Several thousand protest in Kazakh oil region after riots

Kazakhstan’s strongman leader Nursultan Nazarbayev,whose government is scrambling to respond to the unprecedented riots,meanwhile travelled to Moscow for economic talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.

One person was killed and 11 were wounded when dozens of protesters stopped a train with more than 360 passengers aboard near the small Kazakh village of Shetpe on Saturday in a show of support for the oil workers and then vandalised the village.

The village is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the regional centre of Aktau where around 1,000 people took to the streets Sunday.

That protest grew in numbers after striking oil workers from the Karazhanbas oil deposit joined in on Monday,said a reporter from the scene.

“We are here because we want to sit at the negotiating table,so that the authorities hear the oil workers’ demands,” said Vladimir Kozlov,leader of the unregistered opposition Alga party.

“Workers at the oil deposits have stopped working but the pumps are electric-powered so they are still operating,” Kozlov said.

Riot police have blocked Aktau’s main Yntymak square,forcing people to stand on the fringes holding up signs like one reading “Don’t Shoot the People!”

Prosecutors said Sunday that 14 people died in Zhanaozen and one was killed in Shetpe but some observers say the toll could be higher.

The Aktau independent labour union plans to set up a hotline for people to report their missing relatives,its chairman Kenzhegali Suyeuov said.

The unprecedented riots in Zhanaozen forced Nazarbayev to declare a 20-day state of emergency in the town and dealt a blow to a government which prides itself on attracting foreign investors.

Zhanaozen remains in a virtual lockdown,with the town’s communications cut off from the rest of the country,and authorities blocking the main road and performing identity checks. “There are many people who cannot reach their relatives because the phone lines in Zhanaozen,Shetpe and several other towns are disconnected,” Suyeuov said.