Oil town clashes kill 10 on Kazakh independence day
ASTANA (Reuters) - Ten people were killed in clashes between sacked oil workers and police in the city of Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan on Friday, the country's prosecutor-general said.
"According to preliminary data, 10 people were killed as a result of mass disorder. There are also some wounded, including police officers," Askhat Daulbayev told a news conference.
He said protesters set fire to the city administration building in Zhanaozen and the headquarters of oil company Uzenmunaigas, a division of London-listed KazMunaiGas Exploration Production (KMG EP).
KazMunaiGas EP said in a statement that its oil producing facilities were working as normal, although the company had stepped up security.
The clashes marred celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union. Celebrations were held nationwide and state television made no mention of the clashes, instead showing festivities in the capital Astana.
Violent protests are rare in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 71, has run the country with a firm hand for more than 20 years and has overseen massive foreign investment, mainly in oil and gas.
In a speech on Thursday, Nazarbayev stressed the need to preserve stability.
Daulbayev, the prosecutor-general, said: "The lawbreakers attacked policemen, toppled the New Year tree, destroyed yurts (tents) and a scene laid out for the holiday and set a police bus on fire.
"As a result of the mass disorder, the buildings of the town administration, a hotel and the administration building of Uzenmunaigas were torched. Property of private persons and companies was also destroyed. Cars were burned and ATMs plundered."
"OUTRAGED" OIL WORKERS
Zhanaozen is a town of 90,000 people about 150 km (95 miles) inland from the Caspian Sea.
KazMunaiGas EP, a unit of state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, was hit this year by a three-month strike at its Uzenmunaigas unit near the city, which cut its oil output. A total of 989 Uzenmunaigas workers were sacked.
A local government worker said protesters had destroyed the traditional felt tents, known as yurts, near the concert stage.
"They were outraged that the administration was preparing a holiday for the town's residents ... and they started pelting stones at people walking by," Zhanna Oishibayeva, an aide to the Mangistau governor, told Reuters by telephone.
Video footage posted on the Internet by independent television channel K+ showed the first minutes of the clashes.
A short video clip featured dozens of men in red-and-blue overalls with KazMunaiGas logos running around a square, toppling loudspeakers and other equipment installed on a stage. A few men chased a policeman away from the stage.
Police cars were seen driving fast through the crowd. One policeman was firing pistol shots into the air as he stood among a group of other officers facing an angry crowd.
Social networking websites said that some local people had heard shooting in Zhanaozen. Staff at the local central hospital declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
A receptionist at a local hotel told Reuters all mobile and Internet communication had been switched off in Zhanaozen. A spokeswoman for Kazakhtelecom, the country's main operator of digital services, said the company had nothing to do with the outages.
(Additional reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva and Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov and Robin Paxton; Editing by Mark Heinrich)