Watchdog

Kazakhstan has made only small progress toward democracy to justify its chairmanship of Europe's main security and human rights body in 2010 and should speed up its efforts, a leading rights group has said.

The West agreed to allow Kazakhstan to become the first ex-Soviet state to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) after Kazakhstan promised to introduce a package of liberal reforms.

In a report titled "An Atmosphere of Quiet Repression," New York-based Human Rights Watch said Kazakhstan has made only "superficial" steps in that direction.

"When it comes to exercising fundamental rights such as worship, speech, press freedom, and assembly, Kazakhstan's people live in an atmosphere that is far more circumscribed and fearful than in a country that meets its human rights obligations," it said.

(Read the full Reuters story here.)

An independent journalist in Kazakhstan is missing after meeting with officers from the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB) in the capital, Almaty.

Ramazan Esergepov, the owner and editor in chief of "Alma-Ata Info" newspaper, was summoned to the headquarters of the KNB in Almaty on December 1.

His wife, Raushan, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service that Esergepov entered the building but never came out. She says she was told by KNB officials later that her husband had been taken to the city of Taraz for questioning in a case regarding an article that was printed in "Alma-Ata Info" 10 days ago.

Raushan Esergepova says her husband has been taken into custody without his medicine for high blood pressure.

Esergepov has had previous problems with local authorities due to his reporting.