From: "Bob Malecki" <malecki-AT-mail.bip.net>
Subject: M-G: SV: Fascism in Central Asia
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 04:27:56 +0100


Vlad! Will be doing a half hour program tonight for Straightfacts. Will Try
and get this appeal into the program..

Bob
-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Fran: vladimir bilenkin <achekhov-AT-unity.ncsu.edu>
Till: marxism-general-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
<marxism-general-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU>
Datum: den 10 mars 1998 03:30
Amne: M-G: Fascism in Central Asia


>I wonder if some one on this list could forward it to m-i
>and other relevant lists.  Vladimir
>
>
>Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 23:14:26 +0300 (WSU)
>From: pabgem-AT-glasnet.ru
>
>NEW APPEAL FROM KAZAKHSTAN
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>Ionur's trial has finished and the sentence is to be announced on the
>24th
>February. Please keep up pressure on the regime.
>
>Over the weekend we have been visited by the President of the Free Trade
>Union Federation of Kazakhstan. The British paper carried an interview
>with
>him over the miners march on Almata in the autumn.
>
>Since then events have developed. As of writing, three cities in the
>South
>of Kazakhstan, Kentau, Zhanatas and Taraz are experiencing big protests
>over
>the non payment of wages. In Zhanatas a non stop protest meeting and
>hunger
>strike was held outside the City Council building. As a result of the
>hunger
>strike one 27 year old miner died and 70 were hospitalised.
>
>16th February, 250 protesters went to the nearby railway junction and
>blockaded it. As a result 29 trains connecting central Asia to Moscow
>were
>stopped. Today the blockade was broken up by the security organs,
>including
>the KNB (former KGB) who used their truncheons freely against the women
>and
>children present. The protesters were then bundled into an unmarked and
>sealed freight railway wagon and taken off to an unknown destination.
>Memories of Stalin's forced deportations are strong in this area as
>there
>were many prison camps in Kazakhstan.
>
>Clearly the regime is intentionally targetting the workers movement, in
>this
>case the Free Trade Union Confederation, which has not been linked to
>the
>left in the past. Its President, Genaddi Nikitin is now subject to 6
>criminal charges. On one occasion, opium was plated on him. On another,
>his
>daughter was kidnapped. A local KNB source has told them they have had
>orders to deal with the federation within 6 months. One of the leaders
>of
>the current strikes, K Shaldarbekov has disappeared after he was called
>in
>for questionning by the security organs.
>
>These workers are in a desperate position. Many have not been paid for a
>year. In Kentau, electricity is available for only 3 hours a day in a
>city
>where temperatures fall to 40 degrees below freezing. Tuberculosis is
>now
>raging in the city and there is no medicine to treat it. 150 children
>are in
>the hospital suffering from TB and it is widely believed that they were
>intentionally infected by the authorities.
>
>The trade union has made approaches to nearly all international
>humanitarian
>bodies for aid. At best, bodies such as the UN reply that they
>distribute
>their humanitarian aid in conjunction with the government. Kazakhstan
>representatives of the Red Cross replied that they do not help workers
>as
>they tend to get involved in politics (although they did later send some
>token assistance). The trade union knows that organisations such as the
>CWI
>are unable to provide humanitarian assistance (although a small quantity
>of
>-medical supplies were sent in October) but they know that it is only
>organisations such as ours that are able to give them any support.
>
>They have asked us to publicise as widely as possible the situation in
>Kazakhstan and to send messages of support and protest. In particular
>protests about the persecution of trade unions in Kazakhstan should be
>sent
>to President Nazarbayev and General Procuror Xitrin.
>
>Messages of support should be sent to 487090, Republic of Kazakhstan,
>Kentau, ul. Akhmeta-Yacyavi d 83. Nezavisimomu  Profsoyuz Kazakhstans,
>Nikitinu GA
>They can also be sent by email to:  CFTUK-AT-insystip.ksisti.alma-ata.su
>
>Messages of protest should go to
>President Nazurbayev, Republic of Kazakhstan, Akmola, Presidential
>Administration.
>General Procuror, Republic of Kazakhstan, Akmola, Upravleniye Procuror.
>
>
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