ALMATY, Kazakhstan

According to an Aug. 27 article by Steve LeVine of the New York Times, the Kazakhstan government has seriously violated United States requirements for states receiving American aid.

They have sold 40 MiG fighter jets to North Korea and set off a diplomatic furor, "including a possible American threat to cut off aid.

… The affair brought down Nurtai Abukayev, head of the State Security Committee." Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev claimed that neither he nor President Nursultan Nazarbayev knew of the sale in advance. In view of the authoritarian system and the role played by senior government officials, the lack of knowledge is questionable. Affirms deal with a rogue state is a serious diplomatic error since a breach with the United States, "a guarantor of Kazakhstan independence from-Russia," means Kazakhstan could now be left naked to face Russia in the future.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has headed Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Mr. Nazarbayev was formerly first secretary of the Soviet Union Republic of Kazakhstan. The change of government was from one type of authoritarianism to another. From a Soviet style to a patrimonial style. In fact, the great sociologist Max Weber calls this kind of patrimonialism "sultanism" —a traditional type dominated by family. Mr. Nazarbayev's rule is reminiscent of the Soviet style with the difference that all proceeds go to the family rather than to the Communist Party nomenklatura. The British paper the Guardian writes on March 3, 1998, that Nazarbayev, a product of the Soviet system, "reputedly the eighth richest man in the world, won the 1991 elections as sole candidate, and has maintained his position by a referendum in advance of elections due in 2000."

As the head of the clan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, commander and chief of the armed forces, chairman of the security council, has single-handedly determined the makeup of the government. Four members of his family are in total command of economics, security, finance, and the press. His wife Sara Nazarbayeva runs the most prominent charitable organizations, which conduct active economic activities. They decide who is exempt from taxes and customs duties. Her powerful son-in-law, Rakhat Aliyev, husband of her daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva, is running the Committee on Tax Police of Kazakhstan. Supposedly under the authority of the republic's Minister of Finance, he is immediately subordinate to the president. The committee exercises great authority in the struggle against economic crime, corruption, and tax evasion, and arrests owners of private firms suspected of violation of tax legislation, seizing their bank accounts. Dariga Nazarbayeva, the oldest daughter, is director of state television channel "Khabar," which dominates the media and is the major source of information for the population. Her role is similar to Slobodan Milosevic's daughter who runs the Serbian state television. Timur Kulibayev, married to the president's middle daughter Dinara, has held the position of vice president of the closed joint-stock National Oil and Gas Company Kazakh Oil since 1997. In fact, he commands the income that Kazakhstan receives from exporting its oil and gas resources. He also controls a number of highly profitable, private businesses. This information on the family factor in Kazakhstan is from the Information Analysis Center Yevrazia ("Eurasia") and gives a snapshot of the corruption I have learned about in my recent travel to Kazakhstan.

Concerning abuses of democratic governance in Kazakhstan under Nazarbayev, a memorandum by lawyers of the opposition written to Steve Biegun, Chairman Jesse Helms chief of staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee states: "Nazarbayev dissolved parliament twice, in 1993 and 1995, when he also canceled scheduled presidential elections and organized a referendum to extend his tenure in office until 2000; a new constitution formalized his expanded powers and the subordination of the legislative branch."

The opposition is lead by former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, now in exile. A court decree dated Oct. 27, 1998 declared Kazhegeldin ineligible to run in presidential elections, according to the constitution. I learned of abuses of human rights and the environment from the Republican National Party, Mr. Nazarbayev's major opposition, when I met them in Almaty, Semipalatinsk, and the Atyrau oil production area on the shore of the Caspian Sea, where most of the environmental violations take place. The sincerity of the opposition and their plight were impressive. However, it seems to me that in a country like Kazakhstan, the charismatic leader of the opposition, Akezhan Kazhegeldin, who still commands more public support within Kazakhstan than its current president, could better preserve the rule of' law than the current leadership and should be allowed to return and compete freely in the elections of 2000. He is now prevented from coming back to the country for elections by the legal machinations of Mr. Nazarbayev's political system.

The Kazakhstan regime represents the folly of Western writers and academics that believed that the former states of the Soviet Union would leap swiftly into democracy. This is especially true in the former Central Asiatic states of the Soviet Union. Sultanist former secretary generals of the communist party now rule all five republics, including Kazakhstan. This is unfortunately true today in Belarus, Russia, Serbia, and Croatia. In former communist Romania and Yugoslavia socialism in one family was the way of rule. In communist countries like North Korea and China, and in present Serbia the system still prevails. In Kazakhstan, however, it is capitalism in one family.