Kazakh unrest simmers

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 10

Kazakh unrest simmers

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Violence and nationalist ferment in three regions of the Soviet Union underlined calls by the country’s new Parliament for a quick solution to social unrest.

The Parliament, which will resume its inaugural session today, has urged Kremlin leaders to end the turmoil which has erupted in several parts of the country over the last year.

Ethnic violence has killed more than 100 people this month in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Unrest in Kazakhstan was still simmering more than a week after it began.

In Moldavia, more than 2000 km to the west on the Soviet border with

Romania, tens of thousands of people marched to “mourn” the establishment of their republic in 1940 and to demand concessions on their native language.

Nationalist sentiment also surfaced further north in Byelorussia where groups formed a “National Front” to defend local economic and cultural interests. On the eve of the resumed sitting of the Supreme Soviet, the 542member full-time inner Parliament, the Communist Party daily, “Pravda,” said disorders broke out in five Kazakh towns at the week-end. It reported no casualties.

Four people have been killed in the the Kazakh oil and gas producing town of Novy Uzen, sparked by complaints

that temporary workers from Transcaucasia enjoyed higher salaries and better living conditions.

“Pravda” said a 150strong mob with sticks, stones and metal bars attacked a police station in Mangyshlak, 140 km northwest of Novy Uzen. They were dispersed by troops flown in by helicopter and 51 people were arrested. “Pravda” also reported that “disorders and pogroms” — usually meaning an organised attack on members of a minority group — had occurred in four other towns in the region east of the Caspian Sea.

Ten days of clashes in neighbouring Uzbekistan this month between native Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks killed 99 people. Two more died when the

unrest spilled over into the republic of Tajikistan further east.

In the Moldavian capital, Kishinev, a local journalist said 40,000 people took part in a legal demonstration denouncing the creation of their republic on June 28, 1940 — mainly from territory ceded by Romania. The marchers, many carrying blue, yellow and red Romanian flags or wearing black ribbons, demanded the establishment of Moldavian as a State language and the reinstatement of Latin instead of Cyrillic script. Speakers called for the creation of a new republic incorporating Northern Bukovina, which was given to the Soviet Ukraine by Romania in 1940.