ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on May 1 warned of the dangers of national disunity, citing the example of Ukraine, as protests continued in Kazakh cities over the government’s decision to privatize state-owned agricultural land in the country, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
“Ukraine, the second-biggest ex-Soviet state, today has an economy which is half the size of Kazakhstan’s,” Nazarbayev said in a speech on the occasion of the country’s National Unity Day holiday. “Because there is no unity, no sense of purpose, no tasks are being solved, [people] are busy with other things: fighting, killing, brawling,” he said.
Protesters in the Kazakh cities of Kyzylorda and Zhanaozen on May 1 staged demonstrations against government plans to auction off public land to private owners beginning on July 1.
Witnesses said several protesters in Kyzylorda were detained by police, though several of the protesters were invited to voice their grievances to local officials.
The activists told Serik Kozhaniyazov, deputy head of the Kyzylorda region, that citizens deserved a say in how state-owned land is managed. Kozhaniyazov replied that the planned privatization is legally sound and necessary because those managing the lands are not caring for them properly.
In Zhanaozen, a witness told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that dozens of protesters rallied in the city’s central square on May 1, chanting: “No land sales.”
Hundreds of Kazakhs in several cities since April 24 have rallied against the privatization plan amid rumors that foreigners would be allowed to purchase the land.
The government says foreigners will only be allowed to lease agricultural land, and authorities have warned that it is a crime to spread “false information about land privatization”.
On April 26, President Nazarbayev vowed to “punish provocateurs” who are disrupting social order by spreading disinformation about pending land sales.
He has defended the plan, insisting that foreigners will only be allowed to rent agricultural land under 10- to 25-year leases.
Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of National Economy Kairbek Uskenbayev said last week on the national television that foreigners currently have 65,000 hectares of land on lease in Kazakhstan out of the total 272.5 million hectares available in the country.
The new Land Code will give a great impetus to the development of agriculture in Kazakhstan, this opinion was expressed by Head of Management of State Land Cadastre of the Housing Construction and Land Management Committee at the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Ruslan Dautalinov, on April 29 at the round table on the privatization of agricultural land, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
“On July 1, the city administrations plan to put 1.7 million hectares of land for sale for involvement in economic turnover… I think that will give a great impetus to the development of agricultural areas and the rural economy as a whole,” Dautalinov said.
As the Kazakh government earlier said, unused land will be withdrawn and will be returned to the state for possible transfer to those persons who wish to work on the land.
