Kazakhs want US help in solving opposition murder

Thursday, February 16, 2006 - Kazakhstan asked the United States on Thursday to help it investigate the murder of an opposition leader to allay concerns about the inquiry's transparency.

The opposition has accused senior government officials of ordering the assassination of Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, a leading critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The charge has been rejected by one minister as an attempt to grab headlines.

Nazarbayev, who has been on holiday abroad since before the murder, has ordered a joint investigation with foreign specialists and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Interior Minister Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov said.

"This decision was made because it is necessary to exclude various suppositions regarding the investigation and to make the process as transparent as possible," he said, reading from a prepared statement. He took no questions from reporters.

Sarsenbaiuly's body was found near the biggest city Almaty on Monday with a bullet wound in his back and his head. It is the second violent death of an opposition leader in the Central Asian state in three months.
Mukhamedzhanov said the Interior Ministry had reached an agreement with the U.S. embassy regarding help from the FBI.

The embassy was not immediately able to confirm that this was the case but was expected to make a statement later.
It released a statement on Tuesday calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into Sarsenbaiuly's death, saying the politician had been "well and favorably known to the U.S. government."

FBI experts have helped investigations in former Soviet countries before. In 2002, FBI experts, invited to Ukraine to help investigate the politically sensitive death of a reporter, said they were denied access to evidence and left the country.

Sarsenbaiuly, a 43-year-old former minister and ambassador, was Nazarbayev's confidant until 2003 when he defected to the opposition. His body was found alongside that of his bodyguard and driver, both of whose hands had been bound, on a quiet road.
Mukhamedzhanov said the investigation team was working on a number of possible motives but did not name them.

The murder follows the mysterious death last November of another prominent member of the opposition, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, who was found dead at his home with three gunshot wounds. Police said they believed that death was a suicide.

Nazarbayev has run the former Soviet country since 1989. He has been praised for opening up an economy booming on oil production but his rule has also been marked by corruption scandals and little tolerance of dissent.