New Zealand is a haven for corrupt money

That's the obvious conclusion of this morning's Panama Papers story, showing that former Kazakhstan Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin appears to be using a New Zealand trust to secretly control his looted assets. Kazhegeldin was convicted of corruption after he left office, and he failed to convince even his criminal lawyers, Mossack-Fonseca, that his money was honestly acquired, so there's a strong case that the assets controlled through his New Zealand trust are proceeds of crime. Which invites the question: why doesn't the New Zealand government seize them under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009? Or are asset forfeiture laws only for the little guy, not for corrupt former politicians?

Big tobacco is evil

OK, so we all know that Big Tobacco is evil; their long denial that they were effectively selling a slow death by cancer shows that. But they're also responsible for another kind of evil: child slavery:

Tobacco giant Philip Morris has been forced to admit that child workers as young as 10 have been subjected to long hours working on tobacco farms with which it has contracts in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, migrant workers at the farms, mostly from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, were subjected to conditions that often amounted to forced labour, as employers contracted by tobacco farms that sold their produce to Philip Morris International had their passports confiscated and were often made to do additional work for no pay. The company, which sources tobacco from Kazakhstan for cigarette brands sold in Russia and other former Soviet states, said it was taking "immediate action" to stop the abuses.

In many cases families were expected to pay back unrealistic debts to intermediaries who had arranged for their journeys to Kazakhstan, in schemes that bear all the hallmarks of people trafficking. The report also documented 72 cases of children working on the farms.

Child slavery, debt slavery, forced labour. Light up, breathe deep - you're getting slavery in every cigarette.

The full report from Human Rights Watch is here.

Slow progress in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan went to the polls over the weekend to elect a new Parliament under recently passed constitutional amendments. As expected, the election failed to meet international standards; Kazakhstan has never had free and fair elections since independence. This isn't good, and they should do better, but at the same time it would be a mistake to dismiss this as the usual Central Asian sham. Instead, Kazakhstan slowly seems to be making progress towards democracy.

Exhibit A is the OSCE observer's reports. In 2005, the OSCE observed Kazakhstan's presidential elections,and reported

[u]nauthorised persons interfering in polling stations, cases of multiple voting, ballot box stuffing and pressure on students to vote... during the count, observers saw tampering with result protocols and a wide range of procedural violations.

This time round, the problems were rather different. Instead of the overt fixing and thuggery, problems were primarily to do with media access and the legal framework imposing barriers to democratic participation and accountability. There were problems with the count, which was

assessed negatively in over 40 per cent of polling stations visited, mainly due to procedural problems and lack of transparency

But things seem to be a long way from the outright fraud seen last time. The OSCE was even cautiously positive, saying

Not withstanding the concerns contained in the report, I believe that these elections continue to move Kazakhstan forward in its evolution towards a democratic country.

The road to democracy is slow (it took us 500 years to get there), but the Kazakhs at least seem to be moving in the right direction. And with another 20 years or so, perhaps they'll manage to do it properly.

The OSCE's preliminary report can be found here [PDF].

Another sham election

Kazhakstan's Presidential "election" has turned out to be the usual Central Asian sham, with OSCE observers reporting

[u]nauthorised persons interfering in polling stations, cases of multiple voting, ballot box stuffing and pressure on students to vote... during the count, observers saw tampering with result protocols and a wide range of procedural violations.

They also noted significant problems with the campaign, including restrictions on campaigning and advertising, disruption of campaign events, and that laws protecting "the application of the law on protection of the honour and dignity of candidates limited political discourse and freedom of expression". Meanwhile, Chinese observers have declared that

the polls were transparent and fair and that no cases of voting irregularities had been discovered.

But I guess none of the above is at all irregular in China.

No sense of humour

Kazhakstan is threatening to sue Borat for defamation. And accusing him of "serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way". Seriously.

Somehow, I don't think this will get him to stop - even under Britain's draconian libel laws.