ZHETYBAI, Kazakhstan -- Hundreds of workers of the West Oil Software company in Kazakhstan’s volatile western region of Manghystau continued a strike and protest camp they started on December 11, despite increasing pressure from authorities on the eve of the Central Asian nation's Independence Day.*
Representatives of the strikers said on December 15 that security forces and riot police have surrounded them while management officials are threatening to fire them if they continue the strike.
Some 500 workers are still picketing the company's headquarters in freezing cold temperatures, demanding the integration of their salary payment system into that of the national KazMunaiGas energy corporation as well as the renewal of their work and technical equipment.
West Oil Software provides transport services for oil and gas companies in the region.
The workers' strike and protest have continued even after the management on December 13 fired seven strikers and a local court declared the strike illegal.
Kazakh authorities have for years been very sensitive about protests by oil workers in the Manghystau region, especially around Independence Day which is celebrated on December 16.
In December 2021, protests in the region's restive town of Zhanaozen triggered by fuel price hikes led to unprecedented nationwide unrest in January last year that left at least 238 people dead, including 19 law enforcement officers.
WATCH: Kazakh Unrest In January 2022
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
What's Behind The State Of Emergency And Protests Erupting Across Kazakhstan?
On December 16, 2011, in Zhanaozen, police opened fire at protesting oil workers, killing at least 16 people there and another person in the nearby town of Shetpe.
Kazakh Independence Day also coincides with the date of of anti-Kremlin youth demonstrations in 1986, known as Zheltoqsan, in the nation's largest city, Almaty. These protests erupted after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev replaced Kazakhstan's long-term ruler, Dinmukhammed Qonaev, with Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian sent by Moscow to head the then-Soviet republic.
Demonstrations against the appointment were repressed violently by Soviet authorities. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed, although officially only several people were said to have lost their lives during the demonstrations that lasted for three days.
Police in Almaty announced on December 15 that its units had beefed up security in the city "to prevent possible lawlessness and crimes" during Independence Day celebrations.
The #NotExtremists Telegram channel, which monitors human rights violations in Kazakhstan, said on December 15 that at least eight noted activists had been either handed jail terms of between 15 and 25 days on administrative charges or charged with administrative misdemeanors.