For example, the authorities in Almaty have reportedly rejected a request for permission to hold a rally on February 13 to commemorate those killed during the protests. Activists say they plan to hold the rally anyway. His 1972 critique of the now-discredited Widgery report on Bloody Sunday challenges its findings from a legal and human rights perspective. “An incredibly brave thing to do, incredibly valuable thing to do,” says Dr Houlihan. I asked them what are you looking for? I told them I was a journalist and I showed them my press vest and documents.”

Our country then faced the threat of sliding into chaos and anarchy. It was literally a matter of minutes. Without any exaggeration, the preservation of our statehood was at stake,” he wrote, expressing high hopes for the continued democratization processes. Now he’s 70,000 words into the second novel. “Writing’s the most unsociable thing. I live by myself. I sit at the kitchen table and work. So, I’ve started writing outside the house because it’s driving me nuts. I’ll sit at McDonald’s and do it there, do it on the bus or train. It’s a lonely pursuit.” Oh God, yeah. You could see it coming. We got downsized about four times. We stopped replacing people. And it was stupidly overpaid, the music industry. It really was. There just wasn’t the money to sustain it and of course the first thing to go was the stuff I do.” Mazhilis deputy Yerlan Sairov noted that the January events began with peaceful protests by citizens tired of systemic injustice. According to official figures, six people detained in connection with the January events died in pretrial detention centers. According to the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, 234 criminal cases have been initiated on allegations of torture, with only 134 criminal cases remaining open as of 12 July 2022. Only 20 law enforcement officers are being investigated, only eight of these have been detained and no law enforcement officer has yet stood trial. In many torture cases, even where a victim has identified an alleged perpetrator, the authorities have not designated them as suspects.

A gas mask rests near a fence of an administrative building in central Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Jan. 7, 2022, after violence that erupted following protests over hikes in fuel prices. ABDUAZIZ MADYAROV/AFP via Getty Images Metal worker Akylzhan Kiysimbayev -- who was wounded during the events in January -- was still on crutches when AFP spoke to him. Zhanagul, wearing her blue press vest with silver stripes, had covered many protests in her 26 years as a reporter. She initially didn’t think there was anything ominous about this particular one on January 3. There didn’t even seem to be a leader, and at that point, the police hadn’t detained anyone on the square. Both the deputy regional mayor and the city mayor showed up and urged the small crowd to stay calm. After a couple of hours, people left.

Please don’t go,” she recalled her daughter saying. “I’ll wash the dishes myself for a whole month. I’ll take care of the cat.” A burnt vehicle near the Almaty mayor’s office building on Jan. 6, 2022. Photo credit: Reuters/Mariya Gordeyeva Sitting next to Putin in Saint Petersburg, Tokayev said Kazakhstan would not recognise "quasi-state territories" like eastern Ukraine's rebel republics, as Russia has. Zhanagul began her career at a regional state television station, which was a far less risky job because state media outlets typically don’t cover protests. In 2011, Zhanagul joined Azattyq, U.S. supported Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe’s Kazakh-language service.

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In a subsequent report , Human Rights Watch said that Kazakhstani authorities “arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters and others, ill-treated and tortured some detainees, and interfered with detainees’ access to lawyers” after the January unrest. Some were arrested before the violence escalated, and others seemingly detained for livestreaming the protests. International Anti-Torture Day: Kazakhstan must ensure justice for the victims of torture during the January 2022 events 26 June 2022 Around 11 p.m. on January 9, police arrived at the Aktobe house of Orda.kz journalist Ardak Erubayeva as she and her 13-year-old son were getting ready for bed. Other guarantees of independence – the investigative body should be fully independent, transparent, adequately resourced and based on international standards. [2] In 1977 Prof Boyle became the first full-time professor of law at the University of Galway; he subsequently worked for Amnesty International on human rights cases around the world and became Mary Robinson’s adviser during her time as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Many cars had no plates. Peaceful protesters were there, but there were also groups of clearly trained people who came to fight. A rally is when you come out and voice your demands. What these people wanted was unclear. Suddenly someone shouted ‘Let’s go to the airport’ and they started leaving.” He thought little about politics before he found himself on the sidelines of a fierce clash between police and protesters.

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Comparisons with McIlvanney would terrify him, he says. “Mine isn’t anything near as good.” But he hopes, like McIlvanney, he is writing about a real place; that his Glasgow will be recognisable to those who lived through those times. Prof Boyle was born in Newry in 1943 and became a lawyer and academic at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as an executive member and press officer for NICRA; his archive includes documents such as the minutes from the agm of the South Derry Civil Rights Association, held in Bellaghy in March 1972, which demonstrate the strength of feeling about Bloody Sunday in the area. Men attending the protest in Aktobe in early January 2022 warm themselves by a fire. Photo credit: Yuri Geist. Now we can say that under controlled chaos, the operation to remove the country’s top leadership was carefully planned,” said Asylov on Jan. 5, reporting to deputies of the Mazhilis, a lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament. “In fact, it was a coup attempt.”

The 2023 CWA Daggers Shortlists Have Been Announced". Ian Fleming. 2023-05-17 . Retrieved 2023-07-10. His editors wrote letters to the mayor and to the police arguing that Dmytry was acting as a journalist, and they threatened to raise “a big noise” if he was put in prison, he said. Two days of mourning were observed on February 1st and 2nd for the victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre in Derry. The public responded wholeheartedly to the call for a general close-down. Marches, protests and vigils were held in many centres.” Tokayev’s deftness in the past year came as a surprise to both his enemies and well-wishers. Before the unrest, Tokayev was seen as a wooden official who had loyally served in the highest posts of Nazarbayev’s regime. Although Nazarbayev, then 78, formally handed over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019, Tokayev was derided as Nazarbayev’s “ furniture” because Nazarbayev remained in control behind the scenes. We cooked bread ourselves at home because we have a bread oven. All the shops were closed, but we had food for a few days. Sometimes relatives would bring us something, so we were not hungry. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t withdraw money because the banks were not working,” Umarova says.

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Six months after the deaths of over 240 people and hundreds were allegedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, there has been no accountability for the victims and their families. To ensure justice the Kazakhstani government needs to take urgent action to set up a fully independent investigation with the input of recognized independent international experts.