Dozens of demonstrators killed by Kazakhstan security forces as unrest continues
Russia-led alliance troops arrived in Kazakhstan on Thursday as violent protests rocked the Central Asian country for days. Following the protests, the Kazakhstan government resigned and a state of emergency was declared.
Dozens of people, including citizens and police officers, have been killed in Kazakhstan which saw its worst street unrest since the country gained independence 30 years ago.
Protestors forcibly entered government buildings, and set fire to the city’s main administration office. Nearly 2,000 people have reportedly been arrested in Almaty, the country’s largest city. Access to internet has also been shut down and messaging apps including WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram were blocked.
The peacekeeping force from Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led Eurasian military alliance, were deployed in Kazakhstan. CSTO comprises of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, had requested CSTO’s assistance, describing protesters as “a band of international terrorists.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is the chairman of CSTO’s Security Council, said that an unspecified number of troops would be sent to the Central Asian nation “for a limited time period” to “stabilize and resolve the situation.” The situation remains unpredictable especially due to phone and internet blackout.
What led to the protests?
Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country, bigger than the whole of Western Europe, with a population of about 19 million and a strong economy. The protests started at the weekend in the oil-rich western Mangystau region over rising fuel prices. Soon after, the demonstrations quickly spread to other regions. Other than fuel prices, the longstanding issues driving the protests, include anger over corruption, income inequality and economic hardship, which have all been exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic.
Blinken urges ‘peaceful’ resolution to Kazakhstan chaos
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Thursday with his Kazakh counterpart and “reiterated the United States’ full support for Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions and media freedom and advocated for a peaceful, rights-respecting resolution to the crisis,” according to a readout from State Department.
