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NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — The United Nations Human Rights Office has called on Kazakh authorities “to respect freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and right to political participation” following the detention of hundreds of protesters during rallies since Kazakhstan’s June 9 presidential election.
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BISHKEK (TCA) — Ahead of a two-day summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional grouping led by Moscow and Beijing, Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on June 13 discussed bilateral ties and regional security issues with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who is on a state visit to Kyrgyzstan.
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DUSHANBE (TCA) — As close neighbors connected by mountains and rivers and a lasting bond of friendship between their peoples, China and Tajikistan have “set a fine example of friendship and cooperation between countries different in system, culture and size,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a signed article titled “Working Together for a Brighter Future of China-Tajikistan Friendship,” published on June 12 in Tajik media on the eve of his forthcoming visit to the Central Asian country, Xinhua news agency reported.
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NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — On June 12, Prime Minister Askar Mamin took part in the ceremony of signing documents on the construction of new healthcare facilities under the public-private partnership mechanism with a Turkish company, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
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BISHKEK (TCA) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov met in Bishkek in the evening of June 12, pledging joint efforts to promote bilateral ties, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
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NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev has been inaugurated as Kazakhstan’s new president following an election that was marred by what international observers called “widespread voting irregularities” and the arrest of hundreds of peaceful protesters, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.
Tokayev, who was handpicked by former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev to be his successor, took the oath of office on June 12 during a ceremony at the Palace of Independence in the capital, Nur-Sultan.
The 66-year-old took nearly 71 percent of the ballots in the June 9 early presidential election, according to official final results.
Tokayev’s landslide victory was widely expected after he received the blessing of Nazarbayev, who officially stepped down as president in March following almost 30 years in power.
Nazarbayev continues to hold many important political positions and still wields considerable power within the energy-rich Central Asian state and inside his political party, Nur-Otan, whose presidential candidate was Tokayev.
A wave of protests across Kazakhstan during the campaign period against the lack of fairness in the election continued during and after the snap presidential poll.
Two leading Kazakh human rights groups have urged the government to thoroughly investigate the detentions of hundreds of protesters, saying that police used “unnecessarily excessive violence against protesters” in Nur-Sultan, the country’s largest city, Almaty, and other towns and cities.
Kazakhstan’s Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law and Human Rights Charter Foundation said in a joint statement on June 11 that many of those arrested were kept for up to 10 hours without food, water, and contact with their relatives.
In their preliminary statement on the election, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that “a lack of regard for fundamental rights, including detentions of peaceful protesters, and widespread voting irregularities on election day, showed scant respect for democratic standards.”
None of the elections held in Kazakhstan since it became independent in 1991 has been deemed free or fair by international organizations.
