Sven forwarded an Email from the AP newswire. I can’t find it online yet, though.

(…)Kazakh Police Break Up Almaty Protest, Hold 67 Activists 2005-10-06 03:21 (New York) — Kazakh police Thursday forcibly broke up a protest against housing problems in the commercial capital Almaty and detained 67 activists, an opposition alliance and rights groups said. The protest, involving more than 1,000 people, was the latest in a series of demonstrations against city authorities’ alleged failure to address housing problems.

My friends in Almaty were all very interested in housing issues. Many planned developments in and around the southern capital require thousands of residents to move houses. As in Moscow, though, these relocations often coincide with massive intimidation campaigns, even murder is no rarity.

Ashgabad is the best example of where this all can potentially lead to. The city’s massive parks were home to thousands of people once before all buildings got torn down and made space for gigantic water fountains and monuments. Lonely residential areas in the middle of the capital look increasingly vulnerable to Turkmenbashi’s megalomaniac city development plans and might not be there anymore during my next visit.

In Almaty, however, it’s the private sector driving all this change. That does not say this is less brutal. Relocations often take place without appropriate compensation. Under false promises, even old and vulnerable people have to leave their homes, which they often inhabited for decades before. As paying rent is a less common practice in the FSU and people tend to own their houses/flats, they often loose their only security.

The violent protest break-up today is a deja-vu of a similar events last month and the month before.