The Left Bank of Astana is normally a staid kind of place. Purpose-built as the seat of government, this futuristic spot is populated mainly by officials in smart suits zipping between the glittery buildings. That changed today, though, as activists took to the streets on the Left Bank for a rare protest. Police made several arrests.
Activists from the For Worthy Housing and Let's Leave Housing for the People movements, which lobby for Kazakhs’ right to decent accommodation, had gathered in Astana from all over the country to persuade President Nursultan Nazarbayev – who’s up for re-election on April 3 – to resolve their housing problems.
Watched by police, they gathered near the Singing Fountain in the heart of the government sector of the city, opposite the parliament, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. The news agency put the number of protestors at over 100, though other sources placed it far higher: the Respublika newspaper suggested several hundred activists had turned out.
The protest later split into two groups, the website of the activist group Socialist Resistance of Kazakhstan said. One, headed by Zauresh Battalova (a well-known For Worthy Housing movement campaigner and former senator), headed for talks with the ruling Nur Otan party, while the other marched through the old center of Astana on the Right Bank. As the protestors marched up the main avenue, they “chanted slogans to boycott the upcoming elections,” Respublika reported.
They didn’t get too far, though: After a kilometer, police rounded up and arrested marchers. The newspaper added that one of its reporters, Zhanna Baytelova, was among the detainees, along with journalist Valeriy Surganov of the Svoboda Slova newspaper. Toward evening Respublika quoted Baytelova as saying that some activists had been released and 51 people remained in detention.
Resolving contentious housing shortages is certainly on Nazarbayev’s mind. As activists were protesting near his office, the president was handing out the keys to new flats in Astana for 400 needy families, Kazinform reported. He said the ceremony was to mark the spring Nauryz holiday that starts this weekend, but this largesse won’t do his re-election campaign any harm either.
Public protest is relatively rare in Kazakhstan, where there are tight restrictions on the right to assembly. They are particularly rare in Astana, heavily populated as it is by Nazarbayev administration officials. However, the snap presidential election appears to have brought protest moods to the fore, and activists are seizing the opportunity to air their grievances.
Joanna Lillis is a journalist based in Almaty and author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan.
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