To commemorate the third anniversary of the Zhanaozen killings of 16 December 2011, the film Zhanaozen: the unknown tragedy (directed by Yulia Mazurova and shown at the 2013 GLI Summer School) has now been made available online.
The 30-minute documentary includes film of the police attack that the authorities wanted to hide, interviews with oil workers whose strike was ended by the massacre (at least 16 killed and 60 wounded) and scenes from the court in which activists were jailed. The film makers have asked supporters to distribute the link widely. Denis Bilunov, who worked on the film, said: “Thank you for the efforts you have made before. Since March 2013 screenings with public discussions took place in important venues: Helsinki, Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw, Kiev, Brussels, London, Geneva and Milan.”
You can view the English language version on Vimeo here:
And the original Russian language version on Youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnT3BJPwUzw
Update, Friday 19th December:
It should be noted that one of the leaders of the workers’ strike in Zhanaozen, Roza Tuletaeva, who was detained, tortured and sentenced to seven years imprisonment for her involvement in the strike, was released on November 25th from the penal colony where she was incarcerated. This is a great victory, however the fight for justice for those murdered by the police in 2011 goes on.
For more information on the Justice for Kazakhstan Oil Workers campaign, see: http://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/kazakh-oil-workers/