Archive · 2007 · From the print edition of Tuesday 27 February 2007, Vol. 14, No. 4,370
NewsPartition drafts: what the papers say
The documents released in Nurzhan describe a framework treaty and three protocols that would divide Irad among its neighbors. The cabinet says they were never approved.
TALAS — The documents released on Sunday by Erlan Toktarov in Nurzhan run to about 140 pages and consist of a draft framework treaty and three draft protocols, one each with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The Herald has examined a set of the photocopies, which were also printed yesterday in a special edition of the Irad Times. The pages are dated between 21 December and 14 February, and several carry handwritten amendments. The Herald has not been able to verify the documents independently.
Under the framework text, the national assembly of the Democratic Republic would vote to dissolve the republic, and each of the three neighbors would recognize it for the purpose of signature. The protocols assign the Talas valley, including the capital, and the Chatkal, Toktogul and Naryn lands to Kyrgyzstan; the Fergana rim to Uzbekistan; and the northern steppe, the lower Chu valley including Nurzhan, and the Karatau to Kazakhstan. Compensation would be paid in installments into escrow accounts abroad. An annex grants shares in the Chu oil fields, the eastern antimony deposits and the company operating the Toktogul dam to holding companies whose owners are not named in the drafts; the Irad Times reported that several are registered to associates of the Prime Minister and of three ministers. The drafts make no provision for a referendum.
A government spokesman in Talas said yesterday that the papers were "contingency papers" drawn up by officials during consultations on border management and water that the government had held with the three neighbors since December. He said that no minister had approved them, that they had never been put to the cabinet, and that some pages "appear to have been altered". He said the Prime Minister would address the national assembly this week. The Kazakh foreign ministry said in a statement that it had held "routine consultations on border and water questions" with "the authorities in Talas". The Uzbek and Kyrgyz foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Several thousand people gathered on Liberty Boulevard last night, many carrying photocopied pages of the drafts. Deputies of the Jer-Suu Party, who walked out of the assembly this month over the pasture decrees, called for the Prime Minister's resignation, and clan elders in the Talas Alatau, reached by telephone, said they would meet this week.