Translation of Adam’s post from Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan.

According to the news reports, between 18 and 19 of March, there has been a conflict among the locals in Malovodnoe. The conflict became violent and resulted in the death of three people from gun wounds, five people were injured and taken to the hospital in a very bad state; the house and a car belonging to the parties to the conflict were burnt down. Reports vary as to the number of people who took part - from several to two hundred of young people.

The additional police forces were brought to Malovodnoe, security measures enforced, the criminal case initiated. “It is possible that the conflict is interethnic”, - added a source in the police, commenting for Interfax.

The very first reports were talking about the conflict between the “people from Caucasus” and Asians, apparently, between the Chechens, living in Almaty suburbs, and Kazakhs. However, the first official commentary - from the head of the press-service for MIA Bagdat Kozhakhmetov - did not only deny the possibility of a “conflict on interethnic, religious basis”, but also warned journalists against overblowing the issue and drawing premature conclusions.

The Media law states that any mention of the ethnic or religious conflict is considered as inciting or an attempt to incite these problems. I ask you to be very careful, said Kozhakhmetov, in fact, taking the law as a basis for censorship.

Special commission that includes the police officers, KNB and the prosecutor’s office has been called to investigate the conflict. Meanwhile, there was a spontaneous meeting of about two thousand people who tried to continue the showdown. However, as ZonaKz journalist reported, the conflict was localised, and the public order restored. The special forces blocked the meeting and the situation somewhat eased up. Among victims were two Kazakhs and one Chechen, who died during shooting and two more Chechens are badly injured, reports RFE/RL.

Witnesses say that the conflict started as a simplie argument during a billiard game and grew into a serious clash with the use of guns, which reminds of the last years events in Russian Kondopoga. Meanwhile, the websites of vainakh organisations are very tough in reporting - they call it an “armed attempt of a crowd of Kazakhs” on a “well-known Makhahanov family of the Chechens” and the nationalistic act that the police failed to stop.