Just couple of days ago I wanted to join a protest called ‘I don’t believe’ in front of the Central Election Commission. The election process turned out very flawed and I do not believe that people voted in favor of a party they did not know much about. I did not go because of loads of work in the office and this very day found out that all the people who joined the protest were arrested. They received their sentences yesteday ranging from 500 soms (10 Euro) fines to 7 days incarceration. Strangely enough the wellknown activists received more drastic sentences. One of the people who is supposed to spend 7 days in jail is Mirsulzhan Namazaliev who is a youth activist and my fellow blogger.
These events reminded me about the arrests and bans on freedom of assembly during Akaev’s time. Is this history repeating?
2 responses so far ↓
Ken Schoolland // January 2, 2008 at 11:22 pm |
I am saddened by the news that my good friend Mirsulzhan and his friends were arrested and jailed for this peaceful protest! I will be pleased to receive pictures and more of the story as I wish to file a report with Hawaii Reporter about this. Mirsulzhan is one of the greatest intellectual champions of freedom that I have ever met. Thank you for the news. Aloha, Ken
genderstan // January 3, 2008 at 9:16 am |
Hi, Ken! Mirsulzhan is fine now. If you read Russian, you can read more about what happened on his blog http://mirsulzhan.livejournal.com
There are photos of the detaining and court hearing process on http://www.kloop.kg. The activists spent some three days in detention in very cold rooms. Yet Mirsulzhan said that it actually united them and they got to know each other better. Also now the city center has a lot of ‘I don’t believe’ signs so I guess they are determined to continue with taking actions.