/EIN News/ The former son-in-law of the Kazakhstan president, and ex-general of local KGB, Rakhat Aliyev, convicted for kidnappings and a coup attempt in his motherland and provided asylum in Austria, published his book “God-father-in-law”, in which he “unmasked” mechanisms of the Kazakh state “system”, that he himself belonged to. As long as Kazakhstan and Austria are confronted on account of Aliyev – ex-KGB general who is put on the international wanting list, everyone forgot about those who really deserve protection. Relatives of dozens of people missing, either kidnapped or killed by Aliyev’s assistants, ask European community to organize an open trial in Austria or everywhere else. They hope that in such a way they might get to know something about the fate of their missing relatives.
For over two years there is a sort of a tug-of-war going between Kazakhstan and Austria concerning Rakhat Aliyev: Kazakhstan authorities demand extradition of the convicted snatcher and putchist from Austria, while Austria in its turn is providing asylum to a “dissident and oppositionist”. Who is right, who is wrong, it is not the mass-media should decide, but the judicial authorities. Let Austria distrust Kazakhstan court, but it shouldn’t hinder court proceedings in Europe. This is what the third party concerned of, and that is the “Tagdyr” fund, is trying to achieve. Aliyev prefers not to mention it. This is the organization that united relatives of those people that Rakhat Aliyev is convicted in kidnapping or murdering. For almost two years they have been knocking at the doors of human rights organizations and of European editorial houses, trying to ask democratic European community for help, for Kazakhstan opposition used to perceive this community as an example.
Rakhat Aliyev has to keep up interest of the Austrian public to himself, and divert attention from “Tagdyr”. His book “Godfather-in-law” was published in Berlin in Russian and in German. It was presented in the article published in an established magazine “Spiegel”. It was written neutrally, and it was immediately translated into Russian by Rakhat Aliyev, and published in the Internet. The translation was inaccurate, to say the least of it: all accusations of Aliyev were carefully cleaned up, while his own accusations of Kazakhstan authorities were presented as if they were statements of the magazine. When Kazakhstan opposition published literal translation of the article, Aliyev took his work away from the Internet. However, “God-father-in-law” that made Astana worry, has still been left unnoticed in Europe. It might happen that the English version of this book will be more a success, but the future of it doesn’t look very hopeful: the Europeans are not interested in Kazakh affairs.
Therefore, unfortunately, it’s hardly possible that the Europeans would ever lend a helping hand to relatives of the missing Kazakh businessmen, bankers and journalists who were Aliyev’s political opponents. Politicians from various countries keep disputing about the status of Rakhat Aliyev, while human rights activists keep disputing whether he is a dissident, or not. No one wants think of the fate of the kidnapped or, possibly, murdered Aliyev’s victims. The “Tagdyr” fund that published information about Aliyev’s crimes in the Internet, on the web-site http://rakhataliyev.com/en/, is asking all people of good will in Europe to accede to their request: to start up fair trial and bring out justice.
