Kazakh Police and Army fire on striking oil workers killing 70, wounding hundreds

international | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Saturday December 17, 2011 01:14

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI

Today, at Kazakhstan’s independence day, more than 3000 people assembled peacefully in Zhanaozen, to promote the demands of the oil workers who have been on strike since May. Police and special forces attacked the meeting and opened fire on the strikers and their families. By around 10 a.m., London time, 50 had already been killed, with at least 500 more wounded.

Administrative buildings and the christmas tree in the center square have been set on fire. One of the buildings of the oil company, Uzenmunaigaz, was blown up. An information blockade has been set up, the Socialist Resistance Kazakhstan website was blocked (Socialist Resistance is a sister party of the Socialist Party and affiliated to the Committee for a Workers International CWI). The Kazakh government have attempted to block social media in an effort to keep reports of the atrocities under wraps. At around 10:15 London time reports of armoured vehicles and military forces approaching from the city of Aktau. Paul Murphy Socialist Party/ULA MEP recently visited Kazakhstan and participated in negotiations with the Kazakh government on behalf of the striking oil workers. The Kazakhstan government has since declared Paul Murphy persona-non-grata banning him from re-entering the country. CWI reporters have been issuing regular updates of events in western Kazakhstan when possible. The reports can be found here -

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Update

Sun Dec 18, 2011 00:40

Update:

President Nazarbayev has imposed a State of Emergency in the city of Zhanaozen until 5th January. The city is completely blockaded.

...Mass arrests of participants in yesterday’s protests are taking place. Many leaders and well known activists are in hiding, young workers are continuing to resist. The police forces are lodging criminal charges en-masse, people are being stopped on the streets and taken to "filtration centres". According to the workers, unarmed striking oil workers, up to 1500 have gathered today in the city centre. This evening the strikers have been once again forced out to the edges of the city. The town is full of internal troops, armored cars and police.

...Despite this, apart from the oil workers, relatives and supporters are also out on the streets protesting against the shootings and looking for those who are missing. The authorities are refusing to hand over the bodies of the dead, and the hospitals in Zhanaozen and Aktau are overflowing with those wounded in the shootings.

...In the outskirts and in the outlying villages as dark settles you can hear the sound of gun fights and grenade explosions. The young workers are not prepared to give up their resistance. Witnesses are trying to film these "Special operations" on their mobile cameras. In the city, as before, the lights are off, mobile communications are constantly interrupted, the internet is blocked.

...Fighting has been raging in Shepte for hours, even though they have sent another five buses of special troops! The locals have completely torn up the railway tracks, stopped two passenger trains, completely blocking rail communications and have set fire to the wagons. There are no more links with the village, nor with Zhetybai, where there was also a battle earlier today. Representatives of the independent trade union from Aktau are trying to get there to find out the situation.

...According to sympathisers from within the army/police force, in addition to the 7 aircraft full of riot troops already in Aktau, another 3 are on their way. It has just been announced that Belarus is sending some of its special troops. The riot police have been given freedom of action, that is to shoot at whoever they think necessary, including pregnant women and children. They also report that in a couple of weeks, they will start executing some of the more dangerous activists for the Almaty regime - under the guise of shooting terrorists.

...According to reports from worker activists, 4,000 workers from the neighbouring Kalamkas oil field have downed tools and have started a march to their company headquarters demanding the withdrawal of troops from the region.

...Reports are also coming in of planned protests in other cities. 150 oilworkers in the city of Aktau, also a centre of the strike were rounded up by police using dogs and detained “for preventative discussions”, although later freed.

...In Kazakhstan’s capital, Almaty, in an attempt to prevent this morning’s protest in support of the oil workers, police tried to detain four activists from the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan – Larissa Boyar, Dmitrii Tikhonov, Arman Ozhaubayev and Zhanna Baitelova.

http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5495

The video on this page shows the police opening fire on the protestors at 3mins 40 secs.

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Kazakh Police and Army fire on striking oil workers killing 70, wounding hundreds

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