Kazakhstan unrest

[Fambo Number Mive]

Apparently the president of Kazakstan has said troops can "fire without warning". Is that not illegal under international law?

Al-Jazeera reports:

...In a televised address on Friday, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev warned demonstrators would be "destroyed" in the event of further disturbances as part of a forceful "counter-terrorist" operation aimed at restoring order...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/7/more-killed-as-kazakh-leader-says-order-restored-live-updates

According to the Guardian:

...Valeria Ibraeva, an art historian who watched the protests from her window overlooking one of Almaty's main thoroughfares, said on Tuesday the crowds were "friendly and smiling, without aggression and with lots of hope". By Wednesday, however, there were attempts to overturn a bus on the street and widespread looting of shops, she said.

Radio Azattyq, the Kazakh service of Radio Liberty, reported unrest in cities across the country. In Aktobe, protesters had got together to defend the airport and railway station, insisting they did not want violence and demanding negotiations with authorities. In other cities there were burnt-out cars, a shutdown in public infrastructure and panic as people could not withdraw money from banks and found their cards did not work after the banking system closed down.

In the town of Taldykorgan, protesters pulled down a monument to Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ran the country from its independence in 1991 until 2019, on Wednesday. The former president, who has the official title of leader of the nation, has not been seen in public since the protests began, and there were rumours on Thursday he and his family may have fled the country...

[Blumf]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/how-tony-blair-advised-former-kazakh-ruler-after-2011-uprising

Narzabayev invited Blair to give him strategic advice after Kazakh security forces shot dead 14 people during the country's December 2011 anti-government uprising. The protesters in the western oil town of Zhanaozen were demanding higher wages.

...

Blair offered advice on a speech Nazarbayev made in Cambridge, where the Kazakh leader was to make his case to a western audience of academics and dignitaries.

In a letter to Narzabayev, Blair advised the president to "meet head-on the Zhanaozen issue" while stressing the "enormous progress" Kazakhstan had made since its independence from the Soviet Union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has an abundant supply of accessible mineral and fossil fuel resources. Development of petroleum, natural gas, and mineral extractions has attracted most of the over $40 billion in foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1993

Funny old world.