Concern about vanished journalist

Reporters Without Borders said today it was very worried about the fate of journalist Oralbagshy Zhabagtaykyzy, of the weekly Zakon i pravosudiye, last seen getting into an unidentified car in Almaty on 30 March, and called on the government to make every effort find her. Zhabagtaykyzy had been on her way to the southern town of Malovodnoye, the scene of recent clashes between Chechens and Kazakhs. Four days earlier she had named in the paper the instigators of the clashes and the their links with police and businessmen. Five inhabitants of the village of Kazatkom were killed on 17 March after an argument between a Chechen and a Kazakh and police arrested about 50 people. Some 30,000 Chechens live in Kazakhstan. The journalist's friends and family said she had received threats after the article appeared. Seitkazy Matayev, head of the Kazakhstan journalists union, said he thought she had been kidnapped because of her work. Police have began an investigation.