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Voices from Kazakhstan: Protesters did not bow despite bloody repression
We had only one requirement; regime change. People are tired of not enjoying their rights as citizens and the constant lack of respect for their rights as human beings.
This is what the Financial Times reported on the Kazakh activist Dana Zanai, who participated in the protests that swept her country last week.
The newspaper says that the return of internet services that were cut across the country for most of the past week revealed the extent of the bloodshed in this operation overseen by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, which made public sentiment turn against him, according to analysts and political activists.
The Financial Times quoted activist Asit Abishev, who was among the first to take to the streets in Almaty (Kazakhstan’s largest city) last week and one of the first to be arrested; After 4 days of detention, he came out of detention covered with bruises, which he confirmed were the result of torture and beatings. He described the situation in police stations by saying, “The police station – which consisted of 5 floors – was like a ‘mobile torture belt’.”
This activist described the torture as horrific, as “we could hear screaming from all the windows of the building. They put bags on the young men and strangled them, and beat them and kicked those who were lying on the ground,” noting that those who were subjected to these types of torture are nothing but “ordinary citizens who were kidnapped from street, pedestrians and taxi drivers.
Noraybek – the brother of a woman who was shot dead when she was visiting her daughter – agrees with Abishev’s assessment of the situation, saying, “Only this despicable government is responsible, it must change. They can survive. When these people protest, they are literally crushed and mixed with dirt, as happened with my sister Nuralia’s body.”
Activists said the continuing brutality has fueled public anger, with people criticizing what they see as cosmetic changes to the government since former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down in 2019.
As for the government, the newspaper says that it did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations of violence, but the newspaper referred to what Tokayev said last Friday in a tweet on Twitter that “those who committed serious crimes will be punished according to the law.”
