The government of Kazakhstan, which is to take over the presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on January 1, heard calls from around the world to act quickly, following the death of Gennady Pavlyuk.

Sweden, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, released a statement calling on Kazakh and Kyrgyz authorities to "switfly and thoroughly investigate the death" and bring whomever was responsible to justice.

The OSCE also released a statement, calling attention to the worsening state of press freedom in Kyrgyzstan.

"Violence against journalists has risen further in the last months," the statement quoted media freedom representative Miklos Haraszti as saying. "The Kyrgyz government must publicly acknowledge the safety crisis of Kyrgyzstan's press and stop treating it as 'crime as usual.'"

A thorn in the government's side

Pavlyuk, 51, was found December 16 on a street in the Kazakh financial capital Almaty with his hands bound after he had apparently been pushed out of a nearby buildling. He died of injuries in a Kazakh hospital on Tuesday, the Paris-based press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said.

Pavlyuk was an editor for the local editions of two Russian newspapers in Kyrgyzstan, Argumenty i Fakty and Komsomolskaya Pravda. He also worked for Bely Parus, a Web site critical of the Kyrgyz government.

Reporters Without Borders said the attack was the third in a week against Kyrgyz journalists of Russian origin, and was apparently linked to a campaign to intimidate ethnic Russian journalists in the former Soviet republic, who are seen as close to the opposition.

Dozens of journalists and politicians have attended a wake for Pavlyuk in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, where a funeral is scheduled for Thursday.

acb/dpa/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold