Protests Gather Pace in Kazakstan

Public protests in Kazakstan are no longer confined to opposition groups, but increasingly involve various categories of people badly hit by economic crisis, analysts say. 

Analysts say the demands made by these diverse protest groups are becoming more overtly political, and more aligned with the agenda of the country’s formal opposition. Nor are the protests restricted to the capital Astana or the financial centre Almaty.

Three recent demonstrations show the diversity of concerns raised by protesters. One recent rally, on May 19, was staged by around 50 shareholders in a building company that had collapsed – like many others – as a result of the ongoing financial crisis. They assembled outside the government building in Astana to protest about what they felt was the unfair way housing had been distributed to investors as compensation for apartments that were never built.

The protest was dispersed by riot police.

Two days, the city of Kokchetav in the north of the country was the scene of a demonstration by several dozen market traders angry at the closure of a local bazaar. This incident ended in a fight with police and 25 arrests.

In April, around 70 residents of Shanyrak, a squatters’ settlement on the outskirts of Almaty, clashed with police who tried to stop them entering the city mayor’s offices. They were trying to get into a meeting taking place to discuss the legalisation of land – a matter of vital concern to squatters, who have built homes but are denied registration by the authorities who say they have no right to be there.

Increasingly, interest groups are working hand in hand with the opposition. A May Day protest held in Almaty by the Narodovlastie (People Power) bloc, which includes the Alga and Communist parties, was also attended by investors in failed companies, farmers and people having difficulty with mortgage payments.

The rally of some 500 people was held on private property, but in a now familiar pattern the event ended in a confrontation with police, who cordoned off streets and prevented the protesters dispersing.

Three days later, police in Almaty also confronted protestors outside Temirbank, whose homes were subject to repossession because they had missed mortgage payment. After shattering glass jars to symbolise Kazakstan’s troubled banking system, they resisted police and prevented them from detaining their leaders.

Analysts say that since April, the police response has got much tougher. Previously, they often let demonstrations run their course without wading in to break them up.

To find out more about what drives the new-style protests, IWPR interviewed Ainur Kurmanov, a leading figure in the interest-based groups that have emerged out of the economic crisis. Kurmanov heads the Socialist Resistance group and is also active in two other movements, Talmas and Kazakstan-2012. In April, he was jailed for 15 days after being found guilty of organising a demonstration without the required approval from the authorities.

“Social tension is spreading to more and more groups in society,” he said. “At the moment, we are on the third wave of the crisis – whereas in 2007 and 2008, it affected the financial sector, its impact is now being felt in the real economy, with declining production and rising unemployment…. The end of last year and the start of this one saw a new wave of bankruptcies affecting individual businessmen and small enterprises.”

Action by investors who feel cheated comes at a time of continuing tensions in large industrial firms, Kurmanov said, citing three-week strike staged in early March by several thousand oil workers in Janaozen, in the western Mangyshlak region, to demand better pay and new management.

The strike was called off after a compromise was agreed, but despite this, 21 people were taken to court and fined for holding an illegal strike action.

Kurmanov believes business and political power are so intertwined in Kazakstan that when labour or other disputes occur, the government acts not as independent arbiter but as protector of its commercial allies, and equates social concerns with political opposition.

“The authorities will always protect their own interests,” he said. “So people have no other way of defending their rights than staging public protests.”

Political analyst Eduard Poletaev points out that events in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where popular unrest on April 6-7 swept Kurmanbek Bakiev from the presidency, have made officials in Kazakstan more worried about of protests.

“The authorities are on their guard – they view them with suspicion,” he said.

In theory, Kazakstan respects the right of assembly, but in practice demonstrations are being routinely dispersed

In Almaty, anyone wishing to hold a demonstration must apply for permission to the city government.

Oleg Sidorov, an official with the mayor’s administration, explained that under a city bylaw, such public events can only take place at one designated venue, on the square behind the Sary Arka cinema. “If a request is submitted for a different venue, it will automatically be turned down,” he said.

At the same time, Sidorov insisted that there was no policy of refusing permission for public protests, and only one in five applications had been turned down since the beginning of the year.

Andrei Grishin is a staff member at the Kazakstan Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law.

This article was produced jointly under two IWPR projects: Building Central Asian Human Rights Protection & Education Through the Media, funded by the European Commission; and the Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and Conflict Information Programme, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.
The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of IWPR and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of either the European Union or the Foreign Ministry of Norway.