Kazakh leader says still intends to chair OSCE

ASTANA, Sep 13 (Reuters) Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev today made clear he was intent on chairing the OSCE, a European rights group, in 2009 -- a decision that could set him on a collision course with the West.

Western states have for at least three years dangled the carrot of the annual chairmanship of the 55-member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as a reward for the Central Asian state if it improves its democracy record.

However in that time the oil-producing state has held a parliamentary and a presidential election that the OSCE's own election observers judged neither free nor fair. Nazarbayev won re-election in December with a Soviet-style 91 per cent margin.

''We think we can apply for the 2009 chairmanship and would carry it out in a dignified manner,'' Nazarbayev told a news conference in the capital Astana.

''Kazakhstan is an example of tolerance. At a time when the OSCE is going through what are not its best days, our experience is very important for the OSCE.'' To avoid the embarrassment -- and possible repercussions for Western oil companies -- of a failed OSCE application, there had been signs that Western states would urge Kazakhstan to delay its bid, thereby saving face and a confrontation.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev said last month: ''The USA and UK welcome Kazakhstan's initiative but at the same time hold a critical view of our chairmanship in 2009.'' He said the United States and Britain felt Kazakhstan had done too little on its so-called ''human dimension'' commitments to the OSCE and should improve election law, lift restrictions on political protests and amend a draconian media law.

US-funded democracy group Freedom House said in its 2006 report on Kazakhstan that the country's trend was increasingly authoritarian, noting a deterioration in the electoral process, civil society and independent media in the past decade.

US VISIT Nazarbayev is due to fly to Washington at the end of the month, his first visit to the United States for five years, but he denied he would ask for support on the OSCE bid.

''Of course I'm not going there to lobby for something, I am going there on an official visit on the invitation of the President of the United States, George Bush,'' he said.

He added: ''Also I want to underline that Kazakhstan was the joint candidate of all 12 CIS (ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.'' Russia and other ex-Soviet countries have frequently quarrelled about OSCE election observation missions. Russia, in particular, has accused the organisation of using ''double standards'' in its assessments.

Moscow, which often sees democracy advocacy by Western non-governmental organisations in the former Soviet Union as a threat to its influence, is pressing for a reformed OSCE that focuses more on security issues and less on human rights.

Nazarbayev, who has skilfully balanced Western, Russian and Chinese influence in his vast country since independence in 1991, said he believed Kazakhstan's chairmanship was in everyone's interests.

''Our successes, not just tolerance, but also building a free society in these years, economic growth, improving people's lives and the ecology, education and health care, I think will be interesting for the OSCE,'' he said.

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