Campaign Kazakhstan

According to kazakh newspaper “Respublika”, Bolat Atabayev has been freed. The London protest was followed by a Berlin action in front of the kazakh embassy’s “summer party” on June 27.

That evening, a number of well-known german and international artists together with trade union and social activists staged a protest in front of the kazakh embassy in Berlin. The diplomatic circles of the german capital were meeting at the embassy’s „Summer party“, but the immediate reason for the protest was the imprisonnement of Bolat Atabayev, internationally renonwned theater director and longtime german-kazakh cultural liaison.

Bolat had been jailed on June 15 (see former report on campaignkazakhstan.org for details). The Berlin protest was based on a performance of two actors, one portraying freedom and the other one the kazakh state. You can see videos here and here.

In a spectacular performance, the actors played a street theater scene of freedom being hit, beaten until she is bloodstained, and dragged through the mud of the rainy evening. Freedom means „Freiheit“ in german, so on the picture below you can see that the actress is wearing a white t-shirt with that imprint and has got quite a large amount of (artificial) blood in the proces of torture. During the performance, a text by Volker Schmidt was read, expressing the hope of an end to the repression of freedom of opinion and democratic and human rights. After the performance, participants and spectators were asked to put their palm in the replica of a plaster hand print resembling that of Nursultan Nasarbayev in Astana, this time their wishes being strongly against the kazakh president’s regime.

Painter Raushan Tolganbayeva had created a portrait of Bolat Atabayev. Berlin trade union activists from GEW and ver.di unions were also present, and many artists joined the CampaignKazakhstan banner and signs reading „Free Bolat Atabayev“ in german and english, „Free Vadim Kuramshin“, „Freedom for the oilworkers“, „Full inquiry into the death of Takhir Mukhamedyzanov“ and „Full union rights in Kazakhstan“.

Among the artists was renowned Roberto Ciulli, director of Theater an der Ruhr, who has known Bolat Atabayev for many years and in a moving speech, told us that he could never imagine how his friend and democrat would „incite social disorder“, as had been the accusation of the kazakh state in the run-up to the trial on June 28.

When the bulk of the diplomats arrived, we repeated the performance, only to be told by the police that the embassy staff had intervened and imposed the 20 meter „neutral zone“guaranteed to diplomatic buildings by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations – but in the narrow streets the kazakh embassy in Berlin is located in, this would have meant protesting in the surrounding building’s living rooms! So we continued handing out leaflets and shouting „Free Bolat Atabayev“ in german and russian. In the end, the embassy personnel raised the volume of their „garden party“ PA so much that even the party participants might have asked themselves what they were trying to hide.

Some photos of the protest:

by Ben Robinson, Campaign Kazakhstan England

Campaign Kazakhstan protested outside the London Kazakhstan embassy yesterday (21 June) to demand the immediate freeing of the latest high profile political prisoner – Bolat Atabayev. The protest was joined by Esenbek Ukteshbaev, leader of the independent Kazakhstan trade union, Zhanartu, visiting London to raise awareness of the situation facing workers in Kazakhstan. Alfia Nakipbekova, the celebrated Kazakh cellist, joined the protesters. Her musician and playwright husband, James Hesford, came with her and a friend of his, who makes documentary films, talked to us about what ways he might be able to publicise the atrocious repression of human rights in Kazakhstan.

Sitting on a chair outside the embassy and sheltered from the rain by an umbrella, Alfia played a favourite piece of Bach on her cello. “I am a musician and I will protest in the only way I know how – by playing my music,” she told those around her who applauded with enthusiasm. Her hand-painted placard said: ‘British Artists say Free Bolat Atabayev!’. It drew the attention of many passers-by, including Tobias Menzies, actor in the films Atonement and Casino Royale, who signed the petition.

See a video of the protest here: Protest kazakh embassy London June 2012

Bolat Atabayev is a famous and popular independent theatre director and performer, who has openly spoken out against the dictatorship in Kazakhstan. He was arrested on 15 June on charges of ‘inciting social discord’ in Zhanaozen, where the massacre of striking oil-workers and their supporters took place in December (See www.campaignkazakhstan.org for more info). With him was a young journalist, Zhanbolat Mamaia. Both of them are being sent by road from Almaty to Aktau to stand trial, a journey of over 3,000km. The conditions of the journey, the heat and the discomfort – could kill Bolat. His relatives fear for his health because he suffers from insulin-dependent diabetes, needing medicine every day. His brother was stopped from giving him the medicine needed for the journey by the police (officials at the embassy told Alfia yesterday, “It is not in our interests to let Bolat die!”).

Despite several previous peaceful protests, the Kazakhstan embassy authorities hit their diplomatic emergency button, summoning three police cars with screaming sirens. Protestors explained to the police that Kazakhstan is a dictatorship and that clearly they were hoping the police in London would act in an equally heavy-handed manner. In fact they were friendly and took the campaign leaflet.

Alfia Nakipbekovay and Campaign Kazakhstan supporters went into the embassy building to talk to staff and to hand in a protest letter. The letter demanded the immediate release of Bolat and Zhanbolat, but also of all political prisoners, including the oil workers who have recently been sentenced to years in prison and Vadim Kuramshin.

We were told by the officials that events in Kazakhstan were the business of those who live there. “What would you think if they started insulting the Queen?” they ridiculously asked. Protestors explained that they are against inequality and injustice and will fight it wherever they see it internationally.

It was a successful lobby. International pressure has had an effect on other show trials that the Kazakh regime has attempted, including the release of oil-workers’ lawyer, Natalia Sokolova. Campaign Kazakhstan will not stop until democratic, social and workers’ rights are fully established.

Some pictures of the protest:

Last Thursday, a protest was held in front of the Kazakh embassy in Berlin, Germany, to protest against the recent wave of heavy prison sentences against striking oil workers and their sympathizers who have participated in the Zhanaozen demonstration on December 16, 2011. During the demonstration, police and military forces shot into the crowd with live ammunition, killing dozens of protestors – but those now facing heavy sentences were peaceful participants who did not bear arms!

Campaign Kazakhstan, along with German MP Andrej Hunko (Die Linke), organized the Berlin protest, which was attended by trade union activists from ver.di, junge GEW and IG Metall, as well as members of the Left Party youth wing, Linksjugend ‘solid, and SAV members (German section of the CWI). Additionally, a Kazakh artist currently living in Berlin joined the rally.

Participants spoke about the independent Kazakh trade union organization, Zhanartu, and the recent strikes and protests in Kazakhstan. We also pointed out that the death of well known Kazakh activist Takhir Mukhamedzyanov is seen with suspicion by many in Kazakhstan, and gave our condolences to his family, friends and comrades. Campaign Kazakhstan calls for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of Takhir’s death, as well as of the Shanaozen massacre.
A protest letter signed by CampaignKazakhstan, Andrej Hunko MP, Alexandra Arnsburg of Berlin-Brandenburg ver.di executive committee, and junge GEW Berlin union was handed over to the ambassador.

Video of the protest (in german): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8-KJ5dhoyE

Last Saturday, Esenbek Ukteshbayev, president of the fighting independent trade union in Kazakhstan, Zhanartu, spoke in London. He brought home to an audience of more than 500 UK workers’ representatives and activists the atrocities carried out by the Nazarbayev regime against striking workers and their representatives. His address brought the sixth National Shop Stewards’ Network conference to its feet out of respect for the tremendous struggle being waged against the murderous dictatorship in his country.

A video of the speech can be viewed on youtube here (part 1) and here (part 2).

On 5 June, friends and colleagues of Takhir Mukhamedzyanov, who were worried that he had not turned up for work after the previous weekend, went to his flat in Karaganda where they found his body. While the cause of death is not yet known, the passing away of Takhir, a healthy and energetic 51 year-old, is surrounded by suspicion. Not least because Takhir recently received threats from “persons unknown” that they would “get rid of him”.

For many years, Takhir worked as a miner, first in Soviet industry and then, after privatization, for ‘Arcelor-Mittal’, which took over all the main pits and metal foundries in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. He was illegally sacked in 2008, after which he took up full-time campaigning as Vice-President of the ‘Miners’ Families’, a post he held until his death. Takhir and his colleagues from Miners’ Families gave valuable assistance to those the organization was originally established to help – the widows and children of men killed in industrial accidents – but they also become more and more involved in defending the rights of working miners. Health and safety standards in Karaganda’s pits and metal foundries are ignored by the new bosses in their chase for profits. With the official state-supported trade unions doing little to defend the workers, the Miners’ Families has taken on the role of an independent trade union.

Such activities did not go unnoticed. All sorts of pressure was piled onto Miners’ Families. Meant as a ‘warning’, Takhir’s garage and the car it housed were blown up on 10 October 2010. Activists in Miners’ Families believe that the explosion was directly related to Takhir’s work defending the rights of miners and their widows. According to his comrade, Natalia Tomilova, threats to use violent and terror methods against workers’ rights activists have again become commonplace.

Just two weeks after the garage explosion, at 9.30 in the evening, police turned up at Takhir’s flat and forcibly removed him to a local psychiatric hospital. Two doctors, three uniformed police and a plain clothes agent claimed that following the loss of his property in the explosion, Takhir suffered a breakdown and needed hospitalisation and psychiatric treatment. When they tried to give him an injection of an unknown substance, Takhir managed to break free. He phoned a friend and his daughter collected him and brought him home. Thanks to a public campaign, the doctors were subsequently forced to leave Takhir alone.

In March 2011, he was living in the nearby mining centre of Shakhtinsk when a youth approached him and said that documents that had been in Takhir’s car when the garage exploded (and which, police claimed, were destroyed), had been found on a rubbish tip on the edge of town, revealed after snow melted. This confirmed that Takhir’s garage was broken into before the explosion.

He could not remain indifferent to injustice

Comrades from the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan (previously known as ‘Kazakhstan 2012′) first met Takhir in January 2009. In September 2010, he organized a visit to Karaganda by Joe Higgins (then an MEP for the Socialist Party [CWI Ireland] and now once again a TD [MP] in Ireland). In November 2010, Takhir took part in the founding conference of the ‘Zhanartu’ trade union and was elected to its central committee. In May 2011, he participated in founding the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan and was elected one of its five Joint Presidents. In July 2011, Takhir again organized a visit of an MEP to Karaganda, Paul Murphy (Socialist Party Ireland), who was on his way to visit striking oil workers in Zhanaozen. Just two weeks ago, Takhir visited Zhenkazgan city, where workers have been involved in strike action and are facing repression. He soon found common language with them and left with a firm commitment between the workers in Zhankazgan and Karaganda to support each other in struggle.

Takhir did much work. He could not pass by or remain indifferent if he saw injustice. We will remember him as a tireless and consistent fighter for the rights of the working class of Kazakhstan. We will remember him as a personality; he had no pretensions, he was always spirited, he was a great person in company. We will miss him.

On behalf of the independent trade union Zhanartu and the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan we convey our heartfelt condolences to the relatives and friends of Takhir.

Takhir will always be in our memory, his name written into the history of the working class of Kazakhstan. Rest well, dear comrade.

Statement by the Central Committee of the independent trade union, Zhanartu and the Political Committee of the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan

Campaign Kazakhstan sends condolences to the relatives and friends of Takhir Mukhamedzyanov and demands a full and independent investigation into the cause of Takhir’s death. If it is found that he did not die from natural causes, those responsible for Takhir’s death must be brought to justice.

Zhanaozen city is reportedly surrounded by Internal Ministry troops in advance of the sentencing of the thirty seven oil workers and their supporters on Monday. Supporters of those on trial are planning further protests in Zhanaozen and Aktau.
Only 3 of the 37 have been cleared of all charges. Twenty one of those on trial were sentenced to either 2 or 3 years in prison, with the sentence suspended or, in a couple of cases, subject to amnesty. Thirteen activists, however, received real prison sentences ranging from three years to, in the case of Roza Tuletaeva, seven years.
Roza, a mother of three children, was one of the leading activists in the oil strike. During the trial she related how she nearly suffocated when bags were put over her head during interrogation and she was beaten with iron rods. She suffered other indignities, which she was too embarrassed to tell the court openly as her friends and relatives were present.
It is widely reported in the international press that the events of 16th December resulted from riots caused by the oil workers after seven months on strike. This is an attempt to shift the blame from the Kazakhstan state. The oil workers had planned a peaceful demonstration on 16th December.
Yet according to his court testimony given during this trial, a senior police officer was dispatched with police troops to Zhanaozen on 14 December. Instead of tear gas, rubber bullets or water cannons, weapons and live rounds were issued. Video footage from the conflict shows police firing into unarmed and peaceful protesters, often shooting people in the back. The government admits 15 people were killed, yet no charges have been lodged against the interior minister, who said he had given the order to open fire.
To avoid blame being directed at the regime itself, the General Prosecutor picked out a number of scapegoats from the local authorities and police to put on trial. Undoubtedly guilty of the crimes for which they were charged, they, nevertheless, have served the role of letting higher up figures off the hook.
Five police officers, charged with “exceeding their authority” by shooting live weapons into the crowd, received sentences of between 5 and 7 years. The Head of the Police prison, where a prisoner was so badly beaten that he later died, received 5 years for “not calling an ambulance on time”!  A former mayor and three managers of the KazMunaiGaz company also received sentences of seven years for stealing from the city’s funds and from money that should have been paid by KazMunaiGaz to local welfare funds.

More arrests and torture
Even though these sentences appear strict, they are for crimes that resulted in the death of up to 70 people, the torture and death of protesters while in police custody and the theft of literally billions of tenge from state funds. That similar sentences have been handed out to the oil workers and their supporters indicates that the regime has just been taking its revenge on the workers. None of the workers were carrying arms or can be deemed responsible for violent acts, but on the contrary conducted themselves in a peaceful and disciplined way and ended up as the victims of the police massacre and subsequent regime of terror.
It is now reported that another wave of arrests and torture is taking place. Up to 15 more activists from the oil strike, along with leaders of the opposition political party Alga, are expected to be put on trial for “inciting social discontent” with a possible sentence of up to 12 years.  Large numbers of trade union activists from the OzenMunaiGaz company are being called in for questioning, in an attempt to intimidate them from organizing a new strike. Following questioning, one 51 year old activist committed suicide.
However, local trade union activists report that the workers are still determined to protest, whether outside the City mayor’s office or by preparing new strikes in the region. According to one of the local leaders, the next trial is being prepared, not to take revenge for the last strike, but to try and prevent the next one.

Oilworkers jailed for between three and seven years

Scenes of mass distress and anger erupted at a crammed courthouse in Zhanaozen on 4 June. Vicious sentences were pronounced against oil-workers and their supporters, allegedly for causing the mayhem in their town on 16 December last year. As we have reported on this site, it was the forces of the state who murderously attacked a peaceful gathering of striking oil-workers and their supporters, killing as yet unknown numbers.
Reports say that 13 are being jailed, one whose sentence is yet to be confirmed. The person to serve the longest term in prison – seven years – is a woman, Roza Tuletayeva.
As Reuters reports, “After the last sentences were passed, a crowd of female relatives, many of them wailing, tried to break through a police cordon to reach the glass box where the accused were held. Some of the guilty pounded on the glass from within. ‘Where’s the truth? Where’s the justice? The authorities have led us all to this tragedy,’ an elderly woman screamed. Roza was accused of being one of the main instigators of the violence. Her mother, in tears, was quickly led away from the court by relatives.” Three women were seen by reporters being carried out of the court after fainting.
For full report click here.
For film of the scenes at the courtroom click here.

On 31 May, singer/songwriter and socialist activist, Laura Rafetseder, opened for the British singer and musician, Billy Bragg, during at a concert organised by the KPÖ Steiermark (Communist Party in Styria), Austria.
Laura performed her ‘Ballad of Zhanaozen’ about the Zhanaozen massacre and asked for support and donations for Campaign Kazakhstan.
Billy Bragg and others signed a Campaign Kazakhstan petition demanding the end to all repression and for the immediate release of all activists in Kazakhstan. Donations worth 260 euro were collected for the Campaign.