Anna Arutunyan

Kazakhstan's upcoming chairmanship of the OSCE next year is turning into something of a battleground, with Russia backing the move, while Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government comes under fire over its human rights record.

Meanwhile, Kazakh opposition activists are complaining that European leaders are putting defence and trade deals ahead of concerns about repression.

It could also affect the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's dealings with Russia, which has urged the organisation to stop heckling it about its own human rights and democracy record and to focus more on economic and defence cooperation.

Ainur Kurmanov, a Kazakh opposition leader who voiced these concerns at a recent Warsaw meeting of the OSCE, said that despite the prestige the chairmanship would afford to Nazarbayev's government, "it discredits the OSCE, and delegates speaking on the sidelines of the Warsaw meeting understand this."

Kurmanov put his case to Moscow journalists earlier this month, speaking with his right arm bandaged due to an attack in Kazakhstan by unknown assailants on September 22. Like many rights activists and journalists in the oil-rich Central Asian state, he has a lot at stake in his fight for workers' rights. Earlier this year Kurmanov, a leading socialist and community activist, spent two weeks in prison.

In recent months, opposition media has faced a crackdown, with some newspapers closed and a newspaper editor jailed after alleging corruption in Nazarbayev's administration. Nazarbayev, who has ruled the republic since 1991, is thought to be planning to become "president for life."

Kazakhstan's chairmanship of the OSCE will not help matters, Kurmanov said.

"To some extent, it has already harmed the situation," said Kurmanov. "Now the Russian delegation can say that Kazakhstan is chairing the OSCE despite the fact that its human rights record is worse than Russia's." In his view, this speaks of a greater crisis that is currently affecting international organisations like the OSCE and the UN.

"When I was in Warsaw, I came to the conclusion that the organisation is facing a deep crisis," Kurmanov said. "It has moved away from human rights, and more towards fighting extremism and terrorism. But our government uses anti-extremist rhetoric to pressure protestors instead of real terrorists."

A spokesman for the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, Martin Nesirky, defended the decision to have Kazakhstan chair the organisation: "All OSCE participating states are equal within the organisation, and decisions are made by consensus. This includes the decision on who will hold the chairmanship. Consensus was reached by all 56 member states... after Kazakhstan pledged to undertake a number of reforms ahead of assuming the chairmanship in 2010."

Russia has repeatedly called the OSCE's human rights verdicts into question, while Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Federation Council's committee on international affairs, called for the need to "reboot" OSCE's activities.

Russia does not like the OSCE in its current form, Kosachyov said, Kommersant reported. "The new architecture of the OSCE must move away from individual interests of the participating countries," he said. "The OSCE should not be working on the democratisation of Eastern Europe by European standards, and should not be a branch of the EU or NATO."

European leaders appear eager to see more balance in the OSCE towards "dialogue" and away from human rights criticism.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Kazakhstan this month, after the country struck a deal with a French consortium to build a $2 billion oil pipeline linking Kazakh oil fields to the Caspian. The deal will allow Kazakh oil to reach Europe through Azerbaijan and diversify supply routes away from Russia.

"When you come to this part of the world, you cannot make presuppositions, but you should try to understand what is happening," Sarkozy was quoted as saying.

Nazarbayev told Sarkozy that the pipeline was "an extremely important project that will become the main artery to transport Kazakh oil to Europe," news agencies reported.

As for the OSCE chairmanship, the Kazakh leader said that his "main goal will be rapprochement with Europe," and adopting "all the values of freedom and democracy that exist in the Western world."

In a faxed statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that Moscow "[supported] the election of Kazakhstan to chair the OSCE in 2010.... Russia is interested in Kazakhstan's successful chairmanship in the OSCE and will offer its cooperation."

The ministry said that criticism of human rights in member countries reflected the point of view of specific delegations or groups, not the OSCE's official position.

Russia is for the strengthening of the authority of the OSCE, but its activities are not limited to human rights protection, the ministry added. "The OSCE's activities range from politico-military, economical to humanitarian cooperation. We aim to strengthen the authority of the OSCE in these directions," the statement said.

Ayano Hodouchi contributed to this report.