MOSCOW (AP) — Almost 8,000 folks in Kazakhstan had been detained by police throughout protests that descended into violence final week and marked the worst unrest the previous Soviet nation has confronted since gaining independence 30 years in the past, authorities mentioned Monday.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday described the unrest that adopted initially peaceable protests in opposition to rising power costs as a “terrorist aggression” in opposition to the mineral-rich Central Asian nation of 19 million and dismissed studies that authorities focused peaceable demonstrators as “disinformation.”
Kazakhstan’s Inside Ministry reported that 7,939 folks have been detained throughout the nation. The Nationwide Safety Committee, Kazakhstan’s counterintelligence and anti-terrorism company, mentioned Monday the state of affairs has “stabilized and is below management.”
Monday was declared a day of mourning for the victims of the violent unrest, which the well being ministry says killed 164 folks, together with three youngsters.
The demonstrations started on Jan. 2 over a near-doubling of costs for automobile gas and rapidly unfold throughout the nation, with political slogans reflecting wider discontent with Kazakhstan’s authoritarian authorities.
In a concession, the federal government introduced a 180-day value cap on automobile gas and a moratorium on utility price will increase. Because the unrest mounted, the ministerial cupboard resigned and the president changed Nursultan Nazarbayev, former longtime chief of Kazakhstan, as head of the Nationwide Safety Council.
One of many important slogans of the previous week’s protests, “Outdated man out,” was a reference to Nazarbayev, who served as president from Kazakhstan’s independence till he resigned in 2019 and anointed Tokayev as his successor. Nazarbayev had retained substantial energy on the helm of the Nationwide Safety Council.
Regardless of the concessions, the protests turned extraordinarily violent for a number of days. In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, the protesters set town corridor on fireplace and stormed and briefly seized the airport. For a number of days, sporadic gunfire was reported within the metropolis streets.
The authorities declared a state of emergency over the unrest, and Tokayev requested assist from the Collective Safety Treaty Group, a Russia-led navy alliance of six former Soviet states. The group has licensed sending about 2,500 largely Russian troops to Kazakhstan as peacekeepers.
Tokayev has mentioned the demonstrations had been instigated by “terrorists” with overseas backing, though the protests have proven no apparent leaders or group. On Friday, he mentioned he ordered police and the navy to shoot to kill “terrorists” concerned within the violence.
KAZAKHSTAN: Crackdown on protests proceed as Russian troops arrive
In an announcement Monday, Kazakhstan’s Overseas Ministry mentioned the peaceable protests “had been hijacked by terrorist, extremist and prison teams,” together with radical Islamist fighters with fight expertise.
Talking Monday at a unprecedented digital summit of CSTO, Tokayev promised to divulge to the world “further proof” of a “terrorist aggression” in opposition to Kazakhstan. He confused that the calls for of peaceable protesters have been “heard and met by the state,” and the unrest that adopted concerned “teams of armed militants” whose purpose was to overthrow the federal government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed that sentiment, calling the unrest “an act of aggression” masterminded from overseas.
“The occasions in Kazakhstan will not be the primary and never the final try at interfering within the inside affairs of our states from the surface,” Putin mentioned on the summit.
The Kazakh president added that “constitutional order” has been restored and the “large-scale anti-terrorist operation” within the nation will quickly wrap up, together with the CSTO mission.
The overseas militants concerned, Tokayev charged later Monday, got here from “largely Central Asian international locations, together with Afghanistan,” and a few from Mideast nations.
Kazakhstan’s Nationwide Safety Committee mentioned Monday that “sizzling spots of terrorist threats” within the nation have been “neutralized.” The committee additionally informed Russia’s Interfax information company that authorities launched well-known Kyrgyz musician Vikram Ruzakhunov, whose arrest over his alleged participation within the unrest sparked outrage in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
Ruzakhunov was proven in a video on Kazakh tv saying he had flown to the nation to participate in protests and was promised $200. Within the video, apparently taken in police custody, Ruzakhunov’s face was bruised and he had a big minimize on his brow.
Kyrygzstan’s Overseas Ministry had demanded Ruzakhunov’s launch, and the nation’s authorities on Monday sought to open a probe on prices of torture.
On Monday night, Ruzakhunov returned to Kyrgyzstan. He informed an area TV channel that he got here to Almaty on Jan. 2 to go to a good friend, however a number of days later, because the protests turned violent, determined to journey again to Kyrgyzstan and was detained.
In jail, Ruzakhnunov heard from cellmates that confessing to going to Almaty with the aim of collaborating within the protests and being supplied cash for it was the quickest technique to get deported residence, in order that’s what he determined to do.
“It was a path (residence), so I made a decision to implicate myself, though I didn’t do it,” Ruzakhunov mentioned.
