Kazakh Investigative Journalist Disappears

A Kazakh investigative journalist, Oralgaisha Omarshanova, disappeared on March 30th following a local story about the killings of several people in a small village in Southern Kazakhstan. A writer for independent weekly Law and Justice (Zakon i Pravosudiye), Omarshanova’s disappearance has caught the eye of fellow journalists, human rights groups and local authorities. She had previously received threats as a result of her reporting.

RFE/RL has more details.

Below is an excerpt of this press release the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent out on Omarshanova’s disappearance…

At a press conference in Almaty on Wednesday, the journalist’s brother, Zhanat Omarshanov, told reporters that in the weeks prior to her disappearance Omarshanova had received several death threats by telephone, warning her to stop her reporting, Regnum reported.

During the press conference, Zakon i Pravosudiye reporter Mukhit Iskakov said Omarshanova told him she had purchased a rifle to defend herself after receiving the threats, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The broadcaster said police are investigating the disappearance but do not have any information regarding her whereabouts. | Read more…

Great Decision 2007’s Central Asia blog made the following observation about the whole affair…

Conflict between journalists and the Minister of Culture and Information Mr. Ermukhamet Ertsybaev has been a constant theme since May of 2006, when journalists protested the Minister’s “authoritarian methods”. . . What makes this especially troubling: Ms. Omarshanova often focussed upon business and corruption stories. She had been investigating the possible criminal links of an ethnic Chechen family allegedly involved in the March 17th mass brawl in Malovodnoye and Kazatkom townships. | Read more…

Kazakh-Chechen tension continues

RFE/RL gives a little more insight into the massive brawl that took place between members of the ethnic Kazakh and Chechen communities in the villages of Malovdnoye and Kazatkom. With several deaths and allegations of a ‘negligence and corruption’ by local authorities, the window for further recriminations between the two ethnic groups is likely to widen.

It has been two weeks since a pool-hall brawl in southeastern Kazakhstan erupted into deadly violence pitting ethnic Chechens against mostly ethnic Kazakhs. Security troops are still patrolling two villages to avert new violence, and Kazakhstan’s president has vowed to bring the perpetrators on both sides to justice. But the violence has led to soul-searching in a republic that was held up in Soviet days as a model of ethnic and national harmony.

The death toll has risen to five from the ethnically charged violence that followed the pool-hall fisticuffs.

The ensuing melee involved mainly members of Kazakhstan’s ethnic Chechen community and ethnic Kazakhs in the villages of Malovodnoye and Kazatkom — both of which remain under tight police watch.

It has led to mutual recriminations and evidence of negligence and corruption on the part of Kazakhstan’s authorities.

Details of the initial fight remained unclear days after the incident, as authorities had sealed off the area. Investigators suggest that a fight broke out between an ethnic Kazakh and an ethnic Chechen at a billiard hall on the night of March 17. But the violence did not end with an exchange of punches.

The young Chechen reportedly waited outside the pool hall after the fighting and struck the other man with his vehicle, then shot the Kazakh before spitting on him.

Reports say a large group of ethnic Kazakhs marched to the Chechen man’s home the next day and demanded that he come outside. Instead, they met with gunfire from inside the home. Once the shooting died down, the angry crowd apparently burned the house to the ground. In the end, the Chechen youth had escaped but three relatives and two ethnic Kazakhs were dead. | Read more…

Repression of ethnic-Chechens in Kazakhstan?

Shaun Walker over at Russia Profile gives a little bit of perspective to the simmering ethnic tensions between the Kazakhs and Chechens.

The Kazakh authorities were keen to dismiss the violence as mere hooliganism. Many Kazakh newspapers reported – entirely falsely – that only the Makhmakhanov family property had been touched, meaning it was a personal and not an ethnic vendetta. The Interior Ministry even said that any media outlets reporting the events as ethnic violence could be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred.

Alvi Kakayev, a Chechen businessman living in Almaty, and a former soccer player who played both for Terek Grozny and the Kazakhstan national team, said that a government campaign was underway to keep Chechens from speaking out about the events. “I made a short film of the damage, and gave evidence about the attacks,” he said. “A friend in the procurator’s office warned me that this would bring me problems. A few days later, the Interior Ministry people turned up at my business and started causing all sorts of bureaucratic problems, saying I was breaking laws. It’s simple intimidation. It also really scared them that we’ve gone and put the story out in the international media.” | Read more…

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