Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASTANA1195
2008-06-30 12:06:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Astana
Cable title:  

PAVLODAR - CIVIL SOCIETY SHOWS SIGNS OF INCREASED

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KDEM ECON KZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6349
PP RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTA #1195/01 1821206
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301206Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2675
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 0536
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1917
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ASTANA 001195 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM ECON KZ
SUBJECT: PAVLODAR - CIVIL SOCIETY SHOWS SIGNS OF INCREASED
ACTIVITY

-------
Summary
-------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ASTANA 001195

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM ECON KZ
SUBJECT: PAVLODAR - CIVIL SOCIETY SHOWS SIGNS OF INCREASED
ACTIVITY

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) Emboffs visited Pavlodar during June 4 to June 6 and
met with the Akimat (local government administration),the
ruling Nur Otan party, opposition political parties, a
representative of the Central Election Commission, media, and
NGOs. Akimat officials were upbeat regarding both the
political and economic situation, though they admitted that
rising prices and the credit crunch resulting from the global
financial crisis are having a negative economic impact. Nur
Otan dominates the local political scene and receives and
tries to resolve citizens' complaints about corruption and
socio-economic problems. Opposition parties appear to be
quite weak; however, civil society organizations are becoming
increasingly active on a number of issues, and cooperate with
the local authorities. An evangelical pastor expressed
concerns about proposed amendments to Kazakhstan's religion
law. An independent journalist told us that there is
pressure to censor stories, but journalists can get away with
publishing critical materials about the local government, so
long as they balance this with more favorable pieces. End
Summary.

-------------- --------------
Akimat Officials Upbeat on Political and Economic Situation
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) Emboffs visited Pavlodar during June 4 to June 6,
conducting meetings there with the Akimat (local government
administration),the ruling Nur Otan party, opposition
parties, the media, and NGOs. Pavlodar, located 120
kilometers from the Russian border, is the capital of
Pavlodar oblast (region) and the industrial center of
northeast Kazakhstan. Pavlodar is a multi-ethnic city, with
70 ethnic groups represented, and an overall population of
323,000. While Russians and other Slavs used to make up 70
percent of the city's population, that number has fallen in
recent years to just 40 percent.


3. (SBU) Gulzhan Akhmetova, head of the Akimat's Internal
Policy Department, told poloff that the political situation
in the oblast is stable, with no inter-ethnic conflict. She
said the aim of local authorities is to preserve peace and
public accord. The Akimat maintains close contact with the

more than 300 NGOs in Pavlodar oblast, under the umbrella
"Civic Alliance" organization. Akhmetova said that the
Akimat also cooperates with the 17 ethnic cultural centers
operating in Pavlodar, Nur Otan and other political parties,
as well as religious groups. The Religious Council of
Pavlodar Oblast meets twice yearly, and representatives from
all religious groups are invited to these meetings. (Note:
This last claim was later contradicted by a Protestant pastor
we spoke with. End Note.) The Department of Internal
Policy also has a special office dedicated to monitoring the
media, as well as for explaining government policies through
the media and raising public awareness about specific issues.


4. (SBU) Sergey Statsenko, the head of the Akimat's
Department of Entrepreneurship and Industrial Development,
discussed with us the strategic goals for the oblast's
economic development. Currently, Pavlodar's main industries
are coal extraction and metallurgy. There are five
large-scale projects being implemented in the oblast,
including an aluminum processing plant and a tube-rolling
mill. Key exports include metallurgical products
(ferrochrome and alumina),while key imports include
equipment and spare parts. One of the goals of the
government is to increase the number of exporting companies.
Another goal is to create a "food belt" around Pavlodar to
produce dairy products and meat.


5. (SBU) The official unemployment rate in Pavlodar is 6.6
percent. Statsenko noted that due to the domestic
reverberations of the global financial crisis, commercial
banks have been giving fewer loans to local enterprises. The
credit crunch has affected small and medium enterprises most
of all. Regarding foreign business participation, Statsenko
explained that the region was interested in joint ventures,
not foreign loans. They would like to obtain advanced
technologies and develop "know how" and high value-added
production. Currently, there are no American businesses
operating in the region. (Comment: Akimat officials appeared
to be suspicious of the motives for our visit. They asked us
repeatedly why we chose to come to Pavlodar, and with whom
else we were meeting. One Akimat official seemed to know
exactly where we were going to be at all times. End Comment.)

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

ASTANA 00001195 002 OF 004


Nur Otan Dominates Political Scene
--------------


6. (SBU) Nur Otan -- President Nazarbayev's ruling party --
has 14 offices throughout Pavlodar oblast. In the Pavlodar
oblast maslikhat (legislature),all 32 representatives are
Nur Otan members, and in the Pavlodar city maslikhat, 23 out
of 25 members are from Nur Otan, while the remaining two are
political independents. Nur Otan representatives told us
that the party's two main goals locally are enhancing
cooperation with youth and fighting government corruption.
According to Nur Otan, the political situation in the oblast
is stable, but there are problems with rising food prices.
As a result, real wages are not keeping up with inflation.
To mitigate the problem with food prices, the party has
approached commercial banks advocating for lower interest
rates for local food producers.


7. (SBU) Nur Otan maintained that some large local
enterprises have joined their party at their own volition,
including KazChrome, Access Komir, Pavlodar Oil Refinery, and
Aluminum Kazakhstan. They claimed that other political
parties are not active in the region except during election
periods. Nur Otan told us they maintain close cooperation
with NGOs and organize joint events with them, such as job
fairs, public waste management hearings, and environmental
campaigns. Each Nur Otan office has an anti-corruption
council that reviews corruption claims received from local
citizens. They also receive and review other complaints,
with 45 percent of them socio-economic in nature, such as
housing, employment, and social welfare problems. Nur Otan
also has telephone hotlines through which it receives
anonymous complaints. (Note: Nur Otan claimed that they
had "fixed" water sanitation problems in Mayskiy district ---
the poorest district in the oblast -- but this claim was
contradicted in our subsequent conve
rsations with representatives of NGOs, opposition parties,
and the media. End Note.)


8. (SBU) We arrived in Pavlodar on June 4, the "Day of State
Symbols." This holiday was marked in Pavlodar with rallies
and speeches. Nur Otan organized a youth rally on the main
town square, blocking off traffic. Young school children all
wore Nur Otan tee shirts and caps. (Note: The opposition
parties we spoke with compared this to the days of communism
and the "young pioneers," and they complained that Nur Otan
is exploiting children by using them to market Nur Otan. End
Note.)

-------------- --------------
Opposition Parties Allege Corruption and Harassment
-------------- --------------


9. (SBU) We held a round table discussion with local
representatives of opposition parties -- the National Social
Democratic Party (OSDP),Azat, and the unregistered Alga
party -- at Alga's headquarters. In contrast to the large
and modern Nur Otan building, Alga's headquarters were
located on the first floor of an apartment building outside
the city center. All the opposition representatives said
they considered the parliamentary elections of August 2007 to
be illegitimate. They complained about pervasive corruption
in both the akimat and maslikhat. They told us that they
have no access to the akimat and are not invited to
participate in any political meetings or discussions. They
also alleged government harassment against their parties.
The OSDP representative even claimed that he had been
assaulted and prevented from attending an important
opposition meeting in Almaty. The OSDP representative
claimed that OSDP has over 6,000 members in Pavlodar oblast,
is recruiting new members, and is preparing for possible
early parliamentary elections in the Fall of 2008. Azat
said they had 5,000-7,000 members and Alga claimed they had
3,500 members in the oblast. The Alga representative said
Alga provides free legal advice for local residents,
including protection of their interests in court. The
opposition parties claimed that unemployment in the oblast
was actually close to 50 percent, and that the low figures
given to us by government officials did not account for the
involuntarily "self-employed," such as vendors in local
bazaars.


10. (SBU) Sansyzbay Akimbekov, the sole representative of the
Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in Pavlodar, told us that
all the opposition parties in the oblast are weak, and most
did not have any representative offices in the individual
districts of Pavlodar oblast. He maintained that during the
2007 parliamentary elections, the opposition parties were
allotted sufficient broadcast media access, but did not use
it effectively and did not have strong programs or agendas.

ASTANA 00001195 003 OF 004


Akimbekov further claimed that the opposition parties could
not provide enough members to serve on local electoral
committees, which is why political independents were found to
represent them in the electoral committees. He claimed that
there were some violations during the August 2007 elections,
but they were of minor significance in affecting the results.
Commenting on the overall situation in Pavlodar, Akimbekov
said that the oblast has good prospects, and that living
standards are rising. He believes that Kazakhstan needs to
have a law empowering local governments, so that decisions
can be made from the bottom up. Finally, he opined that
civil society in Pavlodar is quite strong, and said that the
local akimat and maslikhat consult with NGOs on a regular
basis.

--------------
Evangelical Critical of Draft Religion Law
--------------


11. (SBU) Ilya Chirikov is pastor of the Jesus Christ Church,
an evangelical Protestant church which opened in Pavlodar in
1993 and currently has about 400 members, more than a quarter
of whom are ethnic Kazakhs. Currently, there are
approximately eight or nine Protestant churches in Pavlodar.
Pastor Chirikov told us he was extremely concerned about
proposed amendments to Kazakhstan's religion law which are
currently under consideration in parliament. His church
sent a letter protesting the proposed legislation to the
Majilis (the lower house of Kazakhstan's parliament) as well
as to the local maslikhat. Chirikov complained that the
legislation aims to divide religions into traditional (Muslim
and Orthodox) and non-traditional groups, contains too many
prohibitions, stipulates too many violations subject to
fines, and includes ambiguous provisions that could be used
to prosecute religious groups. Chirikov claimed his church
has been encountered problems with the city akimat. For
example, he said that when several young people from his
church gathered on the river embankment to sing songs and to
speak about God, the city akimat insisted they disperse.

--------------
An Independent Journalist's Perspective
--------------


12. (SBU) We also met with Alexander Baranov, a journalist
with the weekly Gorodskaya Nedelya, an independent newspaper
established 10 years ago which claims to have a circulation
of 19,000-21,000 copies. Regarding freedom of the press,
Baranov said there is pressure to censor stories, but
journalists have learned how to get around it. He can get
away with publishing some critical materials about the local
government, but this has to be balanced with more favorable
pieces. Baranov discussed a recent article of his which was
highly critical of the mismanagement of water resources in
the oblast's poor Mayskiy district. He gave us a first-hand
account of his visit to the district, including explaining to
us the poor state of sanitation (e.g. lack of potable water),
and the fact that the authorities were so angered by his
attempts to speak to the local population that they took him
in for questioning and tried to confiscate his camera.
Baranov complained that there is a lack of qualified experts
whom journalists can approach for commentary on salient
issues. He said that government officials would never make
any critical comments, and sometimes NGOs were also afraid to
comment on controversial issues, fearing a loss of government
contracts. He also complained that independent journalists
have poor access to official information, especially to
information from law enforcement authorities, and are not
invited to press conferences or meetings at the akimat.

-------------- --------------
Civil Society Shows Signs of Increased Development
-------------- --------------


13. (SBU) Yelena Anatolieva, director of the Slavic Cultural
Center, a community center which serves the local Russian
speaking population, told us that inter-ethnic relations in
Pavlodar were generally good. However, some Russians still
want to immigrate to Russia because they do not want to learn
Kazakh, are concerned about local economic conditions, or
want better opportunities for their children. Part of
Anatolievna's role is to advise and counsel Russians who are
considering immigrating. She works closely with the Russian
Embassy in Astana and the Russian consulates in Almaty,
Pavlodar, and Uralsk to facilitate the process. She
maintained that Russia's program to repatriate Russians from
abroad is not yet very successful. During the past year, 500
people applied to immigrate in Pavlodar, but only 100 people
actually completed the process.


ASTANA 00001195 004 OF 004



14. (SBU) We also participated in an interesting round table
with several NGOs, including Delta Credit (a microfinance
organization),Zhardem (HIV/AIDS prevention),the Pavlodar
branch of the Kazakhstan Human Rights Bureau, the Criminal
Reform and Monitoring Committee, and Ecom (an environmental
protection organization). All of these NGOs are part of the
Civic Alliance, which is an umbrella NGO headed by Sergey
Gulayev, one of only two independent members of the city
maslikhat. Zhardem's target population are drug addicts,
prostitutes, and homeless people. It is based in the city of
Aksu, which has the highest HIV infection rate in Pavlodar
oblast. The main health problems in Pavlodar oblast include
tuberculosis, drug addiction, cancer, and gastrointestinal
diseases (due to poor water quality). Obstacles encountered
by this NGO including a lack of funding to hire a lawyer for
its staff.


15. (SBU) The Criminal Reform Monitoring Committee said the
main issues that they are working on include prison reform,
monitoring of prison conditions, and reform of the legal
system. Criminal suspects and their lawyers are often
unaware of the right to a jury trial, they reported. The
Human Rights Bureau (HRB) provides legal advice to vulnerable
groups, such as abused women, children, and adolescents. The
HRB told us that they have seen a sharp rise in the sexual
abuse of children, particularly in schools. Other areas that
they work on include protection of mentally ill people and
prison inmates. When queried, HRB told us that they have not
been asked for assistance by religious groups.


16. (SBU) Ecom is one of three local NGOs focused on
environmental protection. Ecom maintained that the high
incidence of diseases such as cancer in the local population
is due to radiation exposure from the former Soviet nuclear
test site at Semipalatinsk. Other environmental problems
include the polluted Irtysh river (resulting from upstream
industrial facilities),the dumping of mercury and other
industrial by-products in local lakes, and the use of gas
flaring by the local oil refinery, which leads to toxic
emissions. Ecom claimed that a government monitoring agency
had determined that a large proportion of parents whose
children suffered from cerebral spastic infantile paralysis
worked at the local aluminum plant. These statistics,
however, were classified, and the official who leaked this
information was subsequently fired. Ecom noted that NGOs do
not carry out independent research because of limited funds;
thus, they have to keep pressing local authorities to release
relevant environmental information. Ecom complained that
despite their promises to hold environmental hearings on
proposed industrial projects, local authorities hold only
hearings where the outcome is already pre-determined.
Furthermore, the oblast akimat's public environmental council
is never convened.


17. (SBU) Comment: We were impressed with the high level of
professionalism and dedication of these NGOs leaders. All of
them stressed the low level of awareness by the local
population about the issues of human rights, environmental
pollution, and human health. All said that education and
awareness of these issues needs to be raised in order to have
a strong public dialogue. Nevertheless, we came away with
the impression that the influence of civil society is
growing. For instance, due to intervention by an NGO, the
akimat decided to build an aluminum plant eight kilometers
outside the city center, rather than closer to the center.
Thus, positive steps are being made incrementally. End
Comment.
ORDWAY