Activists In Kazakhstan Under Pressure Before Independence Day, Massacre Anniversary

NUR-SULTAN -- Opposition and rights activists in Kazakhstan have come under pressure from authorities a week before the commemoration of Independence Day on December 16, a date that coincides with two sensitive anniversaries in modern Kazakh history.

Bolatbek Bilalov, a noted opposition activist, was detained by police on December 9 in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, for unexplained reasons.

Bilalov's wife told RFE/RL that her husband was taken by police as he was traveling to his mother's home.

"He called me and told me that he was being transported to a police station in the Sary-Arqa district," Aqmaral Bilalova said.

The police did not answer questions from RFE/RL regarding Bilalov’s detention.

A day earlier, police in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, said that another jailed opposition activist, Aidar Mubarakov, had launched a hunger strike on December 6, to protest against his incarceration.

Mubarakov was sentenced to 15 days in jail on December 5 for taking part in an unsanctioned protest action in central Almaty last month.

On December 7, another opposition activist, Erlan Faizullaev, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for participating in an unsanctioned protest.

Kazakh authorities have been ratcheting up pressure on opposition and human rights activists in the country as the Central Asian nation readies for Independence Day, which coincides with the anniversaries of anti-Kremlin demonstrations by kazakh youths in Almaty in 1986, known as the Zheltoqsan revolt, and a deadly 2011 police crackdown against protesting oil workers in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen. At least 16 oil workers died in that crackdown.