Kazakh President gives shoot-to-kill order to quell protests

Security forces appeared to have retaken the streets of Kazakhstan’s main city on Friday after several days of violence, and the Russian-backed president said he had ordered his troops to shoot to kill to quell a nationwide uprising.

A day after Moscow sent paratroopers to help crush the insurrection, police were patrolling the rubble-strewn streets of Almaty, although shots were still heard.

Dozens of people were killed and several public buildings in Kazakhstan were looted and burned in the worst outbreak of violence in its 30 years of independence.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev claimed that those responsible for the riots are foreign-trained terrorists.

“The militants have not laid down their arms, they continue to commit crimes or are preparing for it,” he said in a televised speech. “Whoever does not surrender will be destroyed. I have ordered the forces of order and the army to shoot to kill, without prior notice ”.

Moscow said more than 70 planes were transporting Russian troops to Kazakhstan, and that they were helping to control the main Almaty airport, which was recaptured from protesters on Thursday.

The demonstrations, which began in response to rising fuel prices, have become a broad movement against the government and 81-year-old former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, the longest-serving ruler in a former state. Soviet.

The protesters in Almaty appear to come mostly from the poor periphery of the city or from the surrounding towns and villages. The violence surprised Kazakhs in cities, used to comparing their country favorably with its more repressive and unstable ex-Soviet neighbors in Central Asia.

“At night, when we hear explosions, I am afraid,” declared a woman named Kuralai. “It hurts to know that young people are dying. This has been clearly planned and our government has probably relaxed a bit ”.

In a state where political opposition is barely tolerated, no high-level leader of the protest movement has emerged to make any formal demands.

Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former banker and exiled minister who has become an opponent of the government, said the West must counter Russia’s move.

“If not, Kazakhstan will become Belarus and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will methodically impose his program: the recreation of a structure like that of the Soviet Union,” Ablyazov told Reuters from Paris.

The Interior Ministry reported that 26 “armed criminals” were “killed,” while 18 police officers and members of the national guard were killed, figures that appear not to have been updated since Thursday. State television reported more than 3,700 arrests.

On Friday, new shots were heard near Almaty’s main square, where troops clashed with protesters throughout Thursday. Armored vehicles and troops occupied the square.

Riots were reported in other cities, but the internet has been cut off since Wednesday, making it difficult to determine the extent of the violence.