Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev’s Party Target of Passionate Poem on Zhanaozen Killings

As the shooting of unarmed protestors by Kazakh security forces in Zhanaozen remains unexplained nearly six weeks after the violence, one young Kazakh poet has penned an emotional verse about the tragedy.

The buck for the killings should stop somewhere, Bauyrzhan Khaliolla suggests in the poem – perhaps with the ruling party, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan, freshly re-elected with a landslide in a vote international observers deemed rigged?

“Hey, insidious traitors of Nur Otan, why did you open fire on innocent people?” Khaliolla asks. “For seven months, you ignored the orphaned nation, why did you get bogged down in such great guilt?”

The poet is referring to the months that an industrial dispute dragged on in Zhanaozen’s energy sector without the intervention of Nur Otan, which throughout the labor dispute was the only party represented in the rubberstamp national parliament and which also dominated Zhanaozen’s local council.

Khaliolla’s poem was broadcast on the K-Plus satellite TV station on January 19, four days after Nur Otan stormed to victory with 81 percent of the vote despite the debacle in Zhanaozen – where, to the consternation of some observers, it won 70 percent.

“Who issued the order from on high, to open fire on proud people from an assault rifle?” the poem continues. “I don’t believe that you yes-men could move without Nureke [Nazarbayev]. Will people forget this day?”

Meanwhile, on January 25 Human Rights Watch expressed concern about what detractors say looks suspiciously like a crackdown on the opposition and critical media outlets, with the arrests of opposition leader Vladimir Kozlov and newspaper editor Igor Vinyavskiy, reportedly on suspicion of fomenting unrest in Zhanaozen.

“The authorities pledged a thorough and transparent investigation into the Zhanaozen violence, but these targeted searches and arrests of opposition activists suggest that the government is simply trying to silence its critics,” Hugh Williamson, HRW’s Europe and Central Asia director, said.

“The Kazakhstan authorities’ actions will taint the investigation. A genuinely pluralistic and rights-abiding government tolerates dissent, does not quash it.”