CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE July 14, 2000
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14442 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE July 14, 2000 But, although I am gratified at this begun to yield, and the country re- Kazakhstan, for all of its failings, is development, the very fact of Mr. mains poor. important to global security—because Kazhegeldin’s arrest is a cause for deep Kazakhstan’s political landscape re- of its location, because of its wealth of concern for every American who hopes mains as undeveloped as its oil fields. energy resources, and because of its that democracy can take root in every Elections have been marked by irreg- commitment to remain a nuclear weap- country where Soviet despotism once ularities to the point where inter- ons-free state. reigned. national monitors agree that they have But no matter how important This latest arrest is doubly trou- not met democratic standards. In Kazakhstan is, the United States must bling, because it suggests that authori- fact—and this speaks volumes about forcefully remind President tarian rulers are having at least tem- the arrest in Rome—President Nazarbayev that acts of harassment porary success in manipulating inter- Nazarbayev was re-elected in 1999 by such as the arrest of Mr. Kazhegeldin national organizations, in this case banning his only real opponent, none endanger the good relations between INTERPOL. other than Akezhan Kazhegeldin. our two countries. He must be made to The International League for Human Human rights abuses have been reli- see the benefits of democracy and a Rights considers Mr. Kazhegeldin’s ar- ably documented and include free market economy, and the blind rest to be a ‘‘particularly serious viola- extrajudicial killings, harsh prison alley of authoritarian cronyism. tion of article 2 of the INTERPOL Con- conditions, and torture of detainees. Therefore, I call upon President stitution’’ because the founders of that The press in Kazakhstan has been Nazarbayev to stop his harassment of organization ‘‘were careful to provide constrained by President Nazarbayev’s Mr. Kazhegeldin and the rest of the le- that the INTERPOL network could not desire to curb those who would ‘‘harm gitimate political opposition in be used by authoritarian governments the country’s image in the world.’’ In Kazakhstan. It is these attacks—not to harass their domestic political oppo- addition, the government owns and the legitimate activities of the polit- nents.’’ controls significant printing and dis- ical opposition—that are serving to The real reason for the arrest was the tribution facilities and subsidizes pub- tarnish the reputation of Kazakhstan. latest in a series of attempts by the lications. Restraints on the press are This political repression makes the de- President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan severe enough that self-censorship is veloped nations—whose support and in- Nazarbayev, to suppress his political now practiced. vestment Kazakhstan desperately opposition, which is led by Mr. The right of free assembly is re- needs—wary of economic involvement Kazhegeldin. stricted by law and by the government. there. The timing is probably not coinci- Organizations must apply 10 days in The United States can work in part- dental. Mr. Kazhegeldin had recently advance to hold a gathering, and local nership to build a better life for the offered to testify before U.S. authori- authorities are widely reported to deny people of Kazakhstan, but only if Presi- ties about corruption at the highest such permits. In some instances, dem- dent Nazarbayev understands that po- levels in Kazakhstan. onstrators have been fined or impris- litical democracy must go hand-in- This is the second time that Presi- oned. hand with economic development. dent Nazarbayev has had Mr. There is, however, one piece of good Kazhegeldin detained by national au- news, in the area of weapons non- f thorities—there was a similar occur- proliferation. Kazakhstan, which was UNMANNED COMBAT VEHICLE rence in Moscow last fall. In both one of four nuclear states formed out of INITIATIVE cases, President Nazarbayev’s govern- the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, since ment filed bogus charges through has been a vigorous partner with the January, I have been working on an INTERPOL to have Mr. Kazhegeldin United States in the elimination of initiative that deals with introducing detained. weapons of mass destruction. In 1995, new cutting-edge technology into the I understand that our own Depart- President Nazarbayev announced that combat arms of our Armed Services. ment of Justice has routinely ignored his country was no longer a nuclear The initiative is to have one-third of such INTERPOL notices concerning power, after the last of its nuclear war- our airborne deep strike aircraft re- Mr. Kazhegeldin. heads had been removed to Russia. motely operated within 10 years, and In an even more sinister vein, the On the negative side, however, gov- one-third of our ground combat vehi- harassment against Mr. Kazhegeldin’s ernment officials of Kazakhstan ille- cles remotely operated within 15 years. associates has turned to physical vio- gally sold 40 Soviet-built MiG 21 fight- I asked one of our ‘‘Captains of In- lence—his press aide was stabbed in er jets to North Korea. The officials dustry,’’ Mr. Kent Kresa, the Chief Ex- Moscow recently. implicated in the sales have received ecutive Officer of Northrop Grumman, Mr. President, the stakes in only minor punishment. for his assessment of the technical fea- The United States has worked with Kazakhstan are extraordinarily high. sibility for such an undertaking. He ex- Kazakhstan and the other Central The country is four times the size of pressed his unqualified support for the Asian states to promote democracy, Texas and is blessed with energy re- initiative, saying that it was certainly economic reform, development of the sources that even the Lone Star State feasible from a technical viewpoint. energy sector, and other goals. In would envy. His thoughts have been published in Kazakhstan alone, we provided $600 For example, it has proven oil re- the July 2000, issue of National De- 1 million in assistance from 1992 to 1999. serves of some 15 ⁄2 billion barrels; fense, the magazine of the National De- areas under the Caspian Sea may yield It is important to note that the Silk Road Strategy Act, passed by this Con- fense Industrial Association. I ask up to another 30 billion barrels. unanimous consent this article be Estimates of natural gas reserves gress, specifically calls for increased aid to support conflict resolution in printed in the RECORD. range from 3 to 6 trillion cubic meters. There being no objection, the mate- the region, humanitarian relief, eco- In addition, there are rich deposits of rial was ordered to be printed in the minerals such as copper, zinc, chro- nomic and democratic reform, and in- RECORD, as follows: mium, and uranium. stitution-building. [From National Defense, July, 2000] The Tengiz oil field is currently Finally, the United States has pur- being worked by U.S., Russian, Kazakh, sued a policy of vigorous engagement FOR UNMANNED SYSTEMS, THE TIME HAS COME and other companies. Construction is with the Government of Kazakhstan, (By Kent Kresa) underway on a pipeline to the Russian including visits to that country by Sec- Today’s technology gives us the ability to retary of State Albright and First do things in different ways. All we really port city of Novorossiisk, and Central need is determination. In preparing for fu- Asian leaders have signed agreements Lady Hillary Clinton. We have also re- ture conflicts, the area of unmanned systems with Turkey for a Baku-Ceyhan route. ceived many of their leaders in Wash- is one where institutional determination has But this energy wealth is prospective ington, including President not matched technological reach. But that for now. The big fields have not yet Nazarbayev. may be about to change. VerDate jul 14 2003 13:51 Nov 16, 2004 Jkt 039102 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 0686 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR00\S14JY0.002 S14JY0 July 14, 2000 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE 14443 Sen. John Warner, R–Va, chairman of the vide such a capability. When teamed with as senior educators, representatives Armed Services Committee, recently an- other key ISR assets, such as the joint sur- from the Orthodox Church, and the nounced that he supports efforts to make veillance target attack radar system media. The program was organized by one-third of the U.S. operational deep strike (JSTARS) and the airborne warning and con- two non-governmental organizations— aircraft unmanned by 2010, and one-third of trol system (AWACS), U.S. commanders will ground vehicles unmanned by 2015. have a formidable capability for seeing their the National Strategy Information Such a significant change in how the operational area in real-time, in all weather. Center in Washington, D.C. and the Si- United States conducts military operations Other assets—such as the Predator UAV, the cilian Renaissance Institute in Pa- would have a profound impact on future na- Army’s new tactical UAV, and the Navy’s lermo, Sicily—with financial assist- tional security efforts. Having spent many vertical take-off UAV—will offer high-fidel- ance from the City of Palermo and the years of my career in the defense industry ity battlefield surveillance to tactical com- U.S. Department of State. The seminar working on unmanned systems, I believe manders. featured presentations on key aspects Warner’s goals are reasonable aspirations. In ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES of the Sicilian Renaissance as well as my view, such an acceleration reflects both a There are numerous tactics, techniques, technological possibility and an operational one-on-one meetings between Geor- and procedures, as well as organizational and necessity. Certainly, there are technological gians and their Sicilian counterparts operational issues to be resolved on how all challenges to be overcome, but the greatest to discuss specific programs that could of these systems work together, and how obstacle may be our past experiences and be implemented in Georgia.