1 of 7Photo: Yan Blagov / AP
Both members of the security forces and protesters were killed, and hundreds were injured in violent clashes. A Russian-led military alliance has sent forces to quell the riots. On Thursday, there are reports of people injured in the shooting.
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On day five of the riots in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, there have been violent clashes between rebel forces and protesters.
– A dozen rebels have been eliminated. We are in the process of clarifying their identities, Almaty police spokesman Saltanat Azirbek said on Thursday night, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
On Thursday afternoon, there will also be reports from the news agencies Reuters, AFP and Tass about shooting at the main square in the city.
According to Tass, several people were injured here as a result of the shooting. They also report that several explosions have been heard here.
Hundreds of protesters are still standing by the square, but now it may seem that the security forces are trying to remove them completely.
Several people have also been killed at police headquarters in the city. The background is that they tried to enter the headquarters, Ria Novosti reports on Thursday afternoon.
Pictures from the city show heavily armed personnel moving in on foot and driving in trucks.
In a video published on Twitter, you can see the troops approaching the protesters. You can also hear shots being fired.
Russian-led alliance submits forces
On Thursday morning, Kazakh state television reported that thirteen police officers had died in connection with the demonstrations, writes Reuters.
Two of the dead police officers are claimed to have been found with their heads cut off.
In addition, the authorities claim that 354 other police officers have been injured as a result of the demonstrations.
Earlier Thursday morning, a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet states (CSTO) launched an operation to try to quell the riots.
The alliance has deployed forces after the resigned president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jokart Tokayev, asked for help in stabilizing the situation in the country.
The Secretariat of the Collective Security Pact (CSTO) stated that the primary task of the “peacekeeping forces” is to protect critical state and military infrastructure and to assist the Kazakh rebel forces.
Damage
Insurgents have inflicted heavy property damage on several public buildings. The mayor’s administration building, the president’s residence and the premises of Kazakhstan’s state television have been set on fire.
Several police cars must also be on fire. The pictures that come in show a city that looks like a war zone.
Rebels are shouting slogans against former President Nazarbayev.
In one case, they threw a loop around the neck of a statue of him who calls himself “the father of the nation”, and tried to tear it down.
Police in Kazakhstan have arrested about 2,000 people in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
1 of 3Foto: PAVEL MIKHEYEV / Reuters
Widespread dissatisfaction – not just gas prices
Eight people from the country’s security forces have been killed in heavy clashes between rebel forces and protesters during the night, according to Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry. In addition, 317 are injured, they say.
The police in Almaty have asked the residents of the city to stay at home due to the fact that they want to launch an “anti-terror operation”.
The riots have been going on since Sunday night. The demonstrations started as a reaction to higher gas prices.
It sparked a broader uprising with widespread dissatisfaction with the government of Kazakhstan and the country’s president.
The protests that have spread throughout Kazakhstan are expressions of far more than dissatisfaction with high gas prices, said expert adviser Ivar Dale in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee to NTB on Wednesday.
Former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who continues to exercise considerable political power under the official title of “the father of the nation”, has also been criticized.
– It is about a long-standing dissatisfaction among ordinary people over corruption and nepotism, especially in the family dynasty around Nursultan Nazarbayev, said Dale, who himself has lived in Kazakhstan.
On Wednesday, a national state of emergency was introduced in the country after the extensive demonstrations, and the government was dissolved.
On Thursday, the internet was turned off and the country’s banking services are reportedly down, reports Washington Post.
The country’s borders are from today closed to entry from foreigners, according to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, reports Reuters.
But according to the Russian news agency Sputnik, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry denies that it has closed the borders for entry into the country.
–– Disturbing
– Such riots as we now see in Kazakhstan can easily have their own dynamics that are difficult to stop.
This is what researcher and Central Asia expert Helge Blakkisrud at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy (NUPI) tells VG.
He says that the demonstrations and the uprising have spread far faster than most people would have thought in advance and that it is now taking place all over the country, not just in the southwest of the country where it all started.
– It is clear that this met with a broader dissatisfaction with developments in the country. The authorities have responded by declaring a state of emergency, says Blakkisrud.
