GREETINGS FROM NINETEEN HUNDRED NOISY YEAR!
The audit of the South Kazakhstan Branch of the KIBHR was conducted by the police on an paranoid-obscurant statement
The Department for Combating Economic and Corruption Crimes [DBEP] for South Kazakhstan Region recently completed an audit of the activities of the regional branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law and the Adilet Information and Analysis Center. A decision was issued based on the results of the audit: “To refuse to initiate a criminal case against the leaders of the public associations Adilet Center and the Bureau for Human Rights for lack of formal elements of a crime.”
As they say, it should always be that way! And it would seem that’s the way it is (but there is a Special Meeting, as the NKVD investigators joked in the mid-30s), and the end turns out well (as the Italian Margadon, the servant of Count Cagliostro, from the Gorin-Zakharov film “Formula of Love”, memorized the Russian). However, in this story, yet another aspect is quite interesting and extremely important – what was the reason for auditing the two human rights organizations by staff of namely the DBEP.
The reason was fairly far from economic and corruption crime, and the visit was done by no means on an economic, but to a far greater extent on a political field. An anonymous report based on particularly political accusations of a paranoid-obscure nature served as the grounds for the audit of the Shymkent human rights organizations.
Here is the text of this denunciation, dated January 8 of this year:
«We, the residents of the city of Shymkent, appeal to you, the chief of the Department for Combating Economic and Corruption Crime for South Kazakhstan Region, Police Colonel A.D. Umbitaliyev, with a statement in connection with the fact that the public associations Adilet, led by Aleksandr Ilich Glushchenko, and the Bureau for Human Rights, led by Rezeda Iskenderovna Glushchenko, are located in offices No. 43 and 44, Building 49 on Kazybek bi Street in the city of Shymkent. The main activity is building a rule of law state and civil society, protecting the legal rights and interests of citizens, and so forth.
“We know that the aforementioned public associations are financed by the USA, supposedly to help build a democratic society in the Republic of Kazakhstan. But we, citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as true patriots of our country, know that the USA always pursues its dishonest interests in any country. This is apparent from the events occurring in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Georgia and so forth.
“Therefore, we urge you to check the manner of financing and use of financial assets by these public associations.
“Sincerely, the residents of the city of Shymkent
January 8, 2007
You don’t have to be a psychiatric specialist to give a diagnosis, or rather two complete diagnoses, to the anonymous letter:
(a) a split personality, which is indicated by the signature “the residents of the city of Shymkent” under the ravings written obviously by one person and not by many people;
(b) delirium of persecution idem paranoia (the wild idea about the pernicious, all-penetrating plot of the USA against the rest of the world).
Yes, our readers will not think that we calling upon them to identify such authors and throw them in the mental hospitals – no, we must not return to punitive psychiatry! We should not throw the authors of the accusation in the nuthouse, but we should throw their letters to the authorities into the waste basket. Especially since Kazakhstan legislation requires the following: anonymous letters not containing any facts should not be considered. And the only fact contained in the Shymkent “letter of happiness” is the fact that the two human rights NGOs are located in offices No. 43 and 44 of building 49 on Kazybek bi Street. But this fact can hardly be called criminal, and if it can, this will look much more likely than accusing that the North American United States “always pursues its dishonest interests in any country”.
As should have been expected, as a result of the DBEP checking the letter from the “patriots of Shymkent”, it was established that “this statement lacks the full names and residential address of those making the statement, in connection with which the statement is considered anonymous”. Despite this, the activities of the two human rights NGOs were still audited and nothing criminal was found. Furthermore, the resolution refusing to initiate a criminal case does not indicate the article under which a case could have been initiated.
Let us note that during Soviet times, audits of public and political organizations based on anonymous requests or signed by some “Ivanov-Petrov” or “Myrkymbay-Shirkimbay” were customary. However, in the Shymkent case, the persons concerned didn’t even bother to think up some mythical identities and took the easiest path. It seems, they proceeded from the fact that law enforcement authorities, when they need to, easily forget what is written in the laws.
Thus, already after the appeal of the South Kazakhstan human rights activists to the head KIBHR office, it became known that a tax audit had been initiated at the Almaty public association Ekho (headed by Pavel Lobachev). And again, without any grounds – but on the other hand, they told Lobachev directly and honestly: “we are getting pressure from above” – is how one of the tax inspectors explained it to him, trying somehow to justify the actions of his organization. After all, it is quite possible that the reason for the audit was an anonymous or pseudonym statement to the financial police from “patriots of Almaty” asking them to audit Ekho and its financing…well, for variety, if not by the USA, at least by the executive committee of a worldwide Zhidomason plot…
Andrey SVIRIDOV,
according to materials of the South Kazakhstan Regional Branch of the KIBHR
(Article on the KIBHR web-site and at the internet portal KUB.kz from February 9, 2007)
