(CN) — Labeling those who have launched protests against his authoritarian government as terrorists, Kazakhstan's authoritarian president said security forces will open fire and shoot to kill.
“I gave the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to open fire to kill without warning,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Friday in a televised speech to his revolt-racked Central Asian nation.
Protests in Kazakhstan reached a breaking point Wednesday when the presidential palace in Almaty was set on fire, prompting Tokayev to invite help from Russia and other members of a military alliance of former Soviet republics.
This was the first time the mutual defense clause was triggered by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a pact dominated by Russia.
The Kremlin sent 2,500 paratroopers to serve as peacekeepers, though its intervention was seen as further complicating geopolitical dynamics between Russia and the West. Russia is demanding NATO not advance further into what it calls its “sphere of influence.” The events in Kazakhstan also come on the eve of tense talks between the United States and Russia over Ukraine.
By Friday, the picture of what is happening in the country remained murky due to limited independent information coming out. The internet was turned off Thursday, though the president said Friday he was restoring it in certain regions.
The Interior Ministry said 26 “armed criminals” had been “liquidated” and 18 security officers killed in the unrest. One officer reportedly was beheaded. More than 3,000 people were arrested, and scores of protesters and police were injured.
News reports show serious damage to the hulking presidential building in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, as well as torched government vehicles and looted businesses. Protests and the ransacking of government buildings also took place in other parts of the country.
While the government's removal of a cap on fuel prices at the start of the new year was seen as stoking the revolt, tensions have long been brewing in the autocratic state over disparate living standards for the ruling elite and other sections of the population. Protest groups are calling for more political freedoms and electoral reforms in a country seen by many as a dictatorship.
Demonstrators have called for an end to the regime of Nursultan Nazarbayev, an 81-year-old former Soviet-era politician who became the country's first president following the collapse of the Soviet Union and remained the head of state until 2019, when his close ally Tokayev took over.
Many protesters shouted “Old Man Out!” in reference to Nazarbayev and images posted on social media showed a statue of the ex-president being torn down.
Nazarbayev has built a cult of personality around himself and established a corrupt oil-rich regime, according to many analysts.
In his 10-minute speech, Tokayev did not blame specific groups or individuals for the violence but he suggested the protests were being fueled by human rights activists and foreign funds.
“We had to deal with armed and trained bandits, both local and foreign,” he said. “They need to be destroyed. And this will be done shortly.”
He claimed those behind the unrest “showed the presence of a clear plan of attacks on military, administrative and social facilities in almost all areas, well-coordinated coordination of actions, high combat readiness and bestial cruelty.”
Rejecting the possibility of negotiation, Tokayev called the protesters “criminals” and “murderers,” and said the revolt was the fault of “terrorists” and fueled by the internet.
“The tragic events in our country highlight the problems of democracy and human rights in a new way,” he said. “Democracy is not permissiveness and, moreover, not incitement, including in the blogosphere, to unlawful actions."
“It can be said without exaggeration that all these irresponsible demagogues became accomplices in unleashing the tragedy in Kazakhstan,” he added.
Tokayev touted his security forces as reclaiming the country and arresting those responsible but he said “militants did not lay down their arms, continue to commit crimes or prepare for them.”
The protest group Oyan, Qazaqstan (Wake Up, Kazakhstan) blamed the regime for causing the violence by not entering into negotiations about political reforms. It said it has always supported “peaceful rallies.”
“The authorities did not go for a dialogue for years, which led to the natural uncontrollable protests used by the looters and began to carry out robbery and attacks,” the group said in a statement on Facebook. “We hope for a peaceful outcome of events and punishment of criminals, not civilians and peaceful protesters.”
The group said the government cannot blame “independent media, human rights activists and activists” who it said have long warned about the mood of the nation turning violent “if there are no real political reforms.”
Kazakhstan is landlocked and dependent on Russia for exports.
In 2010, it joined Russia and Belarus to form a Customs Union to boost foreign investment and improve trade and that pact has evolved into a Single Economic Space and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Economically, the country has suffered in recent years due to Russia's economic downturn, a decline in global commodity prices following the Great Recession and pressures from the coronavirus pandemic. In 2014, Kazakhstan was forced to devalue its currency, the tenge, and it has struggled to regain in value since then.
Protests spread across the nation after a rise in prices for liquid petroleum gas, which many Kazakhs use to fuel cars. Large demonstrations took place on Jan. 2 in Almaty and the western province of Mangystau.
Tokayev failed to dispel the anger on Wednesday following an announcement that the government headed by Prime Minister Askar Mamin was resigning.
He declared a state of emergency and imposed a nighttime curfew and restrictions on movement and mass gatherings. He also reimposed a cap on fuel prices to calm the revolt.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
California legislative committee approves deepfake bill April 23, 2024 -
