Kazakh border chief resigns over massacre

Moscow, June 14 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The head of Kazakhstan's Border Service has resigned following a border post massacre May 30 in which 15 people were killed.

A statement posted on the Kazakh president's website said Nurzhan Myrzaliyev's resignation letter was signed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

A total of 14 servicemen and one civilian were killed May 30 at the border post in southwestern Kazakhstan.

Turganbek Stanbekov, a first deputy of the head of the Kazakh Border Service, was appointed acting head of the service, the presidential website reported.

The only survivor of the massacre, a 19-year-old draftee, Private Vladislav Chelakh, confessed last week of killing his colleagues and a hunter.

Chelakh was arrested in possession of his commander's weapon June 5, several days after the bodies of 14 border guards and a local hunter were found in burned out border post barracks, which was initially thought to have been destroyed by an armed attack or an argument between the soldiers.

He said he had shot all the soldiers and the hunter, put their bodies into beds and then set fire to the barracks.

Then he went up to the mountains, taking civilian clothes and a small amount of money with him.

On June 4, Chelakh returned to the burned out border post where he saw investigators. He was reportedly in a deep stupor and could not say a word.

The soldier's mother, Svetlana Vashchenko, however said her son could not commit such a crime. She said he was probably forced to take the blame by special services to cover up the real culprits.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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