“Indignation, repression and anger prevails”
Tanja Niemeier (Euro-parliament left group staff member in personal capacity)
Two years have gone by and still there is uncertainty about how many people lost their lives when Kazakhstan state forces brutally cracked down on peaceful protesters on Kazakhstan’s Independence Day in 2011. They were mainly oil workers who had previously been involved in strike actions, their supporters and families.
Kinzhigali Suienov and Mukhtar Umbetov are independent trade unionists from the “Aktau” regional trade union as well as members of a local investigation committee that is trying to establish the truth of what happened on that day. They told the hearing convened by Paul Murphy on December 16th in Brussels that it was an event which has shaken and changed Kazakhstan.
They explained how the families of the victims are still suffering from the after-effects of the killings. No compensation has been paid for the victims and their families, the exact number of people who died at the hands of the state forces still has not been established, it is still not clear who ordered the shootings and questions remain as to why special forces were already in the area on that day. Moreover, strike leaders and worker-activists like Roza Tulataeva remain in prison.
Release all political prisoners
The meeting endorsed the call for the release without delay of all political prisoners, including the opposition politician, Vladimir Kozlov, and the human rights lawyer, Vadim Kuramshin. There was broad unanimity among the participants of the meeting that Zhanaozen has marked a turning point in Kazakhstan and that - at least at this stage - it has led to an increase in repression and fear amongst broader layers of the population. The shutdown of practically all opposition media appears to have strengthened the Nazarbayev regime but at the same time illustrates its fear of the voice of ordinary people, discontented with the way society is run and organised in the interests of the political and economic elites.
Bolat Atabayev, exiled theatre director and winner of the Goethe Medal, underlined this point by giving examples of how big business interests take priority over human rights concerns. He was in particular referring to German business interests in the exploitation of natural resources in Kazakhstan.
The EU is Kazakhstan´s first trading partner by a long mark. Nearly a third of its foreign trade (31.6 %) is with the EU, followed by China at just under a quarter (23%) and Russia 18.7%. A full 60% of all foreign direct investment into Kazakhstan comes from EU businesses. Generally, oil and gas account for around 80% of all of Kazakhstan´s exports.
However, the representative of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU´s diplomatic service involved in the negotiations for an enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Kazakhstan insisted that the EU is raising human rights concerns through the appropriate channels and, according to her, is doing its utmost to monitor trials of oppositionists.
Non-Governmental Organisations like the International Partnership for Human Rights and the Open Dialogue foundation, who were present at the meeting, nevertheless suggested that a lot more could be done if the EU was serious about defending its human rights commitments.
OSCE “fails ordinary people in Kazakhstan”
Pedro Teres, a former worker at the OSCE offices in Astana, attended the hearing in order to share his utter disillusionment with a respected organisation such as the OSCE. He explained how he was strongly discouraged by senior staff from addressing concerns in relation to the human rights situation in general and in Zhanaozen in particular. This is while the local OSCE office seems to be concerned over the possibility of getting expelled from Kazakhstan if they ask too critical questions,
Pedro clearly felt that the OSCE was failing ordinary people in Kazakhstan and it does not really care about human and trade union rights. Instead, as Pedro rightly says, it is compliant with the Nazarbayev dictatorship and organises vacuous workshops in which government officials and OSCE staff flatter and congratulate each other over luxurious banquets.
Pedro subsequently went to Zhanaozen on his own accord to carry out interviews and take pictures in order to find out what exactly happened on 16 December 2011. People told him, “When the streets were crowded with people, some men in black clothes set on fire the office of the Akimat (mayor) and the offices of UzhenMunaiGas. When the shooting started, most people claimed that shots were coming from snipers placed at the old hotel and beside the mayor’s office. Troops from other regions had been recruited days before in a plan orchestrated by the authorities to terminate a strike that could jeopardise the oil sector which fuels the country’s economy.”
He also visited the local cemetery and found that more than 20 protesters had died of their injuries only in January 2012. The Kazakhstan regime still has a lot of questions to answer.
Work ahead
Paul Murphy MEP and the organisation he set up - Campaign Kazakhstan - continue to call for an independent, international inquiry into the events at Zhanaozen.
Nicole Kiil-Nielsen, MEP for the Green Party in France is one of the few members of the European Parliament genuinely involved in defending human rights in Central Asia. She told the hearing that the European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-committee will undertake a visit to Kazakhstan in March of this year. We will see if such a delegation turns into another exercise of flattery over luxurious banquets or actually assists those who genuinely attempt to find out what happened on 16 December 2011.
MEPs should take inspiration from Pedro Teres who risked his job with the OSCE by speaking out. He felt he had no other alternative but to tell the truth. He contacted Paul Murphy’s office on his return from Zhanaozen where people had remembered very positively the Irish MEP’s visit during the oil workers’ strike in 2011.
A full recording of the hearing can be watched here:
Keep up protests please to local embassies via http://www.embassypages.com/kazakhstan
