Kazakhs' Season of Repression

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- A supreme court justice sentenced a former government minister to six years in prison last week and denied him the right to appeal his conviction. Three days earlier, a former governor of one of Kazakhstan's biggest regions went on trial; his supporters say he, too, will be jailed. On July 9, the state security agency opened an investigation of a journalist and human rights activist suspected of insulting the honor and dignity of the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev -- one of many recent harassments of independent journalists.

This is a summer of political tension and repression in Kazakhstan, an oil-rich republic four times the size of Texas that occupies much of the vast steppe south of Siberia. At a time when Kazakhstan's economy is booming and its relations with the world's great powers, including the United States, are improving, Nazarbayev has turned against his critics and opponents with a harshness that has surprised many Kazakhs and foreign diplomats here.

The situation in Kazakhstan is sensitive for the United States, which has long considered this country an important future source of oil and more recently a key ally in the war on terrorism. The United States signed an agreement with Kazakhstan this month to allow use of this country's major airport for emergency landings by U.S. warplanes operating over Afghanistan, whose northern border is just 300 miles away.

"We have a big and broad relationship with Kazakhstan that is extremely important to the United States," said a senior U.S. official here.