ALMATY (Reuters) ? Some employees of KazMunaiGas Exploration Production are staying away from work because they fear for their safety after violent clashes killed at least 10 people in a western Kazakh oil city, the company said on Saturday.
London-listed KMG EP said Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry was providing armed security at key oil production facilities after the clashes on Friday, when a crowd set fire to the headquarters of its Uzenmunaigas unit in the city of Zhanaozen.
The company said in a statement it was maintaining daily oil production levels by keeping employees working round the clock.
"Some Uzenmunaigas workers failed to appear for the night shift and the morning shift on December 16 and 17," KMG EP said.
"This can be explained by the fact workers are afraid for their own security and the security of their family members."
Public protests are scarce in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy and oil producer, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled with a firm hand for more than 20 years and has overseen massive foreign investment, mainly in oil and gas.
The unusually violent clashes in Zhanaozen, a city of 90,000 people about 150 km (95 miles) inland from the Caspian Sea, marred celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union.
Sacked oil workers clashed with riot police in the city's central square. Ten people were killed and buildings and cars were set on fire, Prosecutor-General Askhat Daulbayev said.
Interior Minister Kalmukhanbet Kasymov said the situation in Zhanaozen was under control and around 70 people had been arrested. He said 75 people had been taken to hospital and six police officers were among the injured, Interfax reported.
"The disorder in Zhanaozen has been suppressed. The situation in the city is calm and nobody is on the square," Interfax quoted Kasymov as saying.
STRIKING OIL WORKERS
Thousands of KazMunaiGas EP workers began a months-long strike in May, demanding better pay and conditions. The company, calling the strikes illegal, sacked 989 workers and has said production will fall 8.5 percent short of its target this year.
KMG EP has said 2,500 people were on strike at the height of the dispute. Representatives of the striking workers have put the maximum number at almost 16,000.
Uzenmunaigas employs 9,000 people, but the strikes were not confined to this unit alone. Workers at the Karazhanbasmunai field, a joint venture between KMG EP and Chinese state-owned investment company CITIC, also downed tools briefly in May.
Although the strikes have ended, sacked workers and sympathetic citizens have held regular protests in Zhanaozen's central square since. This spilled into violence when protesters stormed a stage erected for an Independence Day celebration.
Daulbayev, the prosecutor-general, said law-enforcement officers had been attacked by "hooligans" wielding firearms and "cold steel."
Reports circulating on social networking websites said the death toll was higher than 10 and that police had opened fire as the disturbances got out of control. These reports could not be verified independently.
The prosecutor-general did not say who had been killed or how. Local hospitals did not pick up the receiver when Reuters called, and New York-based Human Rights Watch said at least some mobile phone and Internet access had been shut down in the city.
"Without a means of communication with the outside world, people in Zhanaozen are extremely vulnerable," said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch also called on the government to observe "human rights norms" as they restore order. "Even in times of unrest and violence, when police restore order they should do so without using excessive force," Rittman said in a statement.
The rights group also said around 100 people were detained and later released after a peaceful rally in the regional centre of Aktau, a larger city on the Caspian coast.
KazMunaiGas EP's London-traded stock closed down 4.0 percent on Friday, versus a decline of only 0.4 percent in the wider oil and gas sector.
(Additional reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva and Dmitry Solovyov; editing by Tim Pearce)
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