Kazakhstan activists recall path from protest to bloodshed

“A significant part of the people are those who came at the call of their hearts to express their attitude towards the authorities, because they are tired, because they do not feel like the state is providing them with social security,” said human rights activist Galym Ageleuov, president of the Liberty Foundation.Tokayev initially tried to calm the crowds by announcing a 180-day cap on fuel prices and removing Nazarbayev as head of the National Security Council, a move widely seen as an attempt to end the former leader’s patronage while also consolidating power.But the protests continued and the violence escalated amid the peaceful rallies in Almaty.A protester whose first name is Bezshan said that on Jan. 5, armed men approached and asked young people in the crowd to help them storm a police station. He was freed shortly afterward, and upon returning to Kyrgyzstan said his statement on Kazakh TV was false — he was visiting a friend in Almaty and got swept up while trying to leave the city.Ruzakhnunov told a Kyrgyz broadcaster that while in jail, his cellmates said the quickest way to get released was to confess to a false story, so that’s what he did.Alzhanov, the analyst, noted that Kazakh state broadcasters amplified the government’s message by repeatedly airing video of the turmoil.“They continued broadcasting the visuals, so the government was interested in communicating them to a broad audience,” he said, adding that the state of emergency that was declared provided a pretext to suppress the demonstrations with force.A protester named Daulet told AP that he believed the “security forces deliberately painted the protesters as some kind of a fringe group prepared to riot.”Beken, the protester who described seeing what he called “provocateurs,” criticized the security forces “for shooting at their own people.” He said a Jan. 6 rally he attended featured protesters walking toward the military with a white flag.“It is unfathomable.