JULY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers’ rights, the energy business and rock music are mixing into a potent concoction in Kazakhstan.

British pop star Sting stepped into the row between striking oil workers and Kazakhstan’s business elite when he cancelled a concert in support of a six-week long strike. Sting’s concert had been planned for Astana on July 4 as part of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s birthday celebrations.

Cancelling it handed the oil workers a massive publicity coup and Nazarbayev a very public snub.

On his website Sting, former frontman of the 1970s/1980s rock band The Police, said: “Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing.”

Perhaps Sting also had in mind the criticism he took last year after playing for the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, a man western human rights groups accuse of abuses.

The Kazakh strikers are mainly from Ozenmunaigas, a subsidiary of the state energy company Kazmunaigas in Kazakhstan’s energy producing western hinterland. They say they are not being paid enough. The authorities and Kazmunaigas have declared the strike illegal and arrested some of the workers’ leaders but they have failed to pressure them back to work.

Strikes in Kazakhstan are rare. This one though has already forced KMG EP, the London-listed arm of Kazmunaigas, to reduce its 2011 production forecast by 4% and looks set to rumble on.

ENDS