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People can freely express their opinion in Kazakhstan – expert

Kazakhstan Materials 31 January 2015 13:41 (UTC +04:00)
People can freely express their opinion in Kazakhstan, and the Kazakhs do not need to go to the squares to express any political dissent.
People can freely express their opinion in Kazakhstan – expert

Astana, Kazakhstan, Jan.31
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:

People can freely express their opinion in Kazakhstan, and the Kazakhs do not need to go to the squares to express any political dissent, the Kazakh political scientist, head of public fund "World of Eurasia" Eduard Poletayev, commenting on a report by UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai on the results of his official visit to Kazakhstan.

"Regarding the freedom of assembly, one cannot say that Kazakhstan has difficult situation with the fact that there is no such freedom," Poletayev told Trend. "People accumulate their protest in social networks. So, active Kazakhs express their point of view in the Facebook. But mostly the views are expressed if they are connected with infringement of commercial and financial interests of the Kazakh people."

He said that people can go out to the squares if they are dissatisfied with their financial situation because of the low salaries or their delay. As an example, he cited the strikes of oil workers, the main requirement of which was to raise salaries.

On January 28, a press release on the results of four-day visit of the UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai to Kazakhstan was issued, who praised the efforts of the state to ensure the unity, but at the same time said that "maintaining stability is often abused in order to restrict the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of association."

"Such an approach is wrong," he said.

"People who have no opportunity to express their dissatisfaction through peaceful means in many cases are tend to express it in a violent form or find solace in extremist ideology," said the report.

Kazakh government should realize that the free exercising of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is the unique opportunity to understand the soul of the people and the difficulties they face, according to the report.

The special rapporteur added that this can prevent more serious unrest in the society.
"Apparently, the special rapporteur studied the situation not from the outside but directly in our country," said Poletayev.

However, regarding the political sympathies or antipathies, Kazakhs are so tolerant that they do not go out to the streets for this, according to the Kazakh politician.

"There is high support for the president in Kazakhstan," said the politician. "Kazakhstan hasn't seen such criticism, replacing of the prime minister, president as in Ukraine. (five presidents replaced each other in Ukraine in 20 years)."

He added that in general, the authorities feel the mood of the population in Kazakhstan.

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