Related to Nathan’s recent post on increasing repression against journalists in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakh authorities leaked to KTK TV (Kazakhstan) that they believe they have solved journalist Gennadiy Pavluk’s murder. The three suspects implicated in luring Pavluk to the sixth-floor Almaty apartment from which he was thrown out the window, hands and feet bound with tape, are members of the Kyrgyzstan National Security Service (NSS/SNB).
This was the lead story on the KTK news report, and they’ve already posted it (with Russian text) on their website here; it’s duplicated almost word for word by Ferghana.ru here in Russian and in a fairly accurate English translation here.
Yesterday Kazakh authorities had announced that a group of Kyrgyz citizens were the lead suspects in the homicide investigation, but only commented that they were working out the details of transferring the case and the details of the evidence to the corresponding authorities in Kyrgyzstan. Today, though, it looks like the source that made the leak to KTK TV also commented that Kyrgyzstan, in contradiction to the government’s public statements, were giving only “passive” assistance to the investigation.
Please feel free to post new links in the comments as the story develops!
UPDATE: The Kyrgyzstan SNB has officially denied the implication and also denies that the Kazakh authorities have informed them of the accusations.
This post was written by...
Noah Tucker – author of 27 posts on Registan.net.
Noah has an MA in Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies from Harvard, where he studied under John Schoeberlein and specialized in Central Asian religious issues. He lived in Tashkent from 2002-2005 and returned most recently to Central Asia in 2007. He's lived in Russia as well, and traveled throughout much (but by no means all) of the former Soviet Union. He speaks Russian fluently and reads Uzbek and French, though admittedly not all that often and almost never at the same time. He and his family live at this particular moment near the ocean in a place that's supposed to be warm.
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Kazakhstan reportedly wants to wash its hands and transfer the case to the Kyrgyz authorities.
The international community should press on Kazakhstan to complete the investigation as the murder took place in Almaty and demand from Kyrgyzstan extradition of those responsible for trial.
We should demand nothing less from the OSCE Chair-2010.
I’m actually pretty surprised. I figured that the Kazakhs would let this one go unsolved, so even announcing that Kyrgyz secret police are involved is pretty big and will certainly lead to some tension.
This claim surprised me how they think such a thing can
Well, the Kyrgyz govt. didn’t seem to mind when the Uzbek govt. killed journalist Alisher Saipov in Osh. So maybe they thought the Kazakhs wouldn’t care either. What a shame for all Central Asians that they are represented by such horrible governments.