With violence and government crackdowns making headlines from so many familiar parts of the world, there\u2019s hardly been a peep in the media about the biggest and ugliest massacre of all: Last Friday [16 Dec 2011] in Kazakhstan, riot police slaughtered up 70 striking oil workers, wounding somewhere between 500 and 800, and arresting scores. Almost as soon as the massacre went down in the western regional city of Zhanaozen, the Kazakh authorities cut off access to twitter and cell phone coverage\u2013effectively cutting the region off from the rest of the world, relegating the massacre into the small news wire print.<\/p>\n
But not before someone was able to get a video out to YouTube last Friday, showing the moment when the striking oil workers rushed the\u00a0barricades. They\u2019ve had to\u00a0have put up with inhuman, medieval abuse for months now, culminating with the murders a few months back of a striking oil worker and the 18-year-old-daughter of another union organizer, as well as the jailing of a labor lawyer working with the striking oil workers.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind, the oil company whose workers are striking for better pay and union recognition,\u00a0KazMunaiGaz,\u00a0is \u201cowned\u201d by the billionaire son-in-law of Kazakhstan\u2019s Western-backed president-for-life<\/a>. Among Kazakhstan\u2019s leading American partners are Chevron, whose website boasts,\u00a0\u201cChevron is Kazakhstan\u2019s largest private oil producer\u201d<\/a>\u2013adding this bit of unintentional black humor<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cIn Kazakhstan, as in any country where Chevron does business, we are a strong supporter of programs that help the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed. First, here is a video <\/a>showing striking oil workers last Friday breaking up the totalitarian-state\u2019s official celebration of its \u201cIndependence Day\u201d (Kazakhstan was one of the 15 Soviet republics that declared independence in 1991; the republic\u2019s Communist Party leader, Nursultan Nazarbaev, stayed on as the \u201cdemocratic\u201d ruler ever since). At about the 3:30 mark<\/a> you\u2019ll hear and see gunfire as the massacre is in full-swing:<\/p>\n That went down on Friday. We know very little even today because the government clamped down on all communication with the outside world, cutting off cell phone communications and Twitter, imposing martial law, and bringing in special forces and riot police to terrorize\u00a0Zhanaozen and other cities in the oil-rich west where sympathy strikes and protests have broken out. Journalists have been barred, and two reporters from reputable Russian online media outlets have been arrested. The government claims 15 dead; strikers, who have proven far more reliable, say at least 70 are dead and 500 wounded.<\/p>\n Even the brief and highly controlled \u201ctour\u201d arranged by the authorities for a handful of reporters in the aftermath produced this gruesome account<\/a>:<\/p>\n Rights activists will likely also be concerned by what appeared to heavy-handed treatment of detainees at Zhanaozen\u2019s main police station Sunday evening. Journalists at the station reported hearing screams coming from what appeared to be interrogation rooms, while a number of men with bloodied faces were lined up in a row in the corridors with their faces against the wall.<\/p>\n Reporters visiting the town under close supervision were not freely permitted to speak with detainees or residents.<\/p>\n Oil workers have been striking since the beginning of summer for the right to unionize, and for better pay. In response, the state-run oil company has already fired hundreds of workers for \u201cviolating labor laws,\u201d while dividing up communities and the workforce. By September, workers who held out with the strike were on the verge of starvation; marriages were breaking up, and tensions were growing hotter. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch came out criticizing the Kazakh authorities for their harsh treatment of the strikers and labor organizers. (Read this excellent English-language account here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n