Tag Archives: protest

More protests in Kyrgyzstan over gold mine

JUNE 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly 500 people protested near the Kumtor gold mine in east Kyrgyzstan, media reported, the latest in a series of protests against the Canadian owners of the mine. The protesters want the mine nationalised. Toronto-listed Centerra Gold owns Kumtor, the biggest industrial project in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz government owns a third of Centerra Gold.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 141, published on July 1 2013)

Kazakhstan undergoes a pension reform

JUNE 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government wants to modernise its pension system. Among other things this means making women work five years longer until they are 63, in line with men.

The logic appears simple but the issue has hit a nerve and triggered a rare show of ground-level dissent.

But, if the public dissent was rare, the government’s climb-down has been little short of extraordinary.

On June 11 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, ever watchful for an opportunity to flourish his man-of-the-people credentials, sacked labour minister Serik Abdenov who had been charged with pushing through the pension reforms.

Mr Abdenov had cut an increasingly forlorn and isolated figure. Audiences have openly laughed at him, he has stumbled over his words when trying to explain the reforms and a protester has pelted him with eggs.

But the climb-down didn’t stop there.

Mr Nazarbayev has also said that the entire pension reform needs to be looked at once again and suggested that the changes should come into effect in 2018 and not in 2014. Since Mr Nazarbayev’s intervention state-influenced media have been putting out stories suggesting that the pension reforms have gone too far.

In Kazakhstan, this is code for a rare government U-turn.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)

Kumtor production resumes in Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Production resumed at the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan after the authorities lifted a state of emergency. Protesters demanding more benefits from the mine had blockaded the site and clashed with police. The Kyrgyz government and Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, which owns the mine, put a Sept. 10 deadline on talks for a new Kumtor ownership deal.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)

A rare public protest in Kazakhstan

JUNE 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — About 30 homeowners protested in central Almaty against excessive interest rate repayments on their mortgages, media reported. This protest was important as it was a relatively rare public demonstration in Kazakhstan. Personal debt repayments have become a potentially thorny issue for the government.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)

Emergency in Kyrgyzstan after Kumtor protest

MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz authorities declared a state of emergency around the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country after thousands of protesters demanding more financial benefits clashed with police. The Kumtor gold mine, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest industrial project, is owned by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold. The Kyrgyz government owns a 33% stake in Centerra Gold.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Gay march attacked in Georgia

MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Orthodox demonstrators attacked a small gay rights march in Tbilisi, injuring several activists. The attack showed Georgian society’s conservative leanings which can collide with the country’s drive towards the more liberal West. Human rights groups accused police of failing to protect gay rights activists.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh women protest new retirement age

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Being pelted with eggs at a press conference was just the latest public humiliation for Serik Abdenov, Kazakhstan’s fresh-faced labour minister.

Mr Abdenov is in charge of explaining why the government intends to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58. This is in line with the age that men in Kazakhstan retire and is an entirely plausible concept.

The problem is that Mr Abdenov appears ill-equipped to explain this to a sceptical public.

Earlier this month, at a meeting in Temirtau, an industrial town in central Kazakhstan, Mr Abdenov took to the stage to explain why the reform was necessary. He faced an audience of unimpressed women factory workers.

Sitting at a desk adorned with a portrait of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr Adbenov offered this enlightened thinking on why women needed to work longer.

“You have to work, to work,” he said triggering howls of laughter from the audience.

Mr Abdenov tried again. “Because, my dear countrymen, because, because,” he said, before tailing off into an unconvincing description of what it means to be a pensioner.

Less than a week later, Andrei Tsukanov, a protester, hurled two eggs at Mr Abdenov during a press conference to discuss the pension reforms.

One egg hit Mr Abdenov, one missed. Again, though, it was all caught on video, heaping further public humiliation on the apparently hapless minister for labour.

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Pension age increase backlash in Kazakhstan

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A man protesting against a proposed increase in the retirement age for women hurled two eggs at the Kazakh minister for labour, Serik Abdenov. The Kazakh government wants to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58.

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Street politics change in Armenia

YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The result of Armenia’s presidential election on Feb. 18 was disputed, just like it was five years ago. And, just like in 2008, the opposition staged regular demonstrations.

This year, though, the urbane Raffi Hovhannisyan, leader of the Heritage Party, led the demonstrations against President Serzh Sarksyan. In 2008, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the firebrand former president led demonstrations.

The two men took a very different approach. Instead of whiping up the crowd in increasingly antagonistic speeches, as Ter-Petrosyan did, a tactic that eventually lead to clashes that killed 10 people, Hovhannisyan has taken a calmer approach.

And has impressed people on the streets of Armenia’s capital.

“What the opposition leader does today is a new style for Armenia, maybe it’s a more Western style campaign,” said Laura Gevorgyan, a young activist who has followed most of the protests.

Hovhannisyan has dubbed his approach a Barevolution after the Armenian word for hello — barev. Despite Hovhannisyan’s efforts, Sarksyan took the presidential oath for his second five-year term on April 9. This disappointed some of Hovhannisyan’s supporters. For many, though, avoiding violence meant that progress has been made.

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Saakashvili rallies in Georgia

APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili attracted roughly 10,000 people to his first major rally in Tbilisi since his party, the United National Movement (UNM), lost a parliamentary election in October. Mr Saakashvili is locked in an increasingly acrimonious fight with Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)