The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokaev, said that he had authorized security forces to shoot down protesters without warning. He said this during his video address to the people on January 7.
"I gave an order to law enforcement agencies and the army to open fire without warning. Calls are being made abroad for the parties to hold negotiations for a peaceful solution to the problems. What stupidity! What can be negotiations with criminals, murderers? We had to deal with armed and trained bandits, both local and foreign. It is with bandits and terrorists. Therefore, they must be destroyed. And this will be done in the near future," Tokaev said.
And he noted that "individual so-called human rights defenders and activists place themselves above the law and believe that they have the right to gather where they want and talk about what they want."
"The so-called free mass media and foreign figures, who are far from the fundamental interests of our multinational people, play an aiding and abetting role in law and order violations. It is possible to say without exaggeration that all these irresponsible demagogues became accomplices in the unfolding of the tragedy in Kazakhstan. And we will react harshly to all acts of legal vandalism," the President of Kazakhstan said in his speech.
