Death toll rises after protest against government spreads

unprecedented protests against the government of oil-rich Kazakhstan spread at the weekend to a town in the country’s west, leaving one person dead and 11 wounded.

Late on Saturday, one person was killed and 11 people were wounded in a fresh clash with police in the village of Shetpe, bringing the total official death toll in the oil-producing Mangistau region to 14 and the number of wounded to around 100.

President Nursultan Nazar-bayev has declared a 20-day state of emergency in the oil city of Zhanaozen, in the same region. Thirteen people were killed there in violence that broke out on Friday.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Public protests are rare in Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy and biggest oil producer, where the 71-year-old Mr Nazarbayev has overseen more than $120 billion (£77bn) in foreign investment during more than two decades in power, but tolerates little dissent.

Yesterday morning, around 500 angry protesters gathered near Concord Square in Aktau, a city of 160,000 on the Caspian Sea. Braving biting frost, they faced a large force of black-clad riot police holding shields, with some armed with rifles.

“Take the troops out of Mangistau!” read a long banner in Kazakh held by a dozen protesters.

One protester, Sarsekesh Bairbekov, said he had been fired by oil firm Karazhanbasmunai in May. “I worked there for 20 years. I was a welder and lost an eye,” the 58-year-old said.

“We want them to take away the troops,” Mr Bairbekov said, referring to the state of emergency imposed in Zhanaozen after the riots.

One oil worker, who declined to be named, said he had just visited a blood donor centre in Aktau. “It is working round-the-clock. If only ten people were killed, why is it working round-the-clock?” he asked.

Nurlan Mukhanov, deputy chief doctor at the Mangistau regional hospital in Aktau, said 35 wounded had been brought from Zhanaozen and another three from Shetpe.

“The majority have gunshot wounds,” Mr Mukhanov said.

The clashes soured national celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union and unnerved a government focused on stability and economic growth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, a close adviser to Mr Nazarbayev, said “foreign funding” fuelled the riots, but declined to elaborate. He said the situation was “firmly under control”.

“There will be no Arab-style revolution. You can see that Kazakhstan is calm,” he said.

In Aktau, numerous posters of Mr Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan ruling party dot the dusty streets with green and white painted Soviet-era apartment blocks.

“The authorities don’t really know what is happening in their own home,” said Ivan Rabayev, a 74-year-old retired construction worker. “Kazakhs are shooting Kazakhs.”

The riots began on Friday when sacked oil workers and sympathisers stormed a stage erected for an Independence Day party and smashed sound equipment in central Zhanaozen, a city of some 90,000 people.

They later set fire to the city hall, the headquarters of a local oil company, a hotel and dozens of other buildings, including trade centres and houses. They also burned cars and buses, and plundered cash machines.