[These are the oil field workers who were brutally assaulted by Kazakh police in Zhanaozen. Somewhere between 900-1400 workers were fired to break an ongoing strike which apparently began in support of one fired worker who was fired for alleged drug possession/use. Closer inspection reveals that the workers may have been really let go as a cost-cutting measure, covered-up by the excuse of the strike. Watching the film of the original rioting shows provocateurs wrecking the stage and sound system that had been set-up for Independence Day festivities.
One report that escaped from the press black-out claimed that they were moving on a secret signal sent from the expatriate head of the only opposition party Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) in London, but this is pure speculation. Whatever the cause, if the rioting and government repression escalate into a threat to the Kazakh govt, will Russian reinforcements be called in under the recent Center-2011 scenario? This was the objective of the war games, is it time to see it played-out? It seems as though the “Stans” countries are in a race to register the first “Arab Spring” scenario in Central Asia and that Kazakhstan is in the lead. Will it be the first country in the region to be racked by civil eruptions, and, if so, will the solution be a brutal put-down in the Bahrain/Syria model?]
Kazakhstan simmers as striking oil workers sacked
Russia: Moscow to host an urgent press conference on the situation in Kazakhstan
Ferghana
November 2 in Moscow, in the Independent Press Center will be a press conference “The refusal of the authorities of Kazakhstan to enter the European Parliament delegation and unions to investigate the shooting of oil workers. “ To reporters, the Executive Director of the All-Russian Movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev, a spokesman for MEP of the Socialist Party of Ireland, Paul Murphy (the Committee for a Workers ‘International), Robert Jones, co-chair of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan Ainur Kurmanov, chairman of Kazakhstan’s national trade unions’ Zhanartu “( Revival) Esenbek Ukteshbaev, lawyer of the Russian trade union “Labour Protection” Yuri Vinkov and head of the Moscow organization PKK and EIF-party “Rot Front” Alexander Baht.
“Kazakhstan are arrests of human rights defenders. October 31 at Petropavlovsk was beaten and arrested known defender Vadim Kuramshin prisoners. At the same time, the authorities denied entry to the delegation of European trade unionists and journalists led by MEP Paul Murphy left faction for no good reason, just because they were going to meet with political prisoners and relatives of executed oil workers in Zhanaozen , ” – write the organizers of the press conference.
At the press conference will be announced that the chairman of the Republican union worker “Zhanartu” Esenbek Ukteshbaev intends to return to Kazakhstan for continuing trade union struggle. This decision Ukteshbaev accepted, despite the fact that there is a great danger for his immediate arrest.
