ASTANA (TCA) — Police detained several protesters who demonstrated outside the headquarters of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s ruling party in Kazakhstan’s two main cities, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.

Some of the dozens of protesters called for Nazarbayev’s resignation during the rallies on February 27 in front of the Nur-Otan party buildings in the capital, Astana — where he took part in a party congress — and Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty.

Protesters accused the government of the energy-rich country, which Nazarbayev has ruled since before it gained independence in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, of ignoring the needs and demands of ordinary people and families.

Protests have been held across Kazakhstan in recent weeks following the deaths of five children from a single family in a house fire in Astana on February 4.

The predawn fire destroyed a tiny family home in Astana while both parents were away working overnight shifts, killing five girls aged 3 months to 13 years.

Also on February 27, police in the southwestern city of Zhanaozen detained two RFE/RL correspondents who were covering a protest by local residents who have been demonstrating since February 9.

One of the correspondents, Sania Toiken, said by telephone that police used force when they bundled her and cameraman Sanat Nurbek into a police car.

Toiken and Nurbek were brought to a police station and were being questioned in separate rooms, Toiken said. She said that police told them they had been detained on the basis of an unspecified complaint.

Local police declined to comment to RFE/RL on the detention of the two correspondents.

Nazarbayev, who is 78 and is expected to seek reelection in a vote next year, told the Nur-Otan party congress that he had ordered the equivalent of about $790 million to be earmarked for social assistance to low-income families.

He also said he ordered the government to allocate 980 billion tenge (about $2.6 billion) toward boosting public sector salaries in the next three years.

TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan’s gold reserves are expected to increase by 474 tons worth 18.75 billion U.S. dollars during 2020-2024, according to a draft document published on February 26 by the country’s State Committee for Geology, Xinhua news agency reports.

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ALMATY, Kazakhstan (TCA) — The economies of Central Asia must significantly increase financial protection against natural disasters and consolidate efforts to effectively manage disaster risks, said experts at a Regional Forum on Disaster Risk Financing in Almaty on February 26, the World Bank reported.

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ASHGABAT (TCA) — As Turkmenistan experiences an economic crisis and state-budget cuts, the government agencies are being reorganized, which leads to considerable downsizing of their staff, independent foreign-based news agency Chronicles of Turkmenistan reports.

In mid-February, hundreds of street cleaners and office staff were made redundant as a result of transfer of the production association Aşgabatgurluşyg under Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Construction and Architecture to the Ashgabat Housing and Maintenance Office.

Those who moved from other provinces and hold temporary registration in the capital, primarily females, were the first to be informed of the upcoming dismissals. Those who resided in dormitories were evicted and their residence registration was cancelled.

Many office employees, including accountants, economists and engineering staff of both Aşgabatgurluşyg and the Ashgabat Housing and Maintenance Office were offered the jobs of street cleaners as an alternative to dismissal. The majority of the employees have accepted the job offer.

It was earlier reported that a third of employees of the restructured institutes under the Turkmen Academy of Sciences will be made redundant, and the budget cuts will be conducted in the agencies of the Education Ministry, which will subsequently result in a headcount reduction.

The new headcount and the organizational chart of central administrative offices of ministries and agencies, state administration offices in the provinces and the city of Ashgabat have been approved by the recent resolutions issued by the President of Turkmenistan.

ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s new cabinet of ministers “should be the Government of real action, aimed at concrete results,” Prime Minister Askar Mamin said at the first meeting of the new Government on February 26, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

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KABUL (TCA) — A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban has said the group is close to reaching an agreement with the United States on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, RFE/RL reported.

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