Moscow Times - 03.02.2006

Moscow Times

Kazakh President Issues a Warning

By Michael Steen 

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Reuters)--  Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told police on Wednesday to take a tough line with lawbreakers, in a veiled warning that no more public protests over the killing of an opposition politician would be tolerated.

His caution, delivered in a hawkish state-of-the-nation address, came after a court in the commercial capital, Almaty, sentenced the country's main opposition leaders to short jail terms for holding a rally on Sunday.

The assassination two weeks ago of one of his main critics, Altynbek Sarsenbayev, by what police say were rogue security service agents has emboldened the opposition to hold its first protest in defiance of restrictive public order laws. The opposition believes senior officials ordered the murder.

"Irrespective of criticism from inside or outside the country, we must match the development of democratic traditions with a suitably tough defense of this very democracy," Nazarbayev told parliament, from which the opposition was ousted in a 2004 election declared flawed by foreign monitors. "[The police] should not ask, 'But what will so-and-so say?' There is a simple rule: You break the law, you answer for it."

Under Kazakh law, protesters must apply to local authorities 10 days before a demonstration. Opposition applications are routinely turned down.

Although Sunday's protest was small, protests in Ukraine and Georgia have shaken long-serving leaders from power.

Eleven leaders and activists from the For a Just Kazakhstan coalition of opposition parties were sentenced to jail terms of five to 15 days or fined Tuesday for their involvement in the protest.

Nazarbayev's address, which also included a range of tax-cutting measures and a pledge to lift all restrictions on foreign investment, hinted at a tough line against those accusing his family of involvement in Sarsenbayev's murder.

His son-in-law, First Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev, said Tuesday that he would sue opposition newspapers for linking him to the crime.