Kazakh court convicts 33 people for deadly riots The riot in Zhanaozen killed 15 people and rocked Kazakhstan, which had a reputation for stability. It also posed the biggest threat to President Nursultan Nazarbayev during his 20 year rule. He responded by flooding the area with military and blaming senior executives for the riot. At the core of the riot were former workers at an oil field owned by KazMunaiGaz, the Kazakh national energy company. They had started a strike in May, demanding higher wages and then occupied the main square in Zhanaozen. On Dec 16, the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union, frustrations bubbled over and rioting broke out. Five policemen have already been jailed for ordering their subordinates to fire at demonstrators during the riot, most of the dead died from gunshot wounds, and three senior oil company executives have been jailed for stealing cash earmarked for social regeneration projects. Zhanaozen is a scruffy, wind-beaten town of 90,000 people about two hours drive inland from Aktau. Its fortunes have taken a downturn in parallel with the fortunes of the oil field it was built to service and the demonstrators have said they had nowhere to turn to after they lost their jobs. This year, the government ordered KazMunaiGaz to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into creating jobs in the area. The impact of the riots has also filtered down and impacted industrial relations across Kazakhstan. Since the riot, a number of Kazakh heavy industry companies have preferred to relent to worker demands and increase salaries by up to 30 per cent rather than risk a showdown.