Today,on the 16th of December in Zhanaozen (Kazakhstan) at the central square started a peaceful meeting of striking oil workers,but the authorities deliberately have organized a provocation: a police car hit the crowd of protesters.This provoked a strong reaction of the workers, who turned over the car;then the mass of workers occupied city administration and office of Zhanaozen RD "Ozenmunaygaz" which were according to various information set on fire.Police officers who had previously provoked the workers fled, but the internal forces were brought to the city. According to representatives of the striking oil workers,against unarmed workers and local residents were used firearms, and the death toll now is already about 20 people.There are shootings in the center of the city. There is no possibility to clarify the information because in the city and the surrounding area cellular communication is cut off. Socialismkz.info site is blocked in Kazakhstan. In Mangistau region all the local websites and newspapers are also blocked. Social networks are blocked,too. http://www.socialismkz.info/
The struggle of the extractive industry in Kazakhstan has been going on for several years. Hard labor conditions, low wages, non-fulfillment by the the companies' governing staff and the state of their own promises (the branch and the regional coefficients of wages' raising were announced, but they are not fulfilled in reality) - all these thins exasperated them. In the end of spring 2011 there began a mass strike of the oil industry workers in the Mangistau Region. The strike enveloped the factories which belong to several closely connected companies. For example, the join-stock company "Karazhanbasmunai" since the 12th December 2007 belongs to a Chinese state investment corporation CITIC Group and the Kazakh oil join-stock company "The KazMunaiGaz National Company" which is headed by the president's son-in-law Timur Kulibaev famous for purchasing palaces in Europe and holding luxuriant high-life parties with the members of the British royal family. At the same time the workers get such salaries that they can hardly make the ends meet. In oil and water people work in hot summer and in frosty winter. To get a higher salary they have to do extra work to the detriment of their health. So, in the end of July one of the workers died because of working for three shifts without stopping: his heart collapsed. The strike has been lasting for five months already. At the highest point of the resistance 18 thousand people took part in it. In the beginning the strikers' demands were rather moderate and economic, it was underlined that the speeches did not bare any political character. But the owners and the state answered with repressive measures. In the factories there exists an "official trade-union" whose leaders acted in favor of the owners. The labor collective elected another chairman of the professional committee, but the directorship of the industry blocked the access to the premises and the properties of the trade-union. The lawyer of the trade-union Natalia Sokolova who took the part of the workers and substantiated the payment of the extra coefficients, was arrested. The spontaneous protest of the workers often poured out into acts of despair: people burned themselves alive, cut their stomachs, announced a hunger-strike. There were held processions to the local administrations. It is natural that such attempts to appeal to the conscience of the authorities were no success. The strikers were many times driven away by special police detachments, their relatives were psychologically pressed upon. There was a case when the aged mother of a worker was driven to a heart-attack and death by the management of the company who frightened her with firing her son - the only bread-winner in the family. They demanded to "quiet" her son. Many times provocateurs and strikebreakers were used, the workers' wives were attacked and beaten at a bus-stop. Another activist's house was set on fire. All those who try to tear down the informational blockade, are threatened by mobile phone. Arrests and mass firing are going on. As a means of pressure against workers the widely-spoken point of the criminal law called "Fomentation of Social Dissension", the same as that which exists in Russia. Exactly by this point and also "for organizing unlawful gatherings and meetings" the trade-union activists Natalia Sokolova and Akzhanat Aminov were tried. In the end Natalia was imprisoned for 6 years and Akzhanat was given a year "on probation" with two years as a "period of probation". For two months Akzhanat suffering from diabetes spent under arrest without access to medical care. On the 2nd of August Zhaksylyk Turbaev was killed at his workplace exactly before the trade-union meeting.On the 21th of August was killed 18-years old daughter of trade unionist Kudaibergen Karabalaev. This hard struggle showed the workers of Kazakhstan that the lies about so-called "social partnership", "responsible business" and "people's state" have nothing to do with reality. From their side workers receive only terror and provocations. Now the strikers are going to found their own independent trade-union and have begun to make mutual-aid funds.
Today in Kazakhstan is the 20th annivercary of independence.As the workers report,the authorities forced the children and young people to go with the flags to the square, right there, where the worker's meeting was. Oilers stopped them , and were immediately attacked by policemen. Thus occurred the first conflict. Ayman Ungarbaeva, a participant in the strike movement telephoned and reported with a breaking voice that provocations and attacks started.Then suddenly the communication ended and when they called her back, she cried: "Do not telephone me more,they have started it!" The last message was a cry of Ayman Ungarbaevoa: "The war has started here ! Inform everyone !" http://www.respublika-kaz.info/news/politics/19341/ Today video from Zhanaozen : http://youtu.be/y4De4CSEvAU
edition: yellow terror in Kazakhstan. General Winter i agree with you here for 100%, Nazarbaev is a worst kind of human-being , a modern day ساتراپ (Satrap)
Despite the fact that internal forces, as well as units of the Marine Brigade and armoured vehicles were brought to Zhanaozen from different regions of Kazakhstan, the resistance of the insurgent workers continues. Some of oilers and young people have seized weapons of police officers who were disarmed during the daytime clashes. There are also hunting rifles at the hands of the people . All the night at the outskirts of Zhanaozen continued shootings and a real street fighting. According to workers, the number of dead civilians is over 150. These data will be updated in the morning. But already now all the hospitals of Zhanaozen and Akatu are full of wounded people. http://www.socialismkz.info/news/2011-12-17-1927
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16231305 bbc as usual is little late with the news form this region anyway K-stan has no chance for a normal future ,
In the village Shetpe the protest was suppressed by armies.According to Office of Public Prosecutor of Kazakhstan, local residents have blocked railway tracks,where seven passenger and three cargo trains were stopped. The police tried to unlock the railway, but the protesters resisted. They have set fire to the cargo train.The police has opened fire , as a result 12 people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and one of the victims has died. http://www.socialismkz.info/
