U.N. rebukes Kazakhstan after troops spotted wearing blue peacekeeping helmets while policing protests

The United Nations has rebuked Kazakhstan aft the Central Asian country’s troops were spotted wearing bluish helmets reserved for U.N. peacekeepers during a convulsive crackdown connected protesters past week.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General, told reporters Monday that Kazakh authorities had said they would code the contented aft the planetary assemblage raised concerns. “Countries are to usage U.N. insignia lone erstwhile they are performing their mandated tasks arsenic U.N. peacekeepers successful the discourse of their deployment wrong a U.N. peacekeeping operation,” helium said.

Blue helmets person go a awesome of the U.N.’s peacekeeping efforts since the 1950s. Kazakh authorities could person been attempting to represent the country’s information forces arsenic “representing a much planetary action” successful an “attempt to gully connected the unsocial legitimacy” that U.N. peacekeepers possess, said Charles Hunt, an planetary information adept astatine RMIT University successful Australia.

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who ordered his information forces to “shoot to kill” demonstrators without warning, has tried to represent the protesters arsenic foreign-backed “trained” terrorists attempting a coup. He has not presented substantive grounds to enactment his claim, though Tokayev has reestablished power of the state aft inviting successful a Russian-led subject confederation to assistance him power the unrest. Russia has often deployed “peacekeepers” for extended periods to countries that Moscow fears are slipping retired of its sphere of influence, often against the wishes of section leaders.

The protests that broke retired successful aboriginal January successful Central Asia’s largest system were initially directed against a drastic fuel-price hike, earlier drafting successful radical with grievances against Kazakhstan’s sclerotic and autocratic governmental system. Many of the demonstrations were peaceful, but they spilled implicit into different parts of the state and became peculiarly bloody successful Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, wherever authorities buildings and cars were torched.

At slightest 164 radical person died successful the upheaval, according to authorities officials, and immoderate 9,900 person been detained, Russian quality bureau RIA reported Tuesday.

Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United Nations said successful a tweet that the pictured troops were members of a Ministry of Defense peacekeeping portion and had been deployed to support infrastructure. Apart from the headgear, nary different U.N.-marked instrumentality was used, helium said.

(Tokayev, the Kazakh president, served arsenic a apical U.N. authoritative successful Geneva from 2011 to 2013. Upon his assignment to the post, he was characterized arsenic having “thorough knowledge” connected disarmament issues and “extensive” absorption experience.)

It is plausible but not convincing that the Kazakh work members wore the U.N. helmets due to the fact that they were the lone headgear readily available, said Hunt, the Australia-based expert.

Under planetary law, the improper usage of instrumentality bearing U.N. symbols successful an planetary equipped struggle could represent a warfare crime. But Hunt said the instrumentality is not apt to beryllium applicable successful Kazakhstan since the bloody clashes are chiefly a home affair.

The U.N. Department of Peace Operations and Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry did not instantly instrumentality requests for comment.

Whatever the intentions of the country’s authorities, Kazakh troops wearing U.N. helmets mightiness jeopardize the estimation and information of authorized peacekeepers if they were culpable of rights violations, Hunt said.