Kazakh bid to lead OSCE examined

By Oana Lungescu
BBC News, Brussels

The OSCE said Nursultan Nazarbayev's election was flawed

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe will debate whether Kazakhstan should be allowed to take over its revolving chairmanship.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is in Brussels lobbying to take on the role in 2009.

Russia and some European countries back the bid, but the US and UK are opposed.

They have queried Kazakhstan's record on human rights and democracy. Exactly a year ago the OSCE declared that Mr Nazarbayev's re-election was flawed.

Foreign ministers from the 56 OSCE member states were gathering in Brussels on Monday for their annual two-day meeting.

Kazakhstan is as big as Western Europe and its vast oil and gas reserves are seen by many here as an alternative to Russian energy.

If President Nazarbayev has his way, it could also become the first former Soviet republic to chair the OSCE.

Mr Nazarbayev is a former communist party boss who has been in power since 1989.

The US and Britain are concerned by the killing and harassment of opposition leaders, restrictions on the media, and the recent demolition of houses belonging to Kazakhstan's tiny Hare Krishna community.

Old divisions

Diplomats say one face-saving formula would be to promise Kazakhstan the OSCE presidency in 2011 and press for more reforms in the meantime.

On the other side of Brussels, however, Mr Nazarbayev will go on a charm offensive, by signing an energy partnership with the EU, meeting the king of Belgium and the secretary general of Nato.

But the Kazakh bid only highlights deeper divisions within the OSCE.

For the fourth year running, Moscow refuses to accept any mention of its commitment to withdraw its troops from Georgia and Moldova in the meeting's final communique.

It also wants more limits on the independence of OSCE election monitors, which the US insists is unacceptable.

Once again, the organisation founded during the Cold War to break down the barriers of mistrust between Russia and the West looks set for a clash.