PRISON RIOTS HURT KAZAKHSTAN BEFORE OSCE SUMMIT

At a time when Kazakhstan is preparing to hold an OSCE summit, local media are buzzing with shocking news from a number of detention facilities across the country. The latest episode in a string of prison scandals took place on September 20 in Karaganda Province, where eight convicts ripped open their bellies in protest against cruel treatment by the prison administration. According to prison officials, rebellious inmates were demanding free movement around prison precincts, unlimited transfers of food and personal belongings from relatives, exemption from community service imposed by the Criminal and Procedural Code of Kazakhstan as well as a right to wear civil outfits. Earlier on August 12, 2010 prisoners from another penitentiary institution located in Akmola Province staged a riot that could only be quelled by special forces numbering at least 100 well-equipped police officers and 60 prison guards. The prison administration even resorted to the use of an armored vehicle to deny the organizers of the uprising any possibility of a breakout. One person was killed during the assault on prison premises, and another prisoner died in hospital after more than half his body had been damaged by fire. 81 persons were seriously injured and rushed to local hospitals. Speaking to the press in the wake of these events, the president of the Public Supervisory Committee for Akmola Province Lyubov Rubezhanskaya stated that most of the prisoners’ claims were unsubstantiated at the outset, as they had purportedly been granted appropriate clothes, nutrition and medical care. As Ms Rubezshanskaya explained, an ordinary conflict among inmates grew into confrontation with the prison administration and led to the assault on the building to prevent further tensions. “They demand that they be permitted to wake up at any time in the morning, watch TV without limitations and avoid community work” she said, adding that the main reason for mutiny in penitentiary institutions is the absence of mandatory labor service which now embraces only 25 percent of the prison population. But in order to change the current setting, she thinks, it is necessary to implement legislative changes at the national level. At the same time, Victoria Tyuleneva, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, believes that the prisoners’ behavior is understandable if one takes into account the rampant occurrences of torture and other forms of cruel treatment in detention facilities as well as the unwillingness of prison officials to meet prisoners’ basic demands. It is not the first time that convicts are forced to use such means to make themselves heard. On July 30, nearly 50 people in Almaty Province staged a riot in protest against poor conditions of detention and regular beatings by prison guards. After the administration managed to suppress discontent, almost 100 relatives gathered in front of the prison doors to ask for explanations. This attempt to elicit any information about the causes and consequences of this incident had little effect, and one woman fainted and was taken to hospital as a result of a scuffle with prison officials.A similar protest took place on July 22 in North Kazakhstan Province, with 30 prisoners participating in a mass self-mutilation campaign designed to draw the attention of media and human rights activists to the dreadful situation in Kazakhstan’s penitentiary system. Vadim Kuramshin, who has been trying to shed more light onto the most horrific cases of physical violence in Kazakhstani prisons, promised to hand over all the evidence collected with the help of his colleagues to Manfred Novak, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment. In May 2009, Novak paid a nine-day visit to Kazakhstan in order to identify problems in the country’s penitentiary regime and present a detailed mission report to the international community. Speaking at a press conference that concluded his trip to Kazakhstan, Novak noted that “the use of torture and ill-treatment certainly goes beyond isolated instances” and even stated that he had been told of “kicking, asphyxiation through plastic bags and gas masks used to obtain confessions from suspects”.According to Kuramshin who organized a press conference one day after the violent suppression of the prison riot in Akmola Province, the UN Special Rapporteur will be able to familiarize himself with the consolidated report on human rights violations in Kazakhstan on October 1, 2010. Human rights activists still hope that the involvement of a high-level internationally known figure might draw the attention of the world community and OSCE Member States to the vices of Kazakhstan’s penitentiary system before the December 1-2 OSCE summit in Astana.