Calls on Gov’t to Help Victims of Nuclear Testing
Nurtai Sabilyanov, member of the Majilis Finance and Budget Committee and the majority Otan political party, has called on the Government to provide more assistance to the people of Semipalatinsk affected by four decades of Soviet nuclear testing.
Speaking in the Parliament on April 20, Sabilyanov said many people around the former nuclear test site still have not received monetary compensation due to them because of insufficient funding. He noted the one off compensation for damage caused by nuclear tests was envisioned by the laws of Kazakhstan.
Sabilyanov stressed “the current economic upswing of our country allows ensuring the social protection of citizens who suffered from nuclear tests.” He estimated approximately 13 billion tenge (US$100 million) would be required for payments, and called on the Government to include this amount in next year’s budget.
Kairat Kelimbetov, Minister of Economy and Budget Planning, speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, on April 15, said his ministry is currently drafting a medium term program of support for these affected people and regions which would provide government funding to them for 5 to 10 years. The program is expected to be introduced in the budget proposal for 2006, which the Parliament is expected to take up in September.
U.S. Congressman Eni F. H. Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) during an earlier visit to Kazakhstan called for U.S. support for this type of program.
Corruption Targeted by President
President Nazarbayev signed a decree April 15 introducing new, wide ranging, measures to fight corruption in Kazakhstan.
The decree, which follows the thrust of the February 18 state of the nation address, requires the Government to develop a wide variety of measures aimed at reducing social basis for corruption and introducing tougher control mechanisms for government officials.
Among the spheres to be affected by upcoming changes will be privatization, decision making processes in government procurement and taxation policies, exploitation of natural resources and land issues.
The Government will have to work out regulations reducing licensed types of activity and simplifying processes to obtain licenses. Another important development will be the introduction of “one window” principle in 2006 to provide integrated services for the people at one location instead of having to visit many government offices.
The Prosecutor General’s office has been requested to do the paperwork for the establishment of a financial intelligence unit by the end of this year and develop draft legislation to counter money laundering.
Other proposed measures include a Code of Conduct for public officials and unified system of qualifying tests, as well as barring public officials with a history of past corruption from holding office.
The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court have been asked to prepare legislation introducing jury trials and to work towards strengthening the role of defense attorneys.
The decree follows the law on the fight against corruption of 1998 and other acts designed to fight this scourge.
Kazakhstan Finishes Third at First Islamic Solidarity Games
Athletes from Kazakhstan took the third place in the medal count at the first ever Islamic Solidarity Games which finished on April 20in Saudi Arabia.
Seventy athletes from Kazakhstan participated in seven of the 14 events, including swimming, track and field, diving, water polo, karate, weight lifting and taekwondo. The Kazakh athletes took a total of 26 medals, including 13 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze.
Iran topped the standings with 23 gold medals and the Egyptian national team took the second with 13 gold medals.
Universities from Arizona, Almaty Become Partners
The University of Arizona and the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, signed an International Memorandum of Agreement opening the way for wider educational exchange. Following is a story by Natasha Bhuyan from the Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat of April 12, 2005:
The UA entered a partnership with a university in Tucson’s “Sister City” Almaty yesterday, further solidifying the relationship between the two cities established in 1989.
President Peter Likins signed an International Memorandum of Agreement with Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a move that will promote an exchange of faculty, students and research collaborations.
Al-Farabi, located in central Asia, will join the list of more than 260 universities worldwide that the UA has partnerships with, including institutions in countries such as Italy, China, Argentina, Tanzania and Egypt.
Kirk Simmons, executive director of UA International Affairs, said while some of the partnerships place an emphasis on an area of study, the partnership with Al-Farabi will encompass multidisciplinary studies.
This will allow students from a range of interests to study abroad, in what Simmons referred to as a “body swap.”
A unique aspect of the memorandum of agreement is students can study at partner universities and pay the tuition of their home institution, a clause which is particularly advantageous to UA students since many schools have higher tuition, Simmons said.
While students can still study abroad at institutions without UA sponsorships, Simmons said student exchanges through IMOA institutions are half the price of traditional study abroad programs.
Jerry M. Gary, chairman of Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee, said Al-Farabi excels in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, economics, history, philosophy, philology and juridical sciences.
Although research is competitive, Simmons said collaborations have not been a problem with partnerships in the past since the research became faculty-driven.
“Relationships are not imposed by faculty, they are initiated by faculty,” Simmons said. “So (faculty) pursue relationships which are mutually beneficial.”
The only time intellectual property has been an issue is when dealing with politically sensitive countries. The UA is in negotiations with universities in Iran and Syria because there are restrictions on intellectual property, Simmons said.
Barbara Chinworth, vice chairwoman of Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee, said Tucson already has strong ties to Almaty, Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world.
Already four students from Kazakhstan are studying at the UA.
Bakhyt Baikenova, a non-degree seeking graduate student and visiting scholar for linguistics, said she was surprised at the wealth of information at the UA and has met friendly students as well as faculty members who have positive attitudes.
Akmaral Mukanova, a graduate student in English and linguistics, said UA students who study at Al-Farabi can expect a lush, green campus situated in a cosmopolitan city draped with a backdrop of snowcapped mountains.
Kazakh cuisine is heavy on meat and dairy, with horse meat and milk staples in their diets, Mukanova said.
The only advice Ali Yuldashev, a computer science sophomore from Almaty, has for UA students who want to participate in an exchange is “don’t show off.”
Likins, who signed the IMOA both in English and Russian, said international exchanges are less about research and more about the people.
“I hope we’ve enriched your education, but I know you’ve enriched our experience,” Likins said to the international students.
Things to Watch:
- The IV Annual Eurasian Media Forum opened in Almaty today and will last until April 23.
- President Nazarbayev will attend the pipeline filling ceremony for Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan line to take place in mid-May in Baku, Azerbaijan. U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman is also expected to attend the event.
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News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and agency reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
1401 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Tel.: 202 232 5488, ext. 104, Fax: 202 232 5845
