ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Some 100 members of Kazakhstan's Writers' Union and journalists met in Almaty on December 21 and condemned the deadly shooting of unarmed demonstrators in the western town of Zhanaozen on December 16, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Police surrounded the Kazakh Writers' Union House in Almaty and put some officers inside the building.
The session was organized by well-known political activist Khasen Qozhakhmet, but he did not appear at the gathering. Qozhakhmet's colleagues told journalists he had been detained by police near his house on his way to the meeting.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said this week that at least 14 people were killed and at least 86 injured in the deadly dispersal of protesting oil workers by police in Zhanaozen on December 16.
More than 40 buildings -- including those of the town's administration and offices of the OzenMunaiGaz oil company -- were destroyed by fire.
On December 17, at least one man was shot dead and some 12 were wounded in another incident at the railway station in Shetpe, a town near Zhanaozen.
Read more in Kazakh here
Police surrounded the Kazakh Writers' Union House in Almaty and put some officers inside the building.
The session was organized by well-known political activist Khasen Qozhakhmet, but he did not appear at the gathering. Qozhakhmet's colleagues told journalists he had been detained by police near his house on his way to the meeting.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said this week that at least 14 people were killed and at least 86 injured in the deadly dispersal of protesting oil workers by police in Zhanaozen on December 16.
More than 40 buildings -- including those of the town's administration and offices of the OzenMunaiGaz oil company -- were destroyed by fire.
On December 17, at least one man was shot dead and some 12 were wounded in another incident at the railway station in Shetpe, a town near Zhanaozen.
Read more in Kazakh here
