KZBlog

Last Saturday, 5 December, an employee of the East Kazakhstan oblast akimat (province administration) apparently threw himself out of the window of the men’s toilet around noon. He was alive when the ambulance came, but never regained consciousness and died a few hours later despite efforts to save him. Medet Kasenzhanov was 29 years old and left a wife and a small child. He left no note and had not told anyone of his decision to end his life. This is tragedy enough.

However the plot thickened quickly with rumors. Shortly after the tragedy, someone using the name Sabina Akhatova left a comment on the blog of the head of the Agency for Civil Service [RU], claiming that working conditions at the oblast akimat were inhumane, which drove Kasenzhanov to kill himself. She went on to accuse the current akim of a number of inhumane activities including forcing employees to work until 1am and inventing data on reports for the central government. She also claims that the head of the city theater died last week because he was called to see the akim despite the fact that he had the flu. The Moscow office of Respublika [RU] also received an anonymous letter with similar allegations. The akimat has responded by saying that no one named Sabina Akhatova works or ever worked in the administration and there is no such person registered in Ust-Kammengorsk. Of course, this may well be a screen name chosen to be plausible while still protecting the identity of the poster.

What is more, apparently Kasenzhanov’s wife showed up at the akimat and also claimed that her husband was forced to work long hours and that he was treated badly by his superiors which led him to feel hopeless.

Even the head of the city Department of Social Protection is asking why Kasenzhanov was working on a Saturday. He was quoted as saying that if the akim had not prepared a special order, which usually requires some justification, then forcing people to work on Saturday is a violation of the law.

The akim has ordered the local authorities to look into the death of Kasenzhanov, and the reasons for his suicide. At the moment unfortunately, all we have are unsupported allegations. I have no way of verifying or disproving any of the rumors posted on the web. Those of us who live in Astana and have friends who work in the central government are not shocked to hear about civil servants working until 1am or working on Saturdays, I suspect.

I would love to hear from readers who have some more definitive commentary on this situation.

Whether or not this suicide is a result of stress at work, Express-K [RU] reports that the head doctor of the local emergency hospital told them that suicide by young people is rather common in these times, presumably referring to Ust-Kammengorsk and East Kazakhstan. That alone is a disturbing trend and hopefully something good will come out of this tragedy if the authorities, civil society and our fellow man pay attention to the fact that many people feel hopeless enough to kill themselves.