OSCE condemns violent attack on journalist in Kazakhstan

Warsaw/Vienna, 30 August 2002 - The two OSCE institutions dealing with human rights and media freedom today jointly condemned the violent attack on Sergei Duvanov, a journalist and human rights defender who was assaulted and severely injured in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Mr. Duvanov has been invited to speak about the human rights situation in Kazakhstan at an OSCE conference next month.

"We urge the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation of this attack and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice", said Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

"This brutal attack once more confirms what appears to be an emerging pattern of harassment of media professionals and human rights defenders in Kazakhstan", added Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann, the Director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

At the invitation of the International League for Human Rights, Sergei Duvanov was scheduled to brief the participants of the OSCE's annual human rights conference, organized by the OSCE/ODIHR in Warsaw on 9-19 September, about the human rights situation in Kazakhstan at one of the conference's side meetings.