By SudOuest.fr with AFP
The repression is in full swing in Kazakhstan, where a new death toll shows at least 164 dead, the authorities also announcing Sunday to have arrested nearly 6,000 people
Riots in Kazakhstan this week have left at least 164 people dead as authorities in Central Asia’s largest country continue their relentless crackdown, with nearly 6,000 arrests, according to a report on the government’s Telegram channel on Sunday. to be withdrawn, the Ministry of Health telling Russian and Kazakh media that the information had been published in error, without however officially denying these figures.
This balance sheet, which could not be independently verified, is on the rise. Authorities had so far reported 26 protesters and 16 members of the security forces killed and more than 2,000 injured.
The presidency announced Sunday that 5,800 people had been arrested and 125 investigations opened in the wake of these unprecedented riots since the independence, in 1989, of this country of 19 million inhabitants rich in hydrocarbons.
“The situation is stabilized in all regions of the country”, even if the security forces are still carrying out “cleaning” operations, declared the presidency after a crisis meeting with the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Live ammunition
Kazakhstan, a country of about 19 million people rich in hydrocarbons, was rocked this week by riots unprecedented since its independence in 1989, which killed dozens of people.
The protest began in the provinces last Sunday after the increase in gas prices, before reaching large cities, including the economic capital Almaty, where riots broke out, the police firing live ammunition at the demonstrators.
According to the Interior Ministry quoted by local media on Sunday, the material damage caused by the violence was initially estimated at around 175 million euros.
More than 100 businesses and banks were looted and more than 400 vehicles destroyed, according to the same source.
Kazakhstan announced on Saturday the arrest of the former director of intelligence services, Karim Massimov, the first major figure arrested, on suspicion of “high treason”.
Refusing any dialogue with the demonstrators, President Tokayev had authorized his forces on Friday to “shoot to kill”.
Stores reopen
Relative calm seemed to have returned to Almaty in recent days, with police sometimes firing shots into the air to prevent residents from approaching the town’s central square.
A sign of a timid return to normalcy, around 30 supermarkets reopened in Almaty on Sunday, media reported, amid concerns over shortages. Long queues of vehicles have formed in particular in recent days in front of gas stations.
But Almaty still bore the scars of those days of violence, with building facades blackened by flames and scorched car wrecks littering the streets. The airport, which was to reopen on Monday, will ultimately remain closed “until the situation stabilizes,” authorities said on Sunday.
In addition to the rising cost of living, the figure of ex-President Nazarbayev, who ruled Kazakhstan with an iron fist from 1989 to 2019, was at the center of the protesters’ anger.
His spokesperson, Aïdos Oukibaï, once again denied on Sunday that Nazarbayev had left the country, assuring that he supported the incumbent president.
Russian-American tensions
The situation in Kazakhstan is followed with concern abroad, Pope Francis thus expressing Sunday his “pain” and calling for “dialogue” to find peace. “The order to shoot to kill, insofar as it exists, is immoral and must absolutely be canceled”, for his part judged the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken.
The crisis in Kazakhstan has also given rise to tensions between Russia and the United States, in a context of growing tensions between these two powers.
Moscow has deployed troops to the Central Asian country as part of a multinational collective security treaty organization (CSTO) contingent, at Tokayev’s call.
The United States said it would be “very difficult” for Kazakhstan to get the Russian military to leave, a criticism Moscow called “crass on Saturday”.
While American and Russian representatives are due to meet from Sunday evening in Geneva to talk about Ukraine and Europe, Moscow has ruled out any discussion with Washington on Kazakhstan. “This question does not concern them at all,” swept the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov on Sunday.