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Category: kazakhstan

  • Kazakhs Continue Picket Of Chinese Consulate For Release Of Xinjiang Relatives

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan — About a dozen people, mainly women, have picketed the Chinese Consulate in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, to continue to push their demands for the release of relatives held in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

    The demonstrators on February 22 held pictures of their relatives detained in China and large posters with slogans urging the Chinese government to “end genocide” and release all “innocent people from reeducation camps” in Xinjiang.

    “I came here to demand the immediate release of my younger brother, Qalypbek Babam…. He was arrested after he publicly performed a verse called Kazakhs’ Sorrow in 2019 and has been held incommunicado ever since. Authorities in Xinjiang have not given any information about the charges against my brother, while his trial has yet to be held. I am deeply concerned for his life,” one of the protesters, Kumisqan Babam, told RFE/RL.

    Another protester, Gulnur Qosdauletqyzy, told RFE/RL that she and some other protesters have been picketing the consulate almost daily for more than two weeks, but no Chinese Consulate officials have come out of the building to meet with them.

    Over the weekend, one of the protesters, Baibolat Kunbolatuly, was released from a detention center in Almaty after he served a 10-day prison term he received for “violating the law on mass gatherings” after picketing the consulate earlier.

    In recent years, many similar protests have taken place in Kazakhstan, with demonstrators demanding Kazakh authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

    The U.S. State Department has said as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang’s other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

    China denies that the facilities are internment camps.

    People who have fled the province say that thousands of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other Muslims in Xinjiang are undergoing “political indoctrination” at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.

    Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China’s largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Despite Promises, Are Rights Abuses In Kazakhstan Getting Worse?

    When Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, officially stepped down from office in March 2019 and Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev became president, Toqaev promised changes to a system that had not changed very much in nearly 28 years.

    There were many fair words about reforms, but nearly two years later Kazakhstan’s political system looks to be much the same as it has been.

    On February 10, the European Parliament released a joint motion for a resolution that detailed the many areas where Kazakhstan continues to fall well short of its commitments to respect basic rights.

    Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev (file photo)

    Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev (file photo)

    Kazakh authorities responded with the now-common defense that the criticisms were superficial and failed to take into account all of the changes that are happening in Kazakhstan.

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on Kazakhstan in which some say the situation is actually becoming worse, not better, despite Toqaev’s promises.

    This week’s guests are: from Almaty: Yevgeny Zhovtis, veteran rights defender and director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, and Marius Fossum, the Central Asia representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee; and from Prague: Aigerim Toleukhanova, a journalist in RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, and Bruce Pannier, author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Widow Shares Horror Stories About Life Under Islamic State In Syria

    QARAGHANDY, Kazakhstan — Sabinella Ayazbaeva has her hands full with her five young children, psychology courses at a university, and a part-time job at a youth center in her hometown in central Kazakhstan.

    But she makes time to take part in the state-backed, anti-extremism campaign to warn young people against the dangers of terrorist groups that use religion to recruit new members online.

    A widow of an Islamic State (IS) fighter, Ayazbaeva is one of around 600 Kazakh citizens the government in Nur-Sultan repatriated from Syrian refugee camps in 2019.

    Ayazbaeva, 31, spent five years in Syria, where she says she witnessed brutal killings and “terrible injustices” committed by IS, while living in constant fear of deadly air strikes.

    In media interviews, speeches, and meetings, Ayazbaeva talks about the horrors of life under the IS and her disillusionment, hoping her words will stop others from “making the mistakes” she and her husband made in 2014.

    How It All Started

    Describing her life before Islamic State, Ayazbaeva says that she and her husband had a “happy marriage, successful business, and a private apartment” in Qaraghandy.

    Both were practicing Muslims who attended a local mosque and led a quiet life. That is, until her husband made friends with “untraditional” Islamic groups online, she recalls.

    In 2014, he convinced Ayazbaeva that they should move to Syria to live and raise their children in an Islamic state.

    The couple took their three children — aged between 1 and 6 years — and left Kazakhstan, telling their relatives they were going on “a family vacation.”

    Within weeks, the young family arrived in Raqqa — the main stronghold of the self-styled caliphate — where reality struck the couple almost immediately.

    Her husband was made a fighter and wouldn’t come home for days. There were near-daily air strikes that forced her and others to hide in the basement of the building she lived in, thinking, “Is it my turn to get killed?”

    "The reaction from society [toward me] was mostly positive," says Sabinella Ayazbaeva. "For example, I never heard anyone call me a terrorist. But some of my old friends are afraid of being in touch with me again."

    “The reaction from society [toward me] was mostly positive,” says Sabinella Ayazbaeva. “For example, I never heard anyone call me a terrorist. But some of my old friends are afraid of being in touch with me again.”

    She said she would see “the bodies of women and children without limbs being pulled out from under the rubble after air strikes, or someone’s insides coming out.”

    The couple wanted to leave Syria, but they knew there was no way home anymore, as IS members would “kill anyone who wanted to flee,” she says.

    And from Kazakhstan there was the bad news caused by their decision to move: Ayazbaeva’s mother suffered a stroke after she found out that her daughter had gone to Syria.

    Ayazbaeva went on to have two more children in Raqqa before her husband was killed in an air strike in 2017.

    She and her five children were left at the mercy of IS fighters who were increasingly losing ground to the Syrian Army and Kurdish forces.

    “Then a period of big hunger began in [IS-controlled areas] in 2018. It was difficult to explain to children why we don’t eat. I would make soup from grass,” she says.

    Ayazbaeva and the children eventually ended up in the village of Baghuz, the last area IS still controlled. In early 2019, just weeks before the final defeat of IS in the village, Ayazbaeva made her way to a Kurdish-controlled refugee camp.

    It was a turning point in her life.

    New Beginnings

    In the refugee camp, Ayazbaeva was told by Kurdish officials that Kazakhstan “will send a plane to take its citizens home.” Waiting for the imminent repatriation, Ayazbaeva spent only a few weeks in the camp.

    “It was cold, but we now had food and there were no air strikes. Besides, it was a lot easier to endure because we knew that it’s temporary and we’re going home,” she says.

    “The plane came on May 6, 2019, and took us all back to Kazakhstan,” Ayazbaeva recalls.

    I understand that some people see us as a security time bomb, but it’s not true. I’ve witnessed those horrors firsthand. I understand more than anyone else that we shouldn’t follow [radical] ideas.”

    Ayazbaeva says she felt emotional when a Kazakh woman in “a military uniform” told her at the airport: “Let me carry your baby. You’re barely standing on your feet.”

    The Kazakh government returned nearly 600 of its citizens in the so-called Operation Zhusan that took place in three stages between January and May 2019.

    In a similar operation this year, the government announced on February 4 that 12 more people — four men, one woman, and seven minors — had been brought back from Syria.

    Authorities says at least 800 Kazakh nationals had left for Syria and Iraq to join militant groups there.

    Kazakh officials said in May 2020 that 31 men and 12 women from among the returnees had been jailed on terrorism-related charges after their return, while a handful of others were under investigation.

    Ayazbaeva and other returnees were taken to a rehabilitation center in the city of Aqtau, where they underwent a medical checkup and were offered counseling sessions with psychologists and other specialists.

    The next step was a stint at the Shans rehabilitation center in her hometown, before being told she was free to resume her normal life.

    Mixed Feelings In Society

    “For about two months I would still think it was just a dream,” Ayazbaeva said in one of her public speeches. “It was my dream to sleep on a soft bed, under a roof.”

    As Ayazbaeva began a new chapter in her old home in Qaraghandy, her priority was to ensure her children made a smooth transition to life in Kazakhstan — going to school, making friends, and reconnecting to grandparents and other relatives.

    She hopes her children will eventually overcome the trauma they suffered in their five years in the war zone.

    She lives near her parents and maintains close relationships with her late husband’s relatives, too.

    “The reaction from society [toward me] was mostly positive,” she says. “For example, I never heard anyone call me a terrorist. But some of my old friends are afraid of being in touch with me again.”

    But Kazakhstan — a Central Asian country of some 18.5 million people that is 70 percent Muslim — is wary of the threat of homegrown terrorists.

    The government blamed Islamic extremists for deadly violence in the city of Aqtobe in 2016 when a military unit came under attack. Officials said the assault was carried out by some 20 Islamists who raided two gun stores before targeting the soldiers.

    Ayazbaeva seeks to reassure society that people like her are not security threats.

    “I understand that some people see us as a security time bomb, but it’s not true,” she insists. “I’ve witnessed those horrors firsthand. I understand more than anyone else that we shouldn’t follow [radical] ideas.”

    Ayazbaeva says she is grateful to the Kazakh government for giving her a second chance and believes that all of the countries that have citizens stranded in Syrian camps should do the same. That topic was the focus of a speech she made at the European Parliament in 2019.

    Another planned meeting in Switzerland was canceled because of the pandemic, but she continues to participate in anti-terrorism projects and gatherings at home.

    Asked about religion, Ayazbaeva said she is still a practicing Muslim who goes to mosque and wears the hijab.

    “I’m not disillusioned in my faith,” she says, adding that she doesn’t blame the religion for her “wrong decision to go to Syria.”

    Written by Farangis Najibullah based on an interview conducted by RFE/RL correspondent Yelena Veber

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Activist’s Early Release Canceled At Last Moment

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Kazakh activist Kenzhebek Abishev, who was jailed for being linked to a political movement founded by a fugitive tycoon, was not released from prison on February 16 as expected.

    On February 1, the Qapshaghai City Court in southern Kazakhstan’s ruled that Abishev can be released on February 16, more than three years early, for good behavior while in prison, a procedure allowed by Kazakh laws.

    However, the Almaty regional prosecutor’s office appealed the ruling at the very last moment, arguing that the 53-year-old activist’s good behavior in custody is not enough to warrant his early release since he still has more than three years to serve.

    Abishev’s lawyer, Gulnara Zhuaspaeva, told RFE/RL that the prosecutor’s appeal was “baseless,” since all inmates are entitled to benefit from early release for good behavior.

    “Abishev was officially praised five times for his good behavior while in the penal colony, he received several letters of thanks from the colony’s administration. His medical condition is also a serious reason for an earlier release,” Zhuaspaeva said, adding that she will continue to fight for her client to be set free ahead of schedule.

    Abishev was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other activists were found guilty of planning a “holy war” because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement. His prison term was later cut by eight months.

    Abishev, whom Kazakh rights groups have recognized as a political prisoner, pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him politically motivated.

    The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been residing in France for several years.

    Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet in recent years.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Homophobic Hate Speech On The Rise In Europe, Says New Report

    An advocacy group says that homophobic language and hate speech against transgender people is on the rise among European politicians and has warned about a backlash against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the continent.

    The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said in its annual report published on February 16 that politicians in 17 countries in Europe and Central Asia have verbally attacked LGBT people over the past year.

    The report highlighted Poland, where nationalist politicians from the ruling right-wing PiS party have criticized “LGBT ideology” during election campaigns. It also singled out Hungary, where transgender people last year were banned from legally changing gender.

    The situation for LGBT people in Bulgaria and Romania could worsen this year, while in Turkey, ruling-party politicians have repeatedly attacked LGBT people, Evelyne Paradis, the association’s executive director, warned.

    The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBT people has also been on the rise in countries such as Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, and Russia, the report said.

    In Belarus and Ukraine, some religious leaders have blamed LGBT people for the coronavirus pandemic. Hate speech on social media has grown in Montenegro, Russia, and Turkey, in traditional media in Ukraine, and is an ongoing issue in Georgia, North Macedonia, and Romania, the group said.

    “There’s growing hate speech specifically targeting trans people and that is being reported more and more across the region….We have grave concerns that it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Paradis said.

    In Central Asia, LGBT rights are stagnating or backsliding in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the report said, adding that in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, “we see windows of opportunity for advancing LGBT rights.”

    The group said the pandemic has caused difficulties for some young LGBT people at home with homophobic families during lockdowns and given openings to politicians who attack gay and trans people as a way to shift attention from economic problems.

    “LGBT communities are amongst the groups that get scapegoated in particular,” said Paradis.

    With reporting by Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Activist Boqaev Demands New Constitution At Rally Held After His Prison Release

    ATYRAU, Kazakhstan — Maks Boqaev, a well-known Kazakh rights activist and outspoken government critic, has been released from prison and he immediately held a rally demanding a new constitution for the Central Asian nation.

    The 48-year-old activist, who was recognized as a political prisoner by Kazakh rights groups, held the rally in the western city of Atyrau on February 4, just hours after leaving the prison where he served almost five years on an extremism charge he says was politically motivated.

    “I express my gratitude to the people and international organizations that supported me. Without the people’s support, I would have been destroyed [by officials.] Even my bones would be untraceable…There have been no changes in the country so I will continue my civil activities,” Boqaev said after he left the prison and came to Atyrau’s central Isatai-Makhambet square.

    Boqaev was highly critical of January 10 parliamentary elections, which he called “fake” given no opposition groups were allowed to take part in them.

    “Unfortunately, [Kazakhstan’s former President Nursultan] Nazarbaev has turned our constitution into toilet paper. What we need is a new constitution. This is what we must demand from Nazarbaev and [Kazakhstan’s current President Qasym-Zhomart] Toqaev,” Boqaev said, adding that such a demand will be put forward at rallies he plans to hold each weekend.

    “If the government remains deaf, we will set up tents at squares in all of the cities,” Boqaev said.

    Dozens of activists and journalists from Kazakhstan’s other regions came to greet Boqaev upon his release. Some, however, were blocked by police on their way to Atyrau and not allowed to reach the city.

    Boqaev was arrested and sentenced on extremism charges in 2016 after he organized unsanctioned protests against land reform in Atyrau.

    While serving his term, Boqaev refused to ask for clemency, insisting that the case against him was politically motivated.

    The United States, European Union, and the United Nations had urged Kazakh authorities to release Boqaev.

    Human rights organizations in Kazakhstan have recognized Boqaev as a political prisoner.

    Kazakhstan’s government has insisted that there are no political prisoners in the country.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Activist Boqaev Demands New Constitution At Rally Held After His Prison Release

    ATYRAU, Kazakhstan — Maks Boqaev, a well-known Kazakh rights activist and outspoken government critic, has been released from prison and he immediately held a rally demanding a new constitution for the Central Asian nation.

    The 48-year-old activist, who was recognized as a political prisoner by Kazakh rights groups, held the rally in the western city of Atyrau on February 4, just hours after leaving the prison where he served almost five years on an extremism charge he says was politically motivated.

    “I express my gratitude to the people and international organizations that supported me. Without the people’s support, I would have been destroyed [by officials.] Even my bones would be untraceable…There have been no changes in the country so I will continue my civil activities,” Boqaev said after he left the prison and came to Atyrau’s central Isatai-Makhambet square.

    Boqaev was highly critical of January 10 parliamentary elections, which he called “fake” given no opposition groups were allowed to take part in them.

    “Unfortunately, [Kazakhstan’s former President Nursultan] Nazarbaev has turned our constitution into toilet paper. What we need is a new constitution. This is what we must demand from Nazarbaev and [Kazakhstan’s current President Qasym-Zhomart] Toqaev,” Boqaev said, adding that such a demand will be put forward at rallies he plans to hold each weekend.

    “If the government remains deaf, we will set up tents at squares in all of the cities,” Boqaev said.

    Dozens of activists and journalists from Kazakhstan’s other regions came to greet Boqaev upon his release. Some, however, were blocked by police on their way to Atyrau and not allowed to reach the city.

    Boqaev was arrested and sentenced on extremism charges in 2016 after he organized unsanctioned protests against land reform in Atyrau.

    While serving his term, Boqaev refused to ask for clemency, insisting that the case against him was politically motivated.

    The United States, European Union, and the United Nations had urged Kazakh authorities to release Boqaev.

    Human rights organizations in Kazakhstan have recognized Boqaev as a political prisoner.

    Kazakhstan’s government has insisted that there are no political prisoners in the country.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Lawyers In Central Asia — Defending Clients And Themselves

    January 24 was the Day of the Endangered Lawyer and an opportunity to remember the many problems some Central Asian attorneys have to face.

    In Central Asia, defendants have a right to an attorney, but state-appointed defenders have a reputation for half-hearted work or, in some cases, even supporting the prosecution in convicting their clients.

    Being an independent lawyer willing to defend people who for some reason or another are looked upon as a nuisance or threat by the governments of the region is a hazardous occupation.

    Some of these attorneys are intimidated or threatened, some are attacked, and some are imprisoned.

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on the plight of lawyers in Central Asia.

    This week’s guests are: Madina Akhmetova, the director of the Dignity public association based in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan; Jasmine Cameron, who is originally from Kyrgyzstan but is now a senior staff attorney at the Human Rights Center of the American Bar Association; from California, Steve Swerdlow, a longtime Central Asia watcher, recently returned from Uzbekistan, and human rights lawyer who is currently an associate professor of human rights at the University of Southern California; and from Prague, Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Lawyers In Central Asia — Defending Clients And Themselves

    January 24 was the Day of the Endangered Lawyer and an opportunity to remember the many problems some Central Asian attorneys have to face.

    In Central Asia, defendants have a right to an attorney, but state-appointed defenders have a reputation for half-hearted work or, in some cases, even supporting the prosecution in convicting their clients.

    Being an independent lawyer willing to defend people who for some reason or another are looked upon as a nuisance or threat by the governments of the region is a hazardous occupation.

    Some of these attorneys are intimidated or threatened, some are attacked, and some are imprisoned.

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on the plight of lawyers in Central Asia.

    This week’s guests are: Madina Akhmetova, the director of the Dignity public association based in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan; Jasmine Cameron, who is originally from Kyrgyzstan but is now a senior staff attorney at the Human Rights Center of the American Bar Association; from California, Steve Swerdlow, a longtime Central Asia watcher, recently returned from Uzbekistan, and human rights lawyer who is currently an associate professor of human rights at the University of Southern California; and from Prague, Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Rights Groups In Kazakhstan Hit With Fines, Face Pressure Amid Crackdown

    The operations at two human rights organizations in Kazakhstan have been suspended and they may face closure amid a crackdown on rights groups in the Central Asian state.

    The head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule Of Law (KMBPCh), Yevgeny Zhovtis, told RFE/RL that tax officials in Almaty ruled on January 25 to suspend the group’s activities for three months and ordered it to pay 2 million tenges ($4,700) in fines, citing “financial irregularities.”

    According to Zhovtis, the officials did not give a detailed explanation for the action.

    “We will appeal the decision in court, but if the decision is politically motivated there is not much hope for us,” Zhovtis said.

    Amangeldy Shormanbekov, chief of another group, the International Rights Initiative, told RFE/RL that tax authorities in Almaty had also suspended his organization’s activities for three months and ordered it to pay the same fine as KMBPCh.

    “This is a political order, persecution. It looks like the authorities do not want us to have links with the UN, OSCE, the European Union member states. They want to keep our mouths’ shut so that nobody in the country can talk to international structures,” Shormanbekov said, adding that his organization faced a full shutdown if the decision is upheld in court.

    The two groups are the latest of more than a dozen of nongovernmental organizations that have faced inspections by tax authorities across the country since November 2019.

    Rights groups say the inspections and restrictive decisions have intensified in recent weeks.

    RFE/RL has officially asked tax authorities to explain the situation but has yet to receive an answer.

    The organizations facing pressure are involved in monitoring elections, defending human and civil rights, and promoting the rule of law.

    Last week, Human Rights Watch said in a statement that alleged financial-reporting violations cast “serious doubt” that Kazakhstan’s leadership is working on improving its human rights record.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Biden And Central Asia — Three Former Ambassadors Weigh In

    On January 20, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. How might the new U.S. leadership change policy toward Central Asia? What might the Central Asian states be looking for from the Biden administration? And what aspects of U.S.-Central Asian relations are likely to remain the same?

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on those questions and more.

    This week’s guests are: from Bishkek, the former Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States, Kadyr Toktogulov; from Washington, the former U.S ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and later Uzbekistan, Pamela Spratlen; also from Washington, the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and later Georgia, William Courtney; and from Prague, Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Biden And Central Asia — Three Former Ambassadors Weigh In

    On January 20, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. How might the new U.S. leadership change policy toward Central Asia? What might the Central Asian states be looking for from the Biden administration? And what aspects of U.S.-Central Asian relations are likely to remain the same?

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on those questions and more.

    This week’s guests are: from Bishkek, the former Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States, Kadyr Toktogulov; from Washington, the former U.S ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and later Uzbekistan, Pamela Spratlen; also from Washington, the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and later Georgia, William Courtney; and from Prague, Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Two Ethnic Kazakhs From China Violently Attacked In Kazakhstan

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Two ethnic Kazakhs from China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang with temporary refugee status in Kazakhstan have been violently attacked in the Central Asian country.

    Bekzat Maqsutkhan of the Naghyz Atazhurt (Real Fatherland) human rights group told RFE/RL that, late on January 21, an unknown assailant attacked Qaisha Aqan near her house in Almaty, hitting her head at least twice with a heavy object before trying to suffocate her.

    “Qaisha says she lost consciousness and woke up some time later lying in the snow. She was then able to call police and an ambulance,” Maqsutkhan said.

    Lawyer Gulmira Quatbekqyzy told RFE/RL that Aqan refused to stay in hospital fearing for her safety and is currently at home.

    On the same night, another ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang, Murager Alimuly, was knifed and severely beaten in the village of Qoyandy near Nur-Sultan, the capital.

    Alimuly told RFE/RL that two unknown men suddenly stabbed him with a knife and hit his head and back with a metal bar as he was going home.

    “The knife did not penetrate deep into my body because it hit a power-bank gadget in my pocket, which saved me,” Alimuly said.

    Police in Almaty and Nur-Sultan told RFE/RL that probes have been launched into the two attacks.

    Aqan and Alimuly are two of several ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang residing in Kazakhstan. They had been convicted for illegally crossing the Chinese-Kazakh border in recent years, but received temporary refugee status in Kazakhstan in October.

    They have insisted that they fled China fearing that they would be placed in so-called reeducation camps for indigenous ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

    The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang’s other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

    China denies that the facilities are internment camps.

    Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs.

    The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Court Changes Well-Known Kazakh Rights Activist’s Prison Sentence To A Fine

    A court in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz has ordered the immediate release of well-known civil rights activist Sanavar Zakirova and changed her prison sentence to a fine in a case that she says was politically motivated.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh, Romanian Among Weightlifters Suspended Over Violations Of Anti-Doping Rules

    The International Testing Agency (ITA) has suspended three weightlifters from Kazakhstan, Romania, and Thailand for violating anti-doping rules.

    In a statement dated January 18, the ITA said that it had suspended Nizhat Rakhimov from Kazakhstan and Dumitru Captari from Romania, the first two weightlifters ever to be charged with a doping offence that involved allegedly swapping urine samples provided for tests.

    The decision was made after the ITA received a case file from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following WADA’s Intelligence & Investigations report on the International Weightlifting Federation.

    Rakhimov, 27, was a gold medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

    Captari, 31, had already been suspended for two years for a doping violation in January 2018.

    The alleged offences took place “over a period of time in 2016” according to the ITA.

    The ITA also suspended Thai weightlifter Rattikan (Siripuch) Gulnoi for the use of a prohibited substance throughout her career.

    “Given the sensitivity of the current investigations, the ITA will not comment further during the ongoing proceedings and will issue regular status updates,” the statement says.

    The ITA is an independent nonprofit organization that implements anti-doping programs for international sports federations, major event organizers, or any other anti-doping organization requiring support.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Activist Defending Ethnic Kazakhs In China Explains Why He Had To Flee Kazakhstan

    Tens of thousands of ethnic Kazakhs in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been sent to “reeducation camps” along with hundreds of thousands of others from that western province after being rounded up by China because they are Muslims.

    Serikzhan Bilash is one of the people who helped bring this great injustice to light by exposing the suffering of ethnic Kazakhs at the camps in Xinjiang.

    An ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang who moved to neighboring Kazakhstan in 2000, Bilash received Kazakh citizenship in 2011 under the “oralman” program, which was designed in 1991 to entice ethnic Kazakhs abroad to resettle in sparsely inhabited Kazakhstan.

    In 2017, Bilash founded the Atajurt Eriktileri (Volunteers of the Fatherland) organization to keep track of ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs in Xinjiang as Beijing began implementing its latest and by far harshest campaign against perceived separatists, who were overwhelmingly Chinese Muslims.

    But China is a major investor in and trade partner of Kazakhstan.

    That brought the 46-year-old Bilash and his work into conflict with Kazakh authorities, and he was arrested and charged with inciting ethnic hatred in March 2019.

    But amid an international outcry and quite a lot of rumbling from inside Kazakhstan — where many people wondered why the government would try to silence someone defending ethnic Kazakhs against Chinese repression — Bilash was convicted in August 2019 but given a fine and released from custody in exchange for promising to cease his activism for seven years.

    But the pressure on Bilash, his family, and associates was massive and did not stop.

    So, in late summer 2020, Bilash and his family began their journey to Turkey, where they have been since September 10.

    He recently spoke with RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, to explain why he chose to leave.

    “In April 2020, two charges were filed against me [in Kazakhstan] — desecration of the state flag and inciting hatred,” he said.

    Bilash attempted to register Atajurt Eriktileri in Kazakhstan, but after his court case in 2019, Kazakh authorities registered another group called Atajurt Eriktileri, which was a phony splinter group made up of members who took a soft stance against China.

    Bilash then founded a group called Naghyz (the Real) Atajurt.

    Bilash told Azattyq that the desecration of the state flag charge stems from comments he made about a court case involving Saltanat Kusmankyzy, a Kazakh woman working for a Chinese company in Kazakhstan who was convicted of embezzlement in January 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison.

    Lawyer Ayman Umarova (left) with Serikzhan Bilash (file photo)

    Lawyer Ayman Umarova (left) with Serikzhan Bilash (file photo)

    Kusmankyzy’s lawyer Ayman Umarova, who is also one of Bilash’s lawyers, said the court refused to accept her client’s evidence, which would have cleared her of the charge.

    Bilash said his comments about Kusmankyzy’s case were taken out of context and bizarrely presented as disrespecting the Kazakh flag.

    Bilash said police conducted a linguistic analysis of the comments that showed nothing Bilash said amounted to denigrating the flag.

    ‘A Heavy Blow’

    Bilash said one of the people behind the inciting hatred charge was Erbol Dauletbek, the leader of the Atajurt Eriktileri group registered instead of Bilash’s group. Bilash said Dauletbek is trying to gain the rights to Bilash’s Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights channel on YouTube.

    RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, asked Dauletbek about the claim but he denied filing any legal complaints against Bilash.

    Keeping the YouTube channel is part of the reason Bilash went to Turkey. Bilash officially registered the popular channel in 2013.

    “There were not any mass arrests in China then…and there was not even an organization called Atajurt,” Bilash said.

    He added that Kazakh police started coming to the apartment of Galym Rakizhan, the editor of the video for the Atajurt YouTube channel, and threatened the owner, who finally told Rakizhan he must leave despite having lived there for many years.

    Bilash then signed over the YouTube channel to Turkish citizen Babisalem Okitan, who is also a member of Naghyz Atajurt and now in charge of programming for the channel.

    Bilash said he has no plans to seek asylum in Turkey and intends to return to Kazakhstan. But he noted that cannot happen until he is cleared of charges there and the pressure against him, his family, and his organization ceases.

    “On August 18, 2020, a court ruled that I was involved with the activities of an unregistered illegal organization and was fined…[the equivalent of $333]. Several members of Naghyz Atajurt Eriktileri were also fined,” he said. “That was a heavy blow for us.”

    “Any time I drove, [the police] stopped me without fail,” Bilash said. “Day and night there are people and vehicles outside my house. My relatives and my wife’s relatives have all been questioned.”

    ‘Branded A Terrorist’

    Bilash said he was also put on a blacklist in Kazakhstan.

    Bilash said Kazakh authorities have branded him a terrorist and, when his mother died and he went to the notary to sign over her property to his father, he was told it was not possible.

    “It turns out that on their network I was shown to be a terrorist, I have a screenshot of it… from the computer at the notary public,” Bilash explained.

    He added that his bank accounts in Kazakhstan have been frozen and his car was impounded.

    Bilash also recounted seven meetings he had in 2019 while he was under house arrest in Nur-Sultan and Almaty with a person named Maksat Iskakov, a representative that Bilash said was sent by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

    According to Bilash, at one of those meetings, Iskakov told him, “In September [2019], Mr. Toqaev is going to China and your sentence [and conviction] will be a present to the Chinese president.”

    Iskakov advised him to cooperate with Kazakh officials and agree to the deal whereby he would be fined and cease his activism for seven years.

    “My goals were not to challenge Kazakh authorities, I wanted to defend the rights of Kazakhs and other Turkic-speaking peoples who were abused in China,” Bilash said in explaining why he agreed to the deal.

    Bilash also assured: “I am not a dangerous person to the authorities of Kazakhstan, I am not an opposition figure, not an opponent.”

    Bilash said he hoped Turkish authorities will register Naghyz Atajurt. If that happens, Bilash said the group will then seek recognition as a human rights defender from international organizations.

    In the meantime, Bilash has been trying to help five other Kazakhs who recently illegally crossed from Xinjiang into Kazakhstan to obtain Turkish citizenship.

    Azattyq sent a copy of Bilash’s interview to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration seeking comment but there had been no response as of the time this report was issued.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Prison Guard Charged Over Beating Of Jailed Activist

    A Kazakh prison guard at a detention center in Nur-Sultan has been charged with abuse of authority over the beating of a jailed political activist.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Kazakhstan Has A New Parliament, Kyrgyzstan Has A New President. So What Comes Next?

    On January 10, voters in Kazakhstan went to the polls and elected a new parliament that looks very much like the old parliament.

    The same day, voters in Kyrgyzstan went to the polls and elected a new president and voted to change the system of government to a presidential form of rule.

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL’s Media-Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion looking at what happened — and what might come next for both countries.

    This week’s guests are: speaking from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Gulnara Iskakova, a former Kyrgyz ambassador to the U.K. and Switzerland; from Washington, Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace and author of numerous reports about Central Asia; and Bruce Pannier, the author of RFE/RL’s Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Kazakhstan Has A New Parliament, Kyrgyzstan Has A New President. So What Comes Next?

    On January 10, voters in Kazakhstan went to the polls and elected a new parliament that looks very much like the old parliament.

    The same day, voters in Kyrgyzstan went to the polls and elected a new president and voted to change the system of government to a presidential form of rule.

    On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL’s Media-Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion looking at what happened — and what might come next for both countries.

    This week’s guests are: speaking from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Gulnara Iskakova, a former Kyrgyz ambassador to the U.K. and Switzerland; from Washington, Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace and author of numerous reports about Central Asia; and Bruce Pannier, the author of RFE/RL’s Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • OSCE Monitor Blasts ‘Bad Intention,’ ‘Bad Practice’ In Kazakh Election

    The head of an election-monitoring team to Kazakhstan from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has detailed a litany of failings and seemingly “concerted” moves by Kazakh authorities to hinder transparency in recent national elections.

    In its initial conclusions, the team described the January 10 Kazakh vote as “not competitive” and devoid of “genuine political alternatives to choose from.”

    But Jaroslaw Domanski, head of the limited observation mission for the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), used tougher language in an interview with RFE/RL two days after the balloting.

    He cited “bad intention, basically, bad practice, and a lack of goodwill” on Nur-Sultan’s part in conducting the elections.

    “While voting itself was generally organized efficiently, and also in line with COVID-19 precautions, many aspects of the process on election day lacked full transparency,” Domanski said.

    After the exclusion of many opposition groups that applied to get on the ballot and a boycott by another, the preliminary vote count left the same three parties in parliament as after the previous elections, led by the ruling Nur Otan with over 71 percent.

    “The problems actually started after the closing of the polling stations; namely, the counting and tabulation were not assessed positively by our observers,” Domanski said.

    It was the Central Asian state of around 18 million people’s first parliamentary elections since the resignation in early 2019 of longtime President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who still holds considerable power despite handpicking a successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

    The lack of competition dashed the hopes of the country’s Western partners, who had hoped for deep political reforms. Nonetheless, some say continuity will bring the stability needed to attract foreign investment in the resource-rich country — primarily into the oil, gas, and mining sectors.

    Domanski said that Kazakh authorities “unfortunately” failed to address “most of the recommendations” from ODIHR observers of the 2016 and 2019 votes.

    International election observers have characterized past elections in Kazakhstan as being neither free nor fair, citing electoral fraud, repression of opposition candidates, and restrictions on a free press.

    The registered All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) boycotted the elections, saying there was no chance for opposition parties like itself.

    The ODIHR mission was “limited” this time, but its observers visited more than 90 polling stations in 13 of Kazakhstan’s 17 regions.

    There were worrying official moves ahead of this latest vote, like recent legislative changes for NGOs and the last-minute requirement of coronavirus tests, Domanski said, in addition to Kazakhstan’s failure to fulfill “many international commitments for holding democratic elections” to which Nur-Sultan had pledged itself.

    “We are talking about the very serious recommendations related to fundamental freedoms, impartiality of election administration, eligibility to stand for elections and to vote for the legislation, media,…and others,” he said.

    “Only some of these recommendations were addressed, most of them, unfortunately, only partially.”

    Domanski said ODIHR’s observers “confirmed” independent citizens’ complaints of unnecessary obstacles to observing the vote.

    ODIHR saw “concerted efforts of the authorities to prevent the effective observation of these elections” that began long before election day.

    Domanski also cited tax investigations on NGOs initiated in November, a Central Election Commission resolution granting itself “wide discretion in dismissing the citizen observers,” and the late imposition of COVID-19 testing requirements that were used to exclude journalists and citizen observers.

    He blamed the last-minute COVID-19 testing stipulation, in particular, for preventing nearly 90 percent of 2,000 planned observers for two NGOs — MISK and Erkindik Qanaty (Wings of Liberty) — from deploying effectively.

    “These concerted measures adopted by the authorities prevented the independent observers from effectively observing the election,” Domanski said.

    He said that ODIHR was still looking into whether, in addition to moves that flouted international standards of “good practice,” Kazakh authorities might have contravened their own national legislation.

    Kazakh officials have defended their moves as an effort to clarify the situation around NGO operations, he said. “[But] it looks to us [like] bad intention, basically, bad practice and a lack of goodwill,” Domanski said.

    He cited Internet service interruptions and website shutdowns throughout election day and criminal and legislative dampers on freedom of expression.

    “It stifles genuine political debate. It results in self-censorship of the media, and it makes this entire political space stripped of a genuine debate, political debate, which is a normal and necessary element of any democratic reality and community,” Domanski said.

    He said that ODIHR “stand[s] ready to help state authorities to improve to improve, to implement these recommendations,” including through expert legal opinions and “comprehensive dialogue” with Kazakh election officials.

    “But the goodwill is needed from Nur-Sultan, from Kazakhstan, in order to start this, to engage in this dialogue in a genuine and serious way.”

    He acknowledged that this generally rests “mostly [on] the political will of the national authorities.”

    The elections decided 98 of 107 seats in the Mazhilis. Nine other seats will be separately elected by the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan — a political body chaired by Nazarbaev designed to represent ethnic groups in the country.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Trial Over Deadly 2019 Kazakh Ammo Blasts To Continue Behind Closed Doors

    A court in Kazakhstan’s southern city of Shymkent has decided to continue behind closed doors a trial concerning a series of deadly ammunition warehouse blasts in 2019. It cited classified materials in the case for doing so.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • HRW Urges Biden To Champion Human Rights After Trump’s ‘Disastrous’ Tenure

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on President-elect Joe Biden to reinforce the commitment of the United States to human rights after four years of shirking it during Donald Trump’s presidency, and to join broad coalitions that have emerged to stand up to “powerful actors” such as Russia and China that have been undermining the global human rights system.

    Trump was “a disaster for human rights” both at home and abroad, HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth wrote in an introduction to the New York-based watchdog’s annual report on human rights published on January 13.

    [Trump] cozied up to one friendly autocrat after another at the expense of their abused populations…”

    According to Roth, the outgoing president “flouted legal obligations that allow people fearing for their lives to seek refuge, ripped migrant children from their parents, empowered white supremacists, acted to undermine the democratic process, and fomented hatred against racial and religious minorities,” among other things.

    Trump also “cozied up to one friendly autocrat after another at the expense of their abused populations, promoted the sale of weapons to governments implicated in war crimes, and attacked or withdrew from key international initiatives to defend human rights, promote international justice, advance public health, and forestall climate change.”

    This “destructive” combination eroded the credibility of the U.S. government when it spoke out against abuses in other countries, Roth said, adding: “Condemnations of Venezuela, Cuba, or Iran rang hollow when parallel praise was bestowed on Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Israel.”

    But as the Trump administration “largely abandoned” the protection of human rights abroad and “powerful actors such as China, Russia, and Egypt sought to undermine the global human rights system,” other governments stepped forward to its defense, he said.

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    After Biden’s inauguration on January 20, the U.S. government should “seek to join, not supplant” these collective efforts by a range of Western countries, Latin American democracies, and a growing number of Muslim-majority states.

    Biden should also “seek to reframe the U.S. public’s appreciation of human rights so the U.S. commitment becomes entrenched in a way that is not so easily reversed by his successors.”

    China

    According to HRW’s annual World Report 2021, which summarizes last year’s human rights situation in nearly 100 countries and territories worldwide, the Chinese government’s authoritarianism “was on full display” in 2020.

    Repression deepened across the country, with the government imposing a “draconian” national-security law in Hong Kong and arbitrarily detaining Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region on the basis of their identity, while others are subjected to “forced labor, mass surveillance, and political indoctrination.”

    Russia

    In Russia, HRW said the authorities used the coronavirus pandemic as a “pretext…to restrict human rights in many areas, and to introduce new restrictions, especially over privacy rights.”

    Following a “controversial” referendum on constitutional changes, a crackdown was launched on dissenting voices, with “new, politically motivated prosecutions and raids on the homes and offices of political and civic activists and organizations.”

    Belarus

    The situation wasn’t much better in neighboring Belarus, where HRW said thousands were arbitrarily detained and hundreds were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment as strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka faced an unprecedented wave of protests following a contested presidential election in August.

    “In many cases they detained, beat, fined, or deported journalists who covered the protests and stripped them of their accreditation,” HRW said. “They temporarily blocked dozens of websites and, during several days, severely restricted access to the Internet.”

    Ukraine

    According to the watchdog, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine “continued to take a high toll on civilians, from threatening their physical safety to limiting access to food, medicines, adequate housing, and schools.”

    Travel restrictions imposed by Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian authorities in response to the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated hardship for civilians and drove them “deeper into poverty.”

    Balkans

    In the Balkan region, HRW said serious human rights concerns remained in Bosnia-Herzegovina over “ethnic divisions, discrimination, and the rights of minorities and asylum seekers,” while “pressure” on media professionals continued.

    There was “limited” improvement in protections of human rights in Serbia, where journalists “faced threats, violence, and intimidation, and those responsible are rarely held to account.”

    On Kosovo, HRW cited continued tensions between ethnic Albanians and Serbs and “threats and intimidation” against journalists, while prosecutions of crimes against journalists have been “slow.”

    Hungary

    Elsewhere in Europe, the government in EU member Hungary continued “its attacks on rule of law and democratic institutions” and “interfered with independent media and academia, launched an assault on members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, and undermined women’s rights.”

    Iran

    HRW said Iranian authorities continued to crack down on dissent, including “through excessive and lethal force against protesters and reported abuse and torture in detention,” while U.S. sanctions “impacted Iranians’ access to essential medicines and harmed their right to health.”

    Pakistan

    In neighboring Pakistan, the government “harassed and at times prosecuted human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists for criticizing government officials and policies,” while also cracking down on members and supporters of opposition political parties.

    Meanwhile, attacks by Islamist militants targeting law enforcement officials and religious minorities killed dozens of people.

    Afghanistan

    HRW noted that fighting between Afghan government forces, the Taliban, and other armed groups caused nearly 6,000 civilian casualties in the first nine months of the year.

    The Afghan government “failed to prosecute senior officials responsible for sexual assault, torture, and killing civilians,” while “threats to journalists by both the Taliban and government officials continued.”

    South Caucasus

    In the South Caucasus, six weeks of fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region dominated events in both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    HRW said all parties to the conflict committed violations of international humanitarian law, including by using banned cluster munitions.

    Central Asia

    In Central Asia, critics of the Kazakh government faced “harassment and prosecution, and free speech was suppressed.”

    Kyrgyz authorities “misused” lockdown measures imposed in response to the coronavirus epidemic to “obstruct the work of journalists and lawyers,” and parliament “advanced several problematic draft laws including an overly broad law penalizing manipulation of information.”

    Tajik authorities “continued to jail government critics, including opposition activists and journalists, for lengthy prison terms on politically motivated grounds.”

    The government also “severely” restricted freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, including through heavy censorship of the Internet.

    Uzbekistan’s political system remained “largely authoritarian” with thousands of people — mainly peaceful religious believers — being kept behind bars on false charges.

    Citing reports of torture and ill-treatment in prisons, HRW said journalists and activists were persecuted, independent rights groups were denied registration, and forced labor was not eliminated.

    Turkmenistan experienced “cascading social and economic crises as the government recklessly denied and mismanaged” the COVID-19 epidemic in the country, leading to “severe shortages” of affordable food.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Nazarbaev’s Daughter Gets Seat In New Kazakh Parliament

    NUR-SULTAN — Darigha Nazarbaeva, the eldest daughter of Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, is one of the 76 lawmakers from the party led by her father who acceded to the newly elected parliament.

    Nur Otan, the party led by Nazarbaev, on January 12 published the list of its members, including the 57-year-old Nazarbaeva, elected to the 107-member lower chamber, the Mazhilis, after January 10 elections, which were called “uncompetitive” by international observers.

    In May last year, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, Nazarbaev’s hand-picked successor, removed Darigha Nazarbaeva from the post of speaker of the parliament’s upper chamber, the Senate, as well as from her seat in parliament.

    Nazarbaeva’s dismissal from the post that put her second in line to the head of state has been seen by many in the oil-rich Central Asian nation as a result of an ongoing struggle between financial and political groups.

    Nazarbaev, 80, is widely seen as the country’s top decision-maker despite leaving the presidency in March 2019 after ruling the oil-rich Central Asian nation for nearly three decades. In addition to leading the Nur Otan Party, he holds a lifetime post as chairman of the powerful Security Council and enjoys almost limitless powers as elbasy — leader of the nation.

    Earlier in the day, Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission said that the Aq Zhol (Bright Path) party won 12 seats, and the People’s Party (formerly the Communist People’s Party) secured 10 seats in the Mazhilis.

    On January 11, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, an advisory body controlled by Nazarbaev, elected nine members of the Mazhilis, a duty defined by election legislation.

    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had observers in the resource-rich country, said in a statement on January 11 that “an uncompetitive campaign and systemic de-facto limitations on constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms left voters without genuine choice.”

    Observers have deemed past elections in Kazakhstan neither free nor fair, and fraught with electoral fraud, repression of opposition candidates, and restrictions on a free press.

    Kazakhstan’s All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), which describes itself as an opposition party, boycotted the January 10 vote saying nothing had changed this time around despite Nazarbaev’s pivot to a less conspicuous public role after he stepped down.

    After detaining several activists in the run-up to the vote, police kept up the pressure on election day, detaining dozens in major cities across the country.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Elections In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Fail To Satisfy

    There were expectations that the January 10 elections in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan would fail to truly reflect the will of the people in those two Central Asian neighbors.

    Now that preliminary results are in, they look even worse than feared.

    Kazakhstan

    Kazakhstan’s vote was its first parliamentary elections since Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev became president nearly two years ago.

    Campaigning was barely noticeable, but election officials still claimed that more than 63 percent of voters cast ballots.

    Despite Toqaev’s promises of allowing genuine opposition parties to participate in politics, no such parties were registered and allowed on the ballot, though several tried.

    That left five pro-government parties to compete.

    Toqaev also said he would ease restrictions on peaceful demonstrations, but there was no evidence of that in the days leading up to elections or the day of voting.

    Reports from Kazakhstan on election day included members of Oyan Qazaqstan (Wake Up Kazakhstan) and the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan being surrounded by police in Almaty and forced to remain there in freezing temperatures for more than eight hours.

    Police prevented any of those who were ring-fenced from leaving, forcing some with no choice but to urinate on the ground, and prevented outsiders from bringing tea or food to the demonstrators.

    Two people were taken by ambulance to the hospital, one with frostbite.

    Dozens of activists were detained, arrested, or fined ahead of or on election day.

    Reports said more than 100 people were detained in Almaty alone. Some people planned to protest, but others said they were detained as they left their homes on the way to cast their ballots, thus depriving them of their right to vote.

    The number of independent election observers has been growing in Kazakhstan since the 2019 presidential election. But on January 10, many were prevented from doing their jobs.

    Some were ejected from polling places.

    Some said they were turned away because they didn’t have documents certifying they had been tested and were negative for the coronavirus.

    Activist Roza Musaeva posted on Twitter that she was a “legal observer” but that police detained her and that the head of the local election commission told her that her accreditation had been revoked.

    The outcome of the elections was never in doubt.

    But when the preliminary tally was announced, it also appeared to vindicate the skepticism of those who warned that there would be no difference between these elections and previous Kazakh parliamentary elections.

    The results suggested that the only three parties to win seats in the 2012 and 2016 elections were once again the only parties to be awarded seats.

    In 2012, the state allocated some 5.2 billion tenges (about $34.5 million at the time based on the 2012 average exchange rate of 150 tenges to $1) from the budget for the elections to parliament and local councils, or maslikhats. The result was that the Nur-Otan party, headed by longtime Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, won 83 of the 98 available seats, the Aq Zhol party won eight seats, and the People’s Communist Party of Kazakhstan won seven.

    Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev votes in Nur-Sultan on January 10.

    Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev votes in Nur-Sultan on January 10.

    In 2016, Kazakhstan held early parliamentary elections after authorities said the deteriorating economic situation caused by the fall in the price of oil — Kazakhstan’s major export — demanded a new parliament with fresh approaches to deal with the situation.

    The state allocated 4.8 billion tenges (about $14 million at the March 2016 exchange rate of 340 tenges to $1) for those elections.

    The result was that the Nur-Otan party won 84 seats, while Aq Zhol and the People’s Communist Party of Kazakhstan were each awarded seven seats.

    Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission said in October 2020 that some 15.3 billion tenges (about $34 million at the January 2021 rate of 420 tenges to $1) would be spent on the January 10 elections to parliament and local councils.

    The result was the Nur-Otan party reportedly winning 76 seats, Aq Zhol 12, and the People’s Party of Kazakhstan (they dropped “communist” from their name in November) 10 seats.

    Even if these results were genuine mandates from the masses, the three parties that won seats are neither gaining nor losing much support over the past decade. The government has spent tens of millions of dollars (or tens of billions of tenges) in that time for elections that produced essentially the same results.

    And this continues to happen as the younger generation in particular in Kazakhstan has been calling for change since Nazarbaev stepped down as president in March 2019.

    Kyrgyzstan

    In Kyrgyzstan, fewer than 40 percent of eligible voters participated in the snap presidential election and national referendum on January 10.

    According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Azattyk, Kyrgyzstan has 3.56 million eligible voters, some 1.354 million of whom cast ballots.

    Among 17 candidates, Sadyr Japarov, a man who was in prison barely three months ago, won the election with almost 80 percent of the vote, the second-highest total in a presidential election in Kyrgyzstan’s history after Kurmanbek Bakiev’s 89.5 percent in the 2005 poll.

    According to Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Japarov received 1.1 million votes.

    In the accompanying referendum on whether Kyrgyzstan should have a presidential or parliamentary form of government, almost 81 percent, or some 1.147 million people, voted for a presidential system.

    Both figures look like overwhelming victories for both Japarov and change.

    But looked at another way, it is difficult to see them as the will of the people.

    In part, that is because more than half of eligible voters did not participate.

    Some good reasons have been offered for this.

    Japarov and others in his interim government claim there was less vote-buying and less use of administrative resources. Certainly the former, if true, would be one reason that fewer people turned out on January 10.

    A supporter of Kyrgyz President-elect Sadyr Japarov attends a rally on Ala-Too Square in Bishkek on January 11.

    A supporter of Kyrgyz President-elect Sadyr Japarov attends a rally on Ala-Too Square in Bishkek on January 11.

    Vote-buying plagued the October 4 parliamentary elections and played a large role in fomenting the popular backlash in Bishkek on October 5 that eventually brought down the government.

    Authorities scrapped the use of Form No. 2, a document that allowed people living away from their registered area of residence to vote anywhere in Kyrgyzstan so long as they registered there ahead of election day.

    And perhaps some of the 2 million-plus voters who did not cast ballots were simply disillusioned. Kyrgyzstan held a referendum on constitutional changes in 2016, a presidential election in 2017, and then there were last year’s parliamentary elections.

    It is worth remembering that the population of Kyrgyzstan is around 6.5 million.

    So Japarov is said to have received the backing of 1.12 million people, while the referendum got support from 1.15 million. Each figure represents around 17 percent of the country’s population, which arguably does not qualify as overwhelming popular support.

    Japarov’s amazing rise from prisoner to president is thought by some to be the result of backing from organized criminal groups.

    Such suspicions will likely limit foreign investment in Kyrgyzstan in the coming months, and possibly years, potentially prolonging the deep economic problems that Kyrgyzstan faces.

    Democratic governments have given the lion’s share of Central Asian aid to Kyrgyzstan because it was seen as an “island of democracy” that could set an example for its neighbors of the goodwill that accompanies democratic progress.

    Voting for a presidential system of government could limit such aid in the future.

    Russia has been cautious about the change of power in Kyrgyzstan after October and has withheld promised aid, though President Vladimir Putin did send Japarov a letter of congratulations on January 11.

    Kyrgyz authorities — before and since October 4 — have made repeated requests to China for more time in repaying loans. In so doing, they likely put Kyrgyzstan on Beijing’s list of high-risk countries for future investment.

    And the coronavirus continues to affect Kyrgyzstan’s economy, with little indication so far of when vaccines will be available and the health crisis brought under control.

    Speaking to supporters on Ala-Too Square in Bishkek on January 11, Japarov said time is needed to put the country on the right track.

    But some think Japarov will need to hurry. He has promised a lot, and much of the reason people voted for Japarov was because they wanted change for the better — and soon.

    And in a country that has seen three presidents chased from power by protests since 2005, there already seems to be ample room to bring Japarov’s election and the referendum into question.

    Aigerim Toleukhanova of RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service contributed to this report.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Ruling Party Keeps Tight Grip In ‘Uncompetitive’ Vote

    Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party has kept its firm grip on power in parliamentary elections called “uncompetitive” by international observers

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • RFE/RL Journalist Expelled From Polling Station In Kazakhstan

    An RFE/RL journalist has been expelled from a polling station by local election authorities saying that he did not have a negative COVID test. The incident happened on January 10 in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, as the country held local and parliamentary elections.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Protesters Detained In Kazakhstan Amid Parliamentary Elections

    Dozens of activists were detained on January 10 in at least three of Kazakhstan’s main cities, including the capital, Nur-Sultan, amid local and parliamentary elections. Protesters rallied in the country’s largest city, Almaty, calling for a boycott of the vote and denouncing authoritarian ex-President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s Nur Otan, the ruling party since 1999.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: How Central Asia Dealt With COVID In 2020 And What’s Coming In 2021

    The year 2020 will always be remembered as the year the coronavirus appeared and spread across the globe.

    The virus exposed weaknesses in every country, particularly in health-care systems, but it also affected trade and tested alliances.

    The responses from the five Central Asian countries differed.

    This was most evident in their official reporting on registered cases and deaths, where countries such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, even though their figures were often questionable, released statistics that showed the countries were facing a serious health crisis, while countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan carefully manipulated figures to ensure an outward appearance of controlling the situation. And then there was Turkmenistan, which chose complete denial and continues its farcical claims that the country has somehow been immune to the coronavirus.

    How did the five countries fare in 2020 and, with various vaccines being developed and gradually being made available internationally, how does 2021 look for Central Asia?

    On this week’s Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL’s media-relations manager for South and Central Asia, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion that looks at these questions.

    This week’s guests are: from Kazakhstan, Gaukhar Mergenova, a public-health specialist; from Kyrgyzstan, Ermek Ismailov, a surgeon at the Clinical Hospital Office of the President and Government of the Kyrgyz Republic; and originally from Uzbekistan but currently a senior journalist for RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, and based in Prague, Barno Anvar; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • With No Opposition On Ballot, Kazakhstan Holds Parliamentary Elections

    Voters in resource-rich Kazakhstan head to the polls on January 10 in an election lacking one crucial element: an opposition.

    Former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s Nur Otan, the ruling party since 1999, is expected to maintain its dominant position in the Mazhilis, the lower house of the parliament.

    Along with Nur Otan (Radiant Fatherland), four other political parties loyal to the government — Adal (Honest), Auyl (Village), Ak Zhol (Bright Path), and the People’s Party (formerly the Communist People’s Party) — are taking part in the elections.

    The only officially registered political party that labels itself as an opposition group, the All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), announced in November that it was boycotting the elections because Kazakhstan’s political landscape continues to be dominated by the “same” political elite.

    The lack of competition has dashed the hopes of the country’s Western partners who had hoped for deep political reforms. Nonetheless, some say continuity will bring the stability needed to attract foreign investment — primarily into the oil, gas, and mining sectors.

    The vote is the first legislative poll in the Central Asian nation since the resignation of Nazarbaev, who ruled the nation for three decades before stepping down in favor of his handpicked successor Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev in March 2019.

    Despite stepping down, Nazarbaev maintains vast influence in the country’s politics. He is the head of the powerful Security Council, and also enjoys almost limitless powers and immunity as elbasy — leader of the nation.

    “This election campaign is no different than the previous [elections]: the same rules, the same law, the same procedures, the same political parties,” OSDP leader Askhat Rakhimzhanov said.

    International election observers say that past elections in Kazakhstan have been neither free nor fair, citing electoral fraud, repression of opposition candidates, and restrictions on a free press.

    Meanwhile, civil rights activists and opposition politicians have accused Kazakh authorities of intentionally refusing to officially register opposition political groups in recent months, calling it a government ploy to prevent opposition parties from participating in the elections.

    Dozens of activists have been jailed in recent weeks in what rights defenders describe as a campaign of pressure on activists and independent election observers, and a clampdown on free speech ahead of the polls.

    The elections will decide 98 of 107 seats in the Mazhilis. Nine other seats will be separately elected by the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan — a political body chaired by Nazarbaev designed to represent ethnic groups in the Central Asian nation.

    The last parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan were held in March 2016.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Former Almaty Mayor, Wife — Wanted On Corruption Charges — Given Asylum In Switzerland

    Former Almaty Mayor Viktor Khrapunov and his wife, Leila Khrapunova, both sentenced to lengthy prison terms in absentia in Kazakhstan on corruption charges that they have rejected as politically motivated, have been granted asylum in Switzerland.

    Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court (FAC) issued a statement on January 7 saying that the decision to provide asylum to “a Kazakh couple who are now divorced” was made because the two “who previously held high-ranking positions in the Kazakh regime, are at risk of being subject to unfair criminal proceedings if they return to the country.”

    “This couple therefore has a special profile which would put them at particular risk were they to return to the country. For this reason, the FAC rules that asylum must be granted to these people. These judgments are final and may not be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.”

    Leila Khrapunova confirmed the couple in the FAC statement was her and her husband in a Facebook post on January 7 and that the decision was made on December 29.

    Khrapunov was mayor of Almaty from 1997 to 2004. He was later appointed governor of the East Kazakhstan region but was dismissed from that post in 2007 and served for a short time as emergency situations minister.

    Khrapunova served as the chairwoman of Kazakhstan’s national television and radio corporation in 1994-95.

    Khrapunov and his family moved to Switzerland in 2007 in the wake of a scandal surrounding parcels of land that he was accused of distributed illegally during his tenure as mayor.

    In October 2018, a court in Almaty tried the couple in absentia and found them guilty of organizing a criminal group, financial fraud, and bribe-taking.

    Khrapunov was also found guilty of abuse of office and of the illegal privatization of property belonging to another person.

    The court sentenced Khrapunov to 17 years in prison and his wife to 14 years.

    Both have vehemently denied the charges, calling them politically motivated.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.