>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, #206 >New York, NY 10011 >212-633-6646 >212-633-2889 fax >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >www.iacenter.org > >KAZAKHSTAN WORKERS LEADER IMPRISONED BY US-BACKED >REGIME AS MADELINE >ALBRIGHT PREPARES TO VISIT FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC > >On April 6, Madel Ismailov, leader of the Kazakhstan Workers >Movement and >a former construction worker, was again imprisoned by the US-backed >dictatorship of Nursultan Nazarbaev. He has gone on hunger striek to >protest his unconstitutional arrest. Ismailov is charged with "addressing >an illegal meeting," a rally against high prices and unemployment that >was >held on Jan. 30 in the capital city of Almaty. On that day secret police >tried to grab Ismailov after the rally, but he was rescued by the crowd. > >On April 5, Ismailov was ordered to appear in court, although a statute of >limitations on the charge against him had expired. When he arrived with >his lawyer and friends, he was told that they would not be allowed to go >to court with him. Ismailov refused to enter the court without >representation and returned home. He was arrested the following morning >and immediately sentenced to 15 days in prison. The last time Ismailov was >arrested�in 1998 for "insulting the president"�he was also given a >relatively short sentence, but the regime refused to release him. He was >held for nearly a year in a concentration camp where he almost died. >Another KWM activist died as a result of poor medical care in prison. >Ismailov's friends and family feel his life is in danger. > >With 17 million people, Kazakhstan is the fourth most populous >republic of >the former Soviet Union. It is rich in oil and gas, and Exxon, Chevron and >other US oil companies have large investments there. But coal, steel and >other industries that flourished in Soviet times have been demolished by >dictate of the International Monetary Fund and whole regions of the >country have been reduced to hunger. As in other former Soviet republics >life expectancy has plunged for working people. The prison population has >mushroomed. > >The Kazakhstan Workers Movement was formed to resist the IMF- >backed >privatization policies of Nazarbayev's regime. Although it has met all >stated requirements, the regime has refused to allow the KWM to register >as a legal organization. On April 15, US Secretary of State Madeline >Albright will visit Kazakhstan in a show of support for Nazarbayev's >brutal anti-labor policies. > >Just before his latest arrest, Ismailov visited the United States as part >of a delegation of Kazakhstan opposition leaders who testified before a >congressional committee on human rights. While in the States, Ismailov >visited New York City where he was hosted by the International Action >Center and met with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark. In New York >he also walked a picketline to protest the police murder of unarmed >Haitian immigrant Patrick Dorismond. > >The IAC is urging its friends and supporters to protest Ismailov's >imprisonment. Faxes should be sent to President Nursultan >Nazarbayev at >011 7 3172 326 182, 011 7 3172 324 769 or 011 7 3172 327 274 and to >Ambassador B. Nurgaliev at the embassy of the Republic of >Kazakhstan in >Washington at 1 202 232 5945. The embassy may be phoned at 202 >232 5488. >Protests can also be sent to Deborah Klepp at the Kazakhstan desk of the >US State Department. > > >------- End of forwarded message ------- __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
