'Zhanaozen' list should end impunity of perpetrators in Kazakhstan

Four years ago, on 16 December, 2011, in the Kazakh city of Zhanaozen, riot police opened fire with live  ammunition on the backs of unarmed oil workers, who had been protesting for higher wages and better working conditions for seven months.

On 17 December, 2011, in the village of Shetpe, police shot protesters, who demanded that shooting in Zhanaozen cease. According to official figures, at least 17  people were killed, but unofficial sources claim there were as many as 70 casualties.

As a penalty for ‘organizing and participating in mass disorder’, 13 oil workers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to seven years, while a further 16 people were given suspended sentences.

Four residents of the Shetpe village were sentenced to 4-7 years in prison. Employees of the Open Dialog  Foundation were among the international observers present at the court trials. 22 oil workers testified  in court that they had been subjected to torture: they had been beaten, choked, their ears had been  punctured with a stapler, they were hung by their hair and threatened with rape and acts of retribution against their family members. The victims pointed out the individual police officers who had exerted  torture on them, but the prosecutor's office ‘found no confirmation’ of these incidents having occurred.

Kazakh courts sentenced the oil workers on the basis of the information obtained under torture. At the end of 2014, Roza Tuletayeva, one of the leaders of the strike, was released, and in 2015, the remaining imprisoned oil workers regained their freedom. This became possible due to persistent  efforts of the EU, UN, OSCE, human rights organizations and representatives of the Kazakh opposition who are in political exile.

One of the conditions for the parole of oil workers was their "repentance for  the offences committed", and for this reason, they have been living in fear and have avoided contact  with journalists ever since their release. Currently, the oil workers are afraid that they could be  dismissed from their jobs should they participate in the events commemorating the Zhanaozen tragedy  due to take place on the day of its anniversary.

Kazakhstan has ignored demands from the EU and the UN to release the last prisoner, convicted in the  ‘Zhanaozen case’: an opposition politician Vladimir Kozlov. He is serving a 7.5-year sentence for ‘inciting  social discord’, ‘calls for the overthrow of the constitutional order’ and ‘the establishment of a criminal  organization’.

According to the official position of Kazakhstan, Kozlov ‘provoked demonstrators to violently confront  the authorities' ‘on the instruction’ of the opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov. As Mr. Ablyazov  supported the striking oil workers, Kazakhstan accused him of ‘inciting social discord’ and ‘committing a  crime against the peace and security of mankind’. The same charges served as a basis for the  prosecution of another political refugee Muratbek Ketebayev who actively reported on the Zhanaozen  events.

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