Sunday, December 18, 2011

Protests spread in troubled Kazakh oil region

Protests spread in troubled Kazakh oil region

AKTAU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Protests in Kazakhstan's oil-producing Mangistau region, singular in a Central Asian state's new history, widespread Sunday to a informal capital, where hundreds of indignant protesters faced reinforced military troops.

Late Saturday, one chairman was killed and 11 people were bleeding in a uninformed strife with military in a encampment of Shetpe, bringing a sum executive genocide fee in a western segment to 12 and a series of bleeding to scarcely 100.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced a 20-day state of puncture Saturday in a oil city of Zhanaozen, in a same region, after during slightest 11 people were killed there in assault that pennyless out Friday.

Public protests are singular in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy and biggest oil producer, where a 71-year-old Nazarbayev has overseen some-more than $120 billion in unfamiliar investment during some-more than dual decades in power, though tolerates small gainsay and puts fortitude before approved freedoms.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe pronounced it was disturbed by a reliable genocide fee and urged a Kazakh authorities to use force proportionately, honour tellurian rights and reason a pure investigation.

Sunday morning, around 500 indignant protesters collected circuitously a categorical block of Aktau, a city of 160,000 on a Caspian Sea, some 2,600 km (1,600 miles) southwest of a collateral Astana.

Braving satirical frost, they faced a vast force of black-clad demonstration military holding shields, a Reuters match reported from a scene. Some policemen were armed with involuntary rifles.

"Take a infantry out of Mangistau!" review a prolonged ensign in Kazakh hold by a dozen protesters.

One protester, Sarsekesh Bairbekov, pronounced he had been dismissed by oil organisation Karazhanbasmunai (KBM) in May. "I worked there for 20 years. we was a welder and mislaid an eye," a 58-year-old told Reuters. His salary was 120,000 tenge ($810) before he was fired.

KBM is jointly owned by London-listed KazMunaiGas Exploration Production and CITIC, China's biggest state investment company.

"We wish them to take pided a troops," Bairbekov said, referring to a state of puncture imposed in Zhanaozen after a riots. "They killed internal people," he added, still wearing maroon-and-blue KBM overalls.

Many protesters called into doubt a executive genocide fee announced after a riots in Zhanaozen.

One oil worker, who declined to be named, pronounced he had usually visited a blood donor core in Aktau. "It is operative round-the-clock. If usually 10 people were killed, because is it operative round-the-clock?" he asked.

Nurlan Mukhanov, emissary arch alloy during a Mangistau informal sanatorium in Aktau, pronounced 35 bleeding had been brought from Zhanaozen and another 3 from Shetpe.

"The infancy have gunshot wounds," Mukhanov said. "We should be prepared for any situation."

"KAZAKHS SHOOTING KAZAKHS"

A vast organisation of people ancillary Zhanaozen protesters stopped a sight carrying some-more than 300 passengers Saturday, a Kazakh prosecutor-general's bureau pronounced in a statement.

Most after left though some 50 "hooligans" set a diesel locomotive on glow and changed into a circuitously encampment of Shetpe, environment a New Year tree on fire, outstanding emporium windows and throwing petrol bombs during police, a matter said.

"Taking into comment a fact that a hooligans presented a genuine hazard to a life and health of pacific adults and policemen, a latter were forced to use weapons," it said.

One of a 12 people brought to a internal sanatorium with gunshot wounds died later, a matter said.

In Aktau, countless splashy posters of Nazarbayev's Nur Otan statute celebration dot a dry streets with immature and white embellished Soviet-era unit blocks.

"The authorities don't unequivocally know what is function in their possess home," pronounced Ivan Rabayev, a 74-year-old late construction worker. "Kazakhs are sharpened Kazakhs."

The riots began Friday when sacked oil workers and sympathizers stormed a theatre erected for an Independence Day celebration and crushed sound apparatus in executive Zhanaozen, a city of some 90,000 people.

They after set glow to a city hall, a domicile of a internal oil company, a hotel and dozens of other buildings, including trade centers and houses. They also burnt cars and buses and plundered money machines.

The clashes soured inhabitant celebrations imprinting a 20th anniversary of autonomy from a Soviet Union and weakened a supervision focused on fortitude and mercantile growth.

Nazarbayev, a former steelworker who has overseen fast marketplace reforms though tolerates small gainsay in his hydrocarbon-rich republic of 16.6 million, announced a state of puncture and a curfew in Zhanaozen until Jan 5.

Public protests and strikes are banned, while transformation around Zhanaozen and entrance to and from a city is restricted.

State-controlled KazMunaiGas EP, that sacked 989 workers in Zhanaozen after staff went on strike for improved compensate and conditions in May, pronounced 2,500 people were on strike during a tallness of a dispute. Representatives of a distinguished workers have put a limit series during roughly 16,000.

One sacked oilman, who declined to be named, said: "People have been on strike for 7 months and a authorities are observant that hooligans and alcoholics are causing this trouble. It's all lies."

(Reporting by Robin Paxton and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Tim Pearce)


News referensi http://news.yahoo.com/protests-spread-troubled-kazakh-oil-region-102510801.html

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