ZHETYBAI, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh authorities have brought an additional number of riot police troops from other parts of the Central Asian nation to the town of Zhetybai in the western region of Manghystau as hundreds of oil-industry workers continue their strike launched last week.
An RFE/RL correspondent reports from the site that an unknown number of riot police troops entered the remote town on December 17 and were assembled in the local House of Culture.
Also on December 17, dozens of residents from the nearby restive town of Zhanaozen arrived in Zhetybai to express support for the striking workers and their relatives who joined the rally in front of the mayor's office a day earlier.
More than 500 workers and their relatives, who are striking against West Oil Software in the oil-rich region, complain that threats of dismissal have continued since the management fired seven strikers on December 13.
A local court has also declared the strike, which began on December 11, illegal.
With many camped out in snow and freezing cold, the workers are demanding the integration of their salary-payment system into that of the national KazMunaiGas energy corporation, as well as the renewal of their technical equipment.
On December 18, West Oil Software, which provides transport services for oil and gas companies in the region, reiterated that the ongoing strike is "illegal" and emphasized that the strike may result in "serious accidents at oil wells."
The company also said that in accordance with contracts signed with its partners, it intends " to carry out its obligations in full with or without the striking workers."
Kazakh authorities have for years been sensitive about protests of oil workers in Manghystau, which is home to the exploitation of major oil and gas reserves in the Central Asian state and contributes heavily to the state budget.
Violence that killed at least 238 people and injured thousands in January last year began with protests in Zhanaozen over rising gas prices in December 2021. President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev responded to that crisis with a nationwide state of emergency and brought in troops from the Russia-led CSTO to patrol Kazakh streets.
Over the weekend, police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, beefed up security "to prevent possible lawlessness and crimes" during Independence Day celebrations. Kazakhstan celebrates Independence Day on December 16.
#NotExtremists, a Telegram channel that monitors human rights violations in Kazakhstan, said last week that at least eight prominent activists were jail or charged with administrative misdemeanors on the eve of Independence Day.
On December 16, 2011, police opened fire at protesting oil workers in Zhanaozen, killing at least 16 people there and another person in the nearby town of Shetpe.
Kazakh Independence Day also coincides with the date of the 1986 anti-Kremlin youth demonstrations, known as Zheltoqsan, in the nation's largest city, Almaty, that 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, which lasted for three days.