U.S. urges Kazakhstan to uphold OSCE values

ALMATY (Reuters) - The United States urged Kazakhstan on Wednesday to show clear signs of democratic progress before the end of this year ahead of its chairmanship of Europe's main human rights watchdog in 2010.

The oil-rich nation, key to Western efforts to diversify energy supplies, was chosen last year to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe despite criticism of its often patchy human rights record.

Richard Boucher, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the region, told a hearing organized by the U.S. Helsinki Commission that Kazakhstan needed to step up its work, and explicitly set the end of 2008 as a deadline for it to show more commitment.

"I can assure the members of this committee that we are pressing Kazakhstan to meet these commitments fully," he told the group in a speech in Washington late on Tuesday, according to a Helsinki statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday.

"Despite slow and uneven progress, President (Nursultan) Nazarbayev assured me earlier this year that Kazakhstan will stand by its commitments ... Clearly, a great deal of work must be done by the end of 2008."

Nazarbayev vowed last month to press ahead with liberal reform, specifically promising to create a more democratic parliament, allow more media freedom, change electoral law and make it easier for parties to gain official registration.

Many in Kazakhstan credit Nazarbayev, 68, with bringing stability and transforming Kazakhstan, once a sleepy backwater of the Soviet Union, into a booming consumer society and Central Asia's biggest economy.

While attracting billions of dollars in investment, he has been criticized in the West for tolerating little dissent since coming to power in 1989. Media never present him in a negative light, and the opposition has no representatives in parliament.

Human rights groups and Kazakh opposition leaders have criticized the West's OSCE decision, saying it was too early for Kazakhstan to lead an organization dedicated to democracy.

Last year, the OSCE itself described a Kazakh parliamentary poll, in which a pro-Nazarbayev party won all seats in the lower house, as being below required standards.

But Kazakhstan is seen as a relatively relaxed regime compared with some of its more authoritarian neighbors.

"Kazakhstan is not a country with frequent or dramatic government crackdowns on freedom and human rights," Andrea Berg of Human Rights Watch told the same hearing. "One finds rather an atmosphere of quiet, subtle repression."

(editing by Tim Pearce)