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Summary: The practice of scheduling events for children, like fairs or circuses, in politically important public spaces has become a common tactic by authoritarian governments in the former Soviet Union to discourage protests.
[MOSCOW, 16 December 2011] â What appeared to be an attempt by local authorities to oust striking oil workers from a square in the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan went horribly wrong on Friday, ending in at least 10 deaths in clashes with the police. For six months, the normally repressive government had allowed the workers to occupy the square, in the western oil town of Zhanaozen, where they demanded better wages. That changed after the strikers shifted their focus to political demands this week, including the right to form independent parties. In response, the authorities announced plans to hold a state-sponsored New Yearâs holiday party for children on the site, apparently in a ruse aimed at providing an excuse to clear out the workers. In an online video said to be shot at the scene, protesters are shown pushing past police lines to dismantle a stage for the party, then overturning a tree decorated for the holiday. It also showed police officers firing into the air. The confrontation appears to be the most violent in the sprawling former Soviet republic since independence was declared 20 years ago. The country, strategically important to the United States for its enormous oil reserves, has been considered a stable, though repressive, state in the otherwise politically shaky region of Central Asia. Although its longtime leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is autocratic and intolerant of dissent, he has not had to face open rebellion in a country that has grown wealthier on its oil riches. The government acknowledged that 10 people had died, though reporters who spoke to people there before communications were cut said there were reports of scores of fatalities as the police shot into the crowd. The authorities did not provide an account of the clash. By the afternoon, witnesses said, a government building and the headquarters of a state oil company were burning. Even the lower death toll of 10 reported by the government would be the highest loss of life in a protest in Central Asia, the five largely Muslim countries to Russiaâs south, since the Arab Spring revolts began. Leaders throughout this region have been unnerved by events in the Middle East, but largely felt that the dynamics were so different that their countries would escape the unrest. This month, thousands of protesters gathered in a square in Moscow in the largest display of dissent in Russia in years. It is unclear if the violence on Friday in Kazakhstan presages more unrest, or will remain a local issue. Mr. Nazarbayev, a former Soviet apparatchik who took over his country after declaring independence 20 years ago on December 16, which is celebrated as Independence Day in Kazakhstan, had already responded to the toppling of Arab leaders by announcing a move to a multiparty Parliament. Elections are scheduled for January. The striking oil workers in Zhanaozen had argued with workers erecting the stage, a holiday tree and large felt tents on Thursday. The practice of scheduling events for children, like fairs or circuses, in politically important public spaces has become a common tactic by authoritarian governments in the former Soviet Union to discourage protests. Askhat Daulbayev, Kazakhstanâs prosecutor general, said Friday in televised remarks that âhaving rudely violated the public order, the protesters attacked the policemen, toppled the New Yearâs tree, destroyed the yurts placed there because of the holiday, as well as the stage and set a police bus on fire.â Mr. Daulbayev said protesters attacked the police âusing firearms and cold steel.â Zhana A. Baitelova, a reporter at Respublika, an independent newspaper in Almaty, the commercial capital, said protesters speaking on cellphones described a scene of escalating chaos as the police tried to defend the stage and decorations for the holiday event. âPolice used gas at first, then fired in the air, and then it was panic,â she said. âThey are trying to make hooligans out of the protesters, saying they attack children,â she added. But the town is small, and most residents work in the oil fields. âThe children are the children of strikers. This is crazy.â The Echo of Moscow radio station reported that by Friday evening armored personnel carriers were patrolling the town. Vesti, a Russian television channel, showed video of the smoldering remains of burned cars on the streets. The oil workers walked off their jobs last spring in a dispute about pay for dangerous work; hundreds were subsequently fired. In July, many began camping in the city square in an indefinite protest, a rare challenge to the government. The strikes disrupted the output from the company, Kazmunaigaz, but did not spread to Western operations, like Chevronâs Tengiz oil field, not far away in the same arid, flat expanse on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea that is the source of Kazakhstanâs oil wealth.  Further Information:Â