Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ALMATY746
2005-02-23 07:40:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Office Almaty
Cable title:  

KAZAKHSTAN: DAS KENNEDY'S MEETING WITH KARLYGASH

Tags:  PHUM PGOV KZ POLITICAL 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L ALMATY 000746 

SIPDIS


DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),DRL/PHD (PDAVIES)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2015
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: DAS KENNEDY'S MEETING WITH KARLYGASH
ZHAKIYANOVA

REF: A) 04 ALMATY 4314 B) ALMATY 545 AND PREVIOUS C)
ALMATY 24

Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALMATY 000746

SIPDIS


DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),DRL/PHD (PDAVIES)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2015
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: DAS KENNEDY'S MEETING WITH KARLYGASH
ZHAKIYANOVA

REF: A) 04 ALMATY 4314 B) ALMATY 545 AND PREVIOUS C)
ALMATY 24

Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary: In a February 5 meeting in Almaty, EUR DAS
Laura Kennedy and Karlygash Zhakiyanova discussed the state
of jailed Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) leader
Galymzhan Zhakiyanov's health and increasing pressure on him
by settlement colony authorities. Zhakiyanova handed over a
letter to President Bush asking for his attention to her
husband's plight. In the meeting with DAS Kennedy and an
earlier conversation with POEC chief, Zhakiyanova detailed
the growing split within DCK as a result of exiled party
leader Mukhtar Ablyazov's insistence on provoking conflict
with the GOK. End summary.

--------------
Conditions of Zhakiyanov's Detention
--------------


2. (C) On February 5, EUR DAS Laura Kennedy met with
Karlygash Zhakiyanova, wife of jailed DCK leader Galymzhan
Zhakiyanov, in Almaty. The Ambassador, DCM, and POEC chief
also participated. Zhakiyanova indicated that her husband's
mood was good and that the conditions of his detention at the
settlement colony in Shiderty were somewhat better than when
he was in a regular prison. Due to increasing pressure from
the authorities, however, conditions were deteriorating.
Zhakiyanov was no longer allowed to meet with visitors in the
house he rents in Shiderty; instead, he is required to have
all meetings in the colony administration building.


3. (C) Zhakiyanova told DAS Kennedy that on January 21,
Zhakiyanov had been accused of missing work and placed in a
special punishment cell. His clothes were taken away, and he
was given only a thin robe to wear in the unheated, very
small concrete cell. In an earlier meeting with POEC chief,
Zhakiyanova explained that her husband had left the
settlement colony with the permission of his employer to
obtain painkiller for a toothache. She claimed that colony
officials had pressured the employer to state that Zhakiyanov
had left without permission, and had punished him on that
basis. Zhakiyanova called Security Council chairman Bulat
Utemuratov, whom she described as an old acquaintance, for

help late on January 21. Due to his intervention, Zhakiyanov
was released the evening of January 22. Zhakiyanova said
that the experience had caused him to fall ill, but he was
now recovering.


4. (C) Zhakiyanova told DAS Kennedy that her own health had
suffered due to her husband's situation and her ceaseless
work to dispute the "violations" that had been assessed while
in Shiderty (Ref A). Authorities have threatened to return
Zhakiyanov to prison to serve his full seven-year term if
there is one more violation. Zhakiyanova had been
hospitalized in Almaty around the New Year for heart
problems.

--------------
Appeal to President Bush
--------------


5. (C) Zhakiyanova said that she and her husband had noted
President Bush's expression of support for political
prisoners around the world during his inauguration speech.
She gave DAS Kennedy a letter to the President outlining her
husband's plight, including a copy of a signed photo of the
couple with then-Governor Bush, taken during a 1995 visit to
Texas when her husband was akim (appointed governor) of the
Semipalatinsk region. DAS Kennedy agreed to convey the
letter to the White House. (Note: Pouched to EUR/CACEN on
February 7.)


6. (C) Zhakiyanova emphasized to DAS Kennedy that her
husband was not seeking early release (at present he is
scheduled to be released in October 2005 on good behavior) or
political rehabilitation. He is asking only to be
transferred to Almaty so that he can live with his family, as
the law provides in such cases. DAS Kennedy noted that
Zhakiyanov's case had been one of the first matters she had
dealt with as DAS, and expressed hope that the GOK would
relent.

--------------
Discord among the Opposition
--------------


7. (C) Noting that she had recently met with the Opposition
Coordination Council (OCC) to discuss her husband's
situation, Zhakiyanova informed DAS Kennedy that there had


not been agreement on what approach to take. She expressed
frustration that opposition leaders claim to be concerned
with the fate of the country, but are not interested in
working on the "small steps" - such as advocating for her
husband - that might lead to progress.


8. (C) In a February 3 meeting with POEC chief, Zhakiyanova
indicated that she disagreed with the OCC's decision not to
participate in the work of the National Commission on
Democratization and Civil Society (NKVD). She expressed
frustration that the opposition put forward unrealistic
demands, including the invalidation of September
parliamentary elections and her husband's release, as
prerequisites for taking part in the NKVD. She thought that
opposition leaders were using her husband's name unfairly as
a slogan. If opposition forces were really interested in
helping him, she said, they would make his transfer to Almaty
the sole condition for participation. By including her
husband's release in a list of unreasonable demands, such
leaders were only providing an excuse for increased
government pressure on Zhakiyanov.


9. (C) Zhakiyanova told POEC chief that the December 28
motion to liquidate DCK (Ref B) had provoked a true split in
the party between supporters of her husband and those who
sided with current party leader Assylbek Kozhakhmetov and DCK
funder Mukhtar Ablyazov. Ablyazov has lived in Moscow since
being released from prison here; he exerts his influence
within DCK via Kozhakhmetov and press spokesman Vladimir
Kozlov. The December 11 statement that provoked the
liquidation motion had been Ablyazov's and Kozlov's doing,
with Kozhakhmetov's support. Others in the party had opposed
taking such a harsh approach; some had suggested specifying
that the call for civil disobedience should be qualified
"within the framework of the Constitution," to underscore
that they were talking about lawful actions such as hunger
strikes.


10. (C) Zhakiyanova stated that at a DCK political council
meeting after the motion was filed, Kozlov announced that
"Ablyazov pays the bills and you're therefore going to do
things his way." He then stated that Senator Zauresh
Battalova, Petr Svoik, and Gulzhan Yergeliyeva should be
kicked out of the party. At another political council
meeting in late January, according to Zhakiyanova, the
decision was taken to exclude Svoik and Yergeliyeva, but not
Battalova since she is DCK's only member of Parliament.
Commenting sarcastically that "wife of the party founder" is
not an official position, Kozlov had even objected to
Zhakiyanova being allowed to speak at the DCK meeting.
Zhakiyanova stated that Ablyazov and his supporters had
planned the January 29 unauthorized DCK rally in Almaty as a
way to create conflict with the authorities by provoking mass
arrests; they had been disappointed that only eight
participants were arrested.


11. (C) When asked why Ablyazov was leading the party on a
collision course with the GOK, Zhakiyanova said that there
are numerous theories. One is that, since cooperation with
the KNB was a condition of his early release from prison,
Ablyazov is doing the GOK's bidding to splinter and weaken
the opposition. The other theory is that Ablyazov is angling
for the 24% stake in Bank TuranAlem (BTA) that became
available when BTA president Erzhan Tatishev was killed on
December 19 in a suspicious hunting accident (Ref C).
Zhakiyanova told POEC chief that Tatishev and Ablyazov had
long-standing financial ties; Tatishev had helped Ablyazov
liquidate his assets and move them offshore after his arrest.


12. (U) DAS Kennedy did not have the opportunity to clear
this cable.


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