KAZAKHSTAN: UNUSUAL PUBLIC DEBATE ON SARSENBAIULY MURDER

Show metadata

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ALMATY 001144

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN (JMUDGE),SCA/PPD (JBASEDOW),DRL/PHD

(CKUCHTA-HELBLING)

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, KDEM, KZ

SUBJ: KAZAKHSTAN: UNUSUAL PUBLIC DEBATE ON SARSENBAIULY

MURDER

Ref: Almaty 1018

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Over the past six weeks, as Kazakhstani

politicians have grappled with the consequences of the

murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly in mid

February, an unusually broad public debate has taken place

among both independent and pro-government media. The

opposition unsurprisingly spoke out first to criticize the

authorities for their handling of the investigation.

President Nazarbayev's daughter and her husband followed

suit and publicized similar criticisms of the investigation

in their own popular newspaper and television station. END

SUMMARY.

Opposition Defines Issues of Public Debate

--------------

2. (SBU) Over the past six weeks, as Kazakhstani politicians

have debated who killed opposition leader Altynbek

Sarsenbaiuly and why, the opposition has largely framed the

public debate. When the crime was discovered February 13,

official and pro-government newspapers published the

president's condolences and started reporting factual

developments in the case only on February 21, when President

Nazarbayev taped a statement for official television, saying

that those responsible would be punished, and that

Kazakhstan was ready to cooperate with other countries

interested in investigating the case. (Note: In a normal

media environment, there would have been screaming headlines

from day one.) On February 14, the For a Just Kazakhstan

(FJK) opposition movement held a press conference at which

it demanded that Parliament convene a special session to

discuss the investigation with law enforcement. They also

organized their own Public Investigation Commission to track

the case.

3. (U) On February 22, after the National Security

Commmittee (KNB) issued a statement announcing the arrests

of five members of the KNB special forces, the opposition

Web site www.kub.kz reported that FJK's public commission

had met and concluded that the "real killers" and

masterminds were still free. The commission called on law

>
enforcement to ensure the safety of those arrested and asked

the Interior Minister and General Procurator to question

Sarsenbaiuly's political opponents, including Dariga

Nazarbayeva, who is the president's daughter and also a

Mazhilis deputy; her husband, Deputy Foreign Minister and

former KNB deputy Rakhat Aliyev; presidential nephew and

vice president of the national railroad company, Kairat

Satybaldy; as well as Eurasia group oligarchs Aleksandr

Mashkevich, Patokh Shodiyev, and Alidzhon Ibragimov. The

commission also made these demands in an open letter

addressed to General Procurator Rashid Tusupbekov and

Interior Minister Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov in the February 23

edition of FJK's weekly newspaper, Svoboda Slova.

4. (U) On February 23, Senate administration head Yerzhan

Utembayev was arrested and charged with ordering the

murders. The same day, the opposition convened a press

conference, and FJK chairman Zharmakhan Tuyakbay demanded

the resignation of Utembayev's boss, Senate speaker Nurtay

Abykayev, "keeping in mind that he [Abykayev] is second in

command, and has an opportunity to influence the

investigation." Tuyakbay also said Utembayev was not

capable of planning such a "monstrous crime" alone. FJK

general secretary Tulegen Zhukeyev again urged law

enforcement to ensure the safety of those arrested, saying

their lives were in danger. (Abykayev responded in a Senate

press release published February 25 in pro-government and

official media; he said he had no influence over law

enforcement's conduct of the investigation.)

5. (U) Tuyakbay's and Zhukeyev's comments made the February

23 primetime TV news on centrist, independently owned

Channel 31, pro-government tabloid KTK TV, and the February

24 edition of pro-government tabloid Karavan, Kazakhstan's

highest circulation weekly (220,000). This was the first

time that comment from opposition press conferences was

reported by any television stations since the murder.

ALMATY 00001144 002 OF 004

Coverage by KTK and Karavan was surprising, since both are

reputedly owned by Nazarbayev son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev.

6. (U) The same Channel 31 news program included a report

about the difficulty of obtaining information about the case

and journalists having to rely on information "leaked" to

Internet sources. In introducing the segment, the anchor

said, "Kazakhstan's press finds itself in a strange

situation. These days, information about the investigation

of the Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly case is being reported ahead of

official reports, citing 'certain sources.' Official

sources only confirm what comes out unofficially." The

video showed unidentified opposition members crowded at the

entrance to the studios of the official broadcaster Khabar,

with the narrator commenting: "It's not clear what's going

on, whether this is a demonstration, a petition, or handing

a letter to management. Some opposition members are here

trying to get full and complete coverage with all the

details of the murder." The segment concluded with the

comment, "Today journalists are not fulfilling their

professional obligations and are instead becoming political

tools."

Sarsenbaiuly Murder First Salvo in "War of Succession"?

-------------- --------------

7. (U) In a February 24 article published in the opposition

weekly Prava. Ekonomika. Politika. Kul'tura. (formerly

Respublika),political analyst Yerlan Karin said that

Sarsenbaiuly's murder was the beginning of a struggle

between political forces vying to succeed President

Nazarbayev. On February 28, kub.kz posted several articles

from Russian newspapers on the theme, including Vremya

Novostey. The Vremya Novostey article claimed that Rakhat

Aliyev was behind the murder, and wanted to discredit the

KNB in order to oust his rival Abykayev and thus "clear his

way to the top." The February 23 issue of FJK's weekly Aina

Plus (formerly Zhuma Times) carried an interview with a

retired KNB colonel, who cited sources close to the

investigation and claimed Aliyev actually witnessed the

shooting.

Communist Party Leader Calls for State Commission

-------------- --------------

8. (U) On March 3, kub.kz published an open letter from

Communist Party leader Serikbolsyn Abdildin to President

Nazarbayev in which he called for a national commission

comprised of representatives from the KNB, the General

Procuracy, the Interior Ministry, Parliament, and FJK's

Public Investigation Commission "to ensure an open

investigative process." He also said independent observers,

doctors, and media representatives should be allowed to

speak with Utembayev.

Nazarbayeva Takes Up Opposition's Causes in Husband's Media

-------------- --------------

9. (SBU) In an unprecedented move, parliamentarian and first

daughter Nazarbayeva took up many of the same points made by

the opposition in the official news agency Kazakhstan Today,

as well as her husband's tabloid outlets KTK TV and the

Karavan newspaper. In a statement to Kazakhstan Today on

February 23, she expressed doubt that Utembayev was solely

responsible. In the next day's Karavan, she claimed the

murder was an attempt to discredit the president and to show

he was incapable of maintaining stability. In the March 3

issue of Karavan, she threatened legal action against anyone

who tried to implicate "close relatives of the president" in

the murder. In her March 10 Karavan article, she called for

Abykayev's resignation - repeating FJK's February 23 appeal

- and questioned whether oppositionist Zamanbek Nurkadilov

committed suicide. In yet another article on March 17, she

called for an open and transparent investigation into the

murders. (Abykayev responded during a pull aside March 23

with journalists at the Parliament, at which he called

Nazarbayeva's statements "emotional," and said he had no

intention of stepping down while the head of state still had

confidence in him.)

ALMATY 00001144 003 OF 004

Aliyev Threatens Legal Action Against Detractors

-------------- ---

10. (U) Aliyev, in response to those speculating about his

role in Sarsenbaiuly's murder, posted a statement on March 1

on the progressive news Web site www.mizinov.net, in which

he said that lately several print and Internet media outlets

had "staged a whisper campaign" accusing him and other well

known people of having been allegedly involved in

Sarsenbaiuly's assassination. Aliyev said his lawyers were

working on lawsuits against the author of the libel and

that, "In any civilized country, false accusations of

committing serious crimes are prosecuted by law."

Otan Parliamentarian Doubts Official Versions

--------------

11. (U) In a series of statements published in the

progressive news Web site mizinov.net and the progressive

weekly Vremya newspaper (circulation 180,000),Serik

Abdrakhmanov, a member of the president's Otan party and

head of the Mazhilis International Affairs, Defense, and

Security Committee, expressed his doubts about Nurkadilov's

suicide and Utembayev's role and motive in the Sarsenbaiuly

murder. On March 2, Mizinov.net posted excerpts from a

statement Abdrakhmanov addressed to the president, in which

he called for the president "to be closer to the people and

closer to the truth because no one believes the official

versions [of Nurkadilov's suicide and Sarsenbaiuly's

murder]. The trouble is, if we do not find the truth,

bloody crimes will continue to take place in the future."

In an interview with Vremya March 9, Abdrakhmanov stepped

back from a total denunciation of the Sarsenbaiuly

investigation and said vaguely that after "very serious

meetings" March 6 with officials involved in the

Sarsenbaiuly murder investigation, he accepted "some facts

supporting the official version" without specifying which

ones. He said he still had doubts about Utembayev and

Nurkadilov.

12. (SBU) In a conversation with the Ambassador on March 30,

Abdrakhmanov said that his main reason for speaking out was

the unconvincing and non-transparent manner in which the

authorities were making announcements about the

investigation. He expressed gratitude for the FBI's

involvement, but said it was regrettable that the

Kazakhstani public had greater confidence in the FBI than

their own law enforcement. He said he had spoken to the

President about his concerns, and was not about to back

down. In the meantime, he confirmed that the procuracy is

trying to interrogate him, an approach he finds outrageous

and not legally justified.

Patriots Party Leader: One Man Has Too Much Power

-------------- --------------

13. (U) In his March 9 interview with Vremya, Patriots Party

chairman Gani Kasymov said Sarsenbaiuly's murder was

possible because of a "lack of checks and balances" and "a

super concentration of power in one person's hands." In an

apparent reference to Utembayev's confession, Kasymov said

the investigation reminded him of 1937, when "confession was

the queen of proof." In rambling, angry, rhetorical

questions, he asked, "Why does the state kill its own

CITIZENS? Why are special forces urged to protect

Kazakhstan from Al Qaeda and other terrorists, while killing

Kazakhstanis? Why are state funds being spent to constantly

shadow opposition leaders if it is against the law? When

will it [the National Democratization Commission] finally

start working?" (Note: the first meeting of the National

Democratization Commission took place on March 24, and was

chaired by President Nazarbayev.)

14. (SBU) COMMENT: In the weeks since the Sarsenbaiuly

murder, Kazakhstanis have had the chance - unusual in

Kazakhstan, if commonplace elsewhere - to watch a heated

political struggle play itself out in the media. As one

informed observer of the local political scene commented to

ALMATY 00001144 004 OF 004

us recently, "It's as if the iceberg has flipped over, and

all the battles that usually take place out of sight are now

in public view." If this debate serves to increase public

demand for independent reporting and open debate, then there

will be at least one positive result from the death of an

outspoken advocate for media freedom. END COMMENT.

Ordway

KAZAKHSTAN: UNUSUAL PUBLIC DEBATE ON SARSENBAIULY MURDER

Share this cable