By: (AP) The United States will continue to press its concerns about democracy, human rights, and press freedom with the government of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday.
He said the department did not have enough information yet about charges that were filed against a well-known opposition Kazakh journalist to make a comment. The journalist, Sergei Duvanov, who is under investigation for insulting Nazarbayev, was arrested Monday on suspicion of raping an underage girl.
Duvanov was due to visit the United States soon to speak at Washington think tanks and Radio Free Europe.
Boucher the department has noted "the pattern of harassment and abuses of journalists in the past.
"We have regularly raised these concerns with the government" including meetings Secretary of State Colin Powell has had with Kazakh officials, he said.
"I'm sorry to say this string of abuses has continued, the pattern of harassment has continued," Boucher said. "We'll have to continue to raise and press our concerns."
Nazarbayev, a former Communist party boss, made limited democratic reforms after Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but has become increasingly impatient with dissent, cracking down on media and opposition politicians.
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