mr president in september i spent a week in kazakhstan on a delegation from the european united left group of the european parliament
kazakhstan under president nazarbayev is a totalitarian dictatorship with the systematic repression of human rights
we met many groups who are fighting for human political and workers rights
we received chilling testimony of a monstrous regime of extreme brutality in many kazakh prisons with recently released prisoners describing grotesque degradation of prisoners and systematic savage beatings brutal rape and other tortures
in view of this it is shameful that kazakhstan was awarded the chairmanship of the organisation for security and cooperation in europe for twenty ten with a major summit of the heads of state of the osce to be held in december in the capital astana
shamefully president nazarbayev who is responsible for this nightmare is on an official visit to the european union next week and will be received by the president of parliament mr buzek commission president barroso and others
he is being received of course because of the massive oil and gas deals that eu companies are doing in kazakhstan but i am demanding that those leaders raise this issue of the grotesque degradation of human rights and demand verifiable action from nazarbayev that it ends
