Rich-poor gap fuels tension in Kazakhstan's commercial capital

Joanna Lillis 8/09/06

Pitched battles involving Molotov cocktail-wielding protestors and police are a rare sight in Kazakhstan, which has enjoyed a remarkable degree of stability in the post-Soviet era. However, such a spasm of violence erupted recently in an Almaty suburb when authorities attempted to enforce a slum clearance plan. The incident underscores the problems associated with Kazakhstan's rapid economic growth and the widening gap between rich and poor.

Discontent among Almaty's poorer inhabitants has been brewing for months over the housing issue. Many believe greed is a major factor in the government's action, as the condemned structures are to be replaced by new housing developments. Some 500 homes in Almaty's Bakay area have already been destroyed, and portions of the Shanyrak District have been targeted for demolition.

In recent weeks, residents have mounted organized resistance to the slum clearance plan, which was authorized by a Kazakhstani court in February. Inhabitants say they have no clear way of redressing their complaints, or of appealing the judicial ruling.

At the heart of the dispute lies a legal gray area. Some of the contentious areas were originally outside the city limits, but were subsequently reclassified to accommodate Almaty's rapid growth. The city's expanding limits has led to confusion over the re-registration of the residents' land plots and houses. Residents describe paying steep bribes to receive documentation that has now been deemed illegal. Dos Koshim – an activist speaking on behalf of the Support for Shanyrak Committee, an advocacy group established July 25 – said that 90 per cent of the Shanyrak residents possess documents for their land, but acknowledged that many of them failed to undergo the appropriate registration process, leaving their titles open to challenges.

Underlying the resistance is a sense of desperation in those who have already been, or stand to be affected by the demolitions. Almost all the inhabitants in the slum-clearance zone are ethnic Kazakhs, mostly migrant workers from rural areas. They contend that with land and housing prices in Almaty skyrocketing, they cannot afford to move. Although Kazakhstan is experiencing double-digit annual growth, income distribution is far from even. Average monthly salaries in Kazakhstan in May were just 330 US dollars, according to official statistics.

"There is a major housing problem in Almaty," Koshim said in an August 2 interview with EurasiaNet. "People who come here have nowhere to live, and in the villages there is no work." He assailed authorities over the lack of an internal migration management plan, even though the city needs migrant workers. "The state has failed to prepare a strategic program to deal with urbanization," he said.

Aygul Mukreyeva, one of the unlucky ones whose house in the Bakay District has already been demolished, made an impassioned plea at an August 3 roundtable discussion involving residents and city officials. "Surely the law doesn't say that I, a citizen of independent Kazakhstan, can't live in Kazakhstan?" she said. "We have nowhere to live.... Please help us – this is a cry from the heart!" At present, Mukreyeva lives in a prefab apartment building, crowed into a small space with six others. "It gets very hot during the day," she said. "There are rats and there is no water."

Some inhabitants claim that prior to the 2005 presidential election, they were promised the titles to their homes would be recognized if their district re-elected President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ended up winning the vote in a landslide. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. "People have been deceived," Yevgeniy Zhovtis, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Observance of the Law, told the round table. "The first problem is that the state should somehow keep its word," he continued. "People have ... been promised things and those promises have not been kept."

While some commentators blame the central government for failing the poor, others point to City Hall. "Local authorities are the main guilty party," Koshim said. "For 10 years they did not monitor or control the situation, although that is their duty." It was only when land prices began rising rapidly in Almaty that they took an interest in the issue, he claimed.

Authorities have shown no sign of wanting to compromise with the residents, especially in the aftermath of the riot. The trouble started on July 14 when authorities acted to enforce a slum clearance order in Shanyrak. Roughly 150 police officers attempted to remove a barricade erected by local residents, but were repulsed by protesters throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. "Law-enforcement bodies were subject to attack in the demolition district by people in an aggressive frame of mind," according to an Almaty Police Department statement issued July 26.

According to news accounts, 16 police officers required hospitalization due to injuries suffered in the melee. During the rioting, residents captured and later released three police officers, including a 24-year-old who had suffered burns over roughly 70 percent of his body. The badly burned officer subsequently died on July 26.

In connection with the officer's death, officials have brought a murder charge against Aron Atabek, head of the nationalist movement Kazakh State, which fights for greater recognition for Kazakh language and culture in multi-ethnic Kazakhstan. He is not an inhabitant of Shanyrak, but has played an active role in resisting the demolitions. Some nationalist leaders claim that ethnic Kazakhs comprise a disproportionate share of the country's underprivileged class.

Atabek, who also faces charges of kidnapping and creating mass disturbances, has long courted controversy. He became politically active in the late Soviet era, launching the Alash National Freedom Party, which pushed a nationalist agenda and called for the creation of an Islamic state. In 1991, he faced criminal charges following an incident in which party members occupied Almaty's central mosque in an effort to force the removal of the incumbent imam.

Since April, Atabek has headed the Land and Dwelling Committee, a group dedicated to promoting the rights of homeless Kazakhs. The involvement of Atabek and other nationalist figures in the protest movement has led to charges that the nationalists are trying to exploit the housing demolition issue for their own political purposes.

Almaty Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov – a powerful political figure who is viewed as a possible presidential contender – insists that the letter of the law must be followed. Speaking at a meeting with newspaper editors on July 18, he said Almaty could not be responsible for providing housing for the displaced. "Most of them are social outsiders," he said. "We are not in a position to provide them with housing."

Bakhtygyl Saidakhmetova, whose house at Bakay was bulldozed, told EurasiaNet that the only thing she wants from the state is the chance to rebuild. "We are not asking anyone for anything – just for our plot to be legalized so we can rebuild our house," Saidakhmetova said.

"We are placing our hopes in the authorities, hoping they will help us. We aren't losing faith in them," she continued. "Perhaps all this hasn't reached the ears of our president. We hope for the best. We live in a civilized, democratic state."

Editor's Note: Joanna Lillis is a freelance writer who specializes in Central Asian affairs.

Posted August 9, 2006 © Eurasianet