On July 6, Kazakhstan officially celebrated a public holiday – the Day of the capital, and unofficially – the birthday of the first President of the country, leader of the nation Nursultan Nazarbayev. It has already become a tradition on the part of various opposition structures to organize rallies on this very day. And on the part of the authorities, again, it has become a tradition not to allow these rallies, and if they do occur, then do everything so that the first President doesn’t know about them. Why would the birthday man spoil the holiday?
July 6 was no exception. In Almaty, in the center of the city, a rally of the unregistered opposition Democratic party took place. About 80 protesters opposed the Chinese expansion. Law enforcement officers immediately moved towards the protesters. According to the already established tradition, the police used kettling (encircling a group of protesters with police cordons and keeping them inside the barriers for a long period of time) to the initiative group of the Democratic party. In addition, in the area of the rally, as well as in the areas adjacent to it, cellular communications and the Internet were immediately blocked. All streets leading to the place of the meeting were closed – not only for cars, but also for pedestrians.
Meanwhile, the leader of the unregistered Democratic party, Zhanbolat Mamay, addressing the protesters, said that Nursultan Nazarbayev didn’t deserve monuments. It’s worth noting that on the eve of the birthday of the Kazakh leader of the nation, two new monuments were unveiled – in the capital Nur-Sultan (the former city of Astana, which was renamed in honor of Nazarbayev) and in Turkestan.
“Today they say a holiday… What kind of holiday can we talk about? The people have been feeling unhappy for thirty years of Nazarbayev’s rule. More than two million people live in poverty due to corruption. They don’t care about any condition of the people. They are traitors. Nazarbayev doesn’t deserve a monument. In this, he has already surpassed Lenin. It’s time to throw Nazarbayev into the dump of history!” Mamay said.
Another activist of the Democratic party, Abzal Dostiyarov, made a similar statement:
“Nazarbayev plunged Kazakhstan into corruption. He didn’t do anything else! Let Nazarbayev leave with his family! Let him leave power! Let Kassym-Jomart Tokayev leave! For two years he couldn’t do anything. They are both old men. They have no fresh ideas. They have no opinion. They have no character. They must remove themselves from power,” said Dostiyarov.
The protesters began to support them, shouting the main opposition slogan “Shal, ket” (translated from Kazakh, this means “Old man, go away!”. The “old man” means the first President Nazarbayev).
After that, the employees of the Special Rapid Response Unit began to use physical force against them.
According to Inga Imanbay, the wife of Zhanbolat Mamay, the Special Rapid Response Unit tried to detain particularly active activists, and when trying to resist, they used physical force against them.
“Two of them were very badly beaten. Many, who were there, are injured,” said Imanbay.
Meanwhile, Zhanbolat Mamay said that the activists Yrysbek Toktasyn and Dauren Dostiyarov, who were detained at the rally, had disappeared.
“After they were taken from the place of the rally, we don’t know anything about their fate. We don’t know what happened to them at the police station, whether they were beaten after their arrest and where they are being kept. After being released from kettling, we arrived at the police department of Bostandyk, where we were informed that all three were arrested for 10 days and they would be taken to a temporary detention center in Kaskelen. We immediately went to Kaskelen to find out if they were taken to the police. However, we were informed that three people were not brought from Almaty. We called the police department, where they told us that they were not in the temporary detention center in Almaty or in the special detention center on Lobachevski. Then where are they? There is also no official information from either the court or the police. What happened to them? Maybe they were seriously injured and mutilated during the detention, because the police are hiding their whereabouts. If they were taken to Kaskelen, then why do they refute their drive there? Everyone knows that civilian activist Dulat Agadil was killed in the police temporary detention center, where he was taken after being detained. What happened to the three activists yesterday? Why do they hide information about their whereabouts? We demand clarification of the situation and official information about their fate,” Mamay said.
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