Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·Dec. 19, 2003
Special Edition

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE DICTATOR -- The final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, is getting rave reviews in the United States, but don't look for it anytime soon in a theater near you if you live in Kazakhstan. That's because Frodo, Aragorn and the Forces of Light apparently frighten the Kazah dictator, whose regime has been likened to the Forces of Darkness. Kazakh police, who it once termed "a force stronger than the magic of the Middle Earth," have a history of having "harassed, arrested and tortured" fans of the J. R. R. Tolkien novels who have organized clubs and dressed up like their favorite "Rings" characters, according to an earlier report in Newsweek International. http://www.newsweek.com/

There's nothing new in any of this. VOD has reported previously about the cowering and fearful dictatorship's response to the threat it perceives from Hobbits, Tolkienisti and other fans of the fantasy stories.

LORD OF THE PARANOIDS -- The Lord of the Rings may be cleaning up at movie box offices all around the United States, but in Kazakhstan it could mean cleaning up a prison cell. The Dark Lord Sauron of this drama is the dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose police are out rounding up the followers of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The offending citizens are about a thousand admirers of the British author who have built pretend forts in the foothills of the Tian Shen Mountains overlooking Almaty and dress up as their favorite characters in the Tolkien books to re enact their adventures, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. It seems that to paranoid dictators, hairy footed hobbits constitute a "subversive…counterculture" group that must be eradicated. The offending "Tolkienisti" have been beaten, jailed without charge, and tortured, says the Morning Herald. Others have been stopped in the streets by police and stripped of their costumes and props and forced to pay bribes to stay out of jail. Press reports indicated Kazakhstan is the only country that finds hobbits a threat; in the rest of the world they're simply entertainment. http://www.smh.com.au/ VOD 1/2/03

BEWARE THOSE SUBVERSIVE HOBBITS -- There's something about hobbits that apparently frightens Nursultan Nazarbayev because his police have begun a crackdown on people who dress up like the characters from JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." In an increasingly repressive regime, the newest targets are those with unconventional lifestyles, reports The Independent of London. But it's no joke. The London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting says many of those targeted -- Tolkienists, buskers, alternative artists, gays and lesbians, anarchists, hippies, punks, members of dissident religious sects -- complain of systematic torture. http://www.independent.co.uk/ 8-3-01 VOD

A healthy, happy and peaceful New Year to all our readers.
May it bring freedom and democracy to the people of Kazakhstan.

For the full stories, see the web citations above or contact us at News@Kazakhstan21.org or see VOD Archives [http://iicas.org/english/enlibrary/libr_16_03_01kp.htm]. The Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation promotes democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan through public affairs and educational programs in the United States and Europe. This material is distributed by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation.

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