You're reading: Rights groups call for release of Kazakh activists

ALMATY - Human rights groups called on Wednesday for the release of Kazakh opposition activists and a newspaper editor detained during an investigation they said was linked to deadly riots in an oil-producing town.

Days after an election designed to create a veneer of democracy in the former Soviet state, authorities detained members of unregistered opposition party Alga! and the editor of Vzglyad newspaper, according to United States-based Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.

They said they believed those detained could face charges relating to the Dec. 16 unrest in the town of Zhanaozen, where at least 16 people were killed during clashes between police and protesters who included sacked oil workers.

The rights groups said the authorities appeared to be using the investigation into the rare outbreak of disorder to silence its detractors.

"The actions of the authorities and treatment of opposition activists and independent journalists undermine respect for fundamental freedoms," said Susan Corke, director for Eurasia programmes at pro-democracy group Freedom House.

Kazakhstan held a parliamentary election on Jan. 15 that reinforced the authority of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s ruling party, but also admitted two nominal opposition parties in a move heralded by authorities as a step toward democracy.

Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said genuine opposition parties were barred from the election, while one party that participated publicly rejected the results of the vote.

Both Freedom House and Human Rights Watch said those detained included Igor Vinyavsky, editor of Vzglyad newspaper, and Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the Alga! party and an outspoken critic of the authorities. The groups said the Committee for National Security (KNB) searched the homes and offices of those detained.

The KNB, successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement dated Jan. 23 it had opened a criminal case against Vinyavsky in relation to the use of media to call for the forcible overthrow of constitutional order. Such a crime carries a maximum prison term of seven years.

The KNB statement gave no further details and made no mention of Zhanaozen. Its press service did not answer several calls to its office on Wednesday.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for Vinyavsky’s immediate release and said his detention was part of an "ongoing crackdown by the KNB on critical media and opposition activists".

Human Rights Watch quoted Kozlov’s wife, Aliya Turuzbekova, as saying her husband had told her he faced charges of "inciting social discord". He was detained after a search of their house and apartment, HRW quoted her as saying.

Kozlov did not answer calls on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tamara Kaleyeva, head of Kazakh independent press freedom foundation Adil Syoz (Honest Word), said her group had appealed to the office of Kazakhstan’s prosecutor-general with a request to provide more information on those detained.

"A lack of clarity does not add to stability in society, nor does it add to the authority of law-enforcement bodies," she told Reuters. "I believe that our KNB is actually looking for ‘enemies of the people’."

Kaleyeva said under Kazakh law, Kozlov and Vinyavsky should be released or formally charged on Thursday, when a 72 hour period of detention would have elapsed.

Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the "targeted searches and arrests of opposition activists suggest that the government is simply trying to silence its critics".
He added: "The Kazakhstan authorities’ actions will taint the investigation. A genuinely pluralistic and rights-abiding government tolerates dissent, does not quash it."