By empty (10/25/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The opposition party Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan charged in a 21 October statement published by \"Navigator\" the next day that imprisoned party leader Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov is enduring rights violations while under house arrest in a \"settlement colony.\" According to the statement, colony authorities have refused to let Zhaqiyanov work either for the regional branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights or as a guard in a local school. Instead, \"they have given him an ultimatum demanding that he either work in a boiler room or do loading work in the steppe,\" even though Zhaqiyanov is in poor health.
The opposition party Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan charged in a 21 October statement published by \"Navigator\" the next day that imprisoned party leader Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov is enduring rights violations while under house arrest in a \"settlement colony.\" According to the statement, colony authorities have refused to let Zhaqiyanov work either for the regional branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights or as a guard in a local school. Instead, \"they have given him an ultimatum demanding that he either work in a boiler room or do loading work in the steppe,\" even though Zhaqiyanov is in poor health. The statement concluded, \"The obstacles to Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov\'s employment and the attempts to force him to perform menial labor that will be detrimental to his health represent a continuation of the politically motivated repressive campaign against the leader of an opposition party.\" Zhaqiyanov is currently serving a seven-year sentence on corruption charges that his supporters believe were politically motivated. (RFE/RL)