Sunday, October 11, 2009


INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-KAZAKHSTAN:
ATTACK ON WORKERS' RIGHTS ACTIVIST:
The following appeal comes from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start.
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Kazakhstan: Prominent workers' rights activist attacked:

Late in the evening of September 22, Ainur Kurmanov, a well known workers' rights activist and organizer, was viciously attacked by unknown thugs at the entrance to his home in the capital city of Kazakhstan, Almaty. He is badly bruised from head to toe, suffering from concussion and head wounds and has a broken finger. Recently, Ainur has conducted important campaigning work at the Almatinskii Wagon Factory and also at the Almatinskii Heavy Engineering Plant. With Ainur's active assistance, workers at these plants went on strike and participated in protest meetings and other activities. As a result, hundreds of jobs were saved at the wagon factory and the plant was rescued from bankruptcy and collapse. The attack Ainur suffered last month is without doubt linked to his activity as a workers' rights activist. We ask you to support Ainur and send a clear message to Kazakh authorities to demand the immediate arrest of those guilty for this attack and for the perpetrators of the assault to be exposed.
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THE LETTER
Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the Kazakhstan authorities.
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To General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan Mr. Kairat Mami
To Prosecutor of Almaty Mr. Amirkhan Estaev
Dear Sirs,
I have learned that Ainur Kurmanov, a well known workers' rights activist and organizer, was viciously attacked by unknown thugs at the entrance to his home in the capital city of Kazakhstan, Almaty, late in the evening of September 22. According to the information available to the international union community, this barbaric attack was linked to Ainur’s activity as a workers' rights activist and organizer. At the same time nothing is heard about any actions taken by the authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan to investigate this case and guarantee that anything of this nature will never happen again. This causes a grave concern about the personal security of Ainur and other workers' and human rights activists in Kazakhstan and also raises an issue whether the democratic rights can be properly protected in the country that is going to assume a chairmanship in OSCE in 2010. Therefore I urge you to apply all your efforts in order to carry out an immediate, unbiased and transparent investigation of this case to ensure those guilty for this attack to be found and for the perpetrators of the assault to be exposed.

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