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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Kazakhstan: Riots Not Prelude1 to Arab Spring
For years, Kazakhstan has nurtured2 an image of stability and friendliness3 to foreign investors4. In recent days, a series of riots and protests in western Kazakhstan has marred5 this image.
Kazakh authorities sought Tuesday to defuse protests in its main oil-producing region, promising6 to find jobs for thousands of workers who have been on strike since last May.
Last weekend, the seven-month-long strike erupted into violence as police fired on rioters in two towns in western Kazakhstan. Officially 15 people were killed, 110 others wounded and 46 buildings were burned.
Ainur Kurmanov, a Kazakh labor7 leader visiting Moscow, told says that the human toll8 was far higher, probably around 70 dead and 700 to 800 wounded.
On Tuesday, communications were restored with Zhanaozen, the oil city that saw the most violence. Rioters there looted bank cash machines and burned the mayor's office, a hotel and the offices of the Kazakh-Chinese joint9 venture company that had fired the workers last May.
Kazakhstan is the world's 18th largest oil producer and an increasingly important supplier of oil to its eastern neighbor, China. The riots dent10 Kazakhstan's image as an investor-friendly island of stability in Central Asia.
The oil field dispute should have been resolved six months ago, Kazakh Presidential Adviser11 for Political Affairs Yermukhamet Yertysbayev told Interfax Tuesday.
He blamed the violence on oil workers from neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Saying Kazakhs are peaceful people, he added that an Arab revolution in Kazakhastan is "impossible in principle." He said he is "deeply convinced" that this will not happen on a national scale.
Scenes of the rioting have been played extensively on Russian television, prompting the Kazakh presidential advisor12 to charge that the Russian media are using the riots to distract Russians from their own protest movement.
Bulat Abilov, chairman of the opposition13 Social Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, said that the protests were also fueled by regional resentment14.
Speaking from Almaty, the commercial capital, Abilov said that the oil wealth from western Kazakhstan pays for the palaces and modernistic buildings of Kazakhstan's showcase capital, Astana. While the oil towns of western Kazakhstan remain in Soviet15 poverty, he says, corrupt16 bureaucrats17 get rich in the nation's two big cities.
But he said local complaints are often kept quiet under the authoritarian18 rule of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, leader of Kazakhstan since independence 20 years ago.
Today, "oil separatism" is a phrase often used to describe the bitter mood in Kazakh oil towns near the Caspian Sea.
Despite the bitter cold, protesters in Aktau, capital of the oil-producing Mangistau region, taunted19 riot police again on Tuesday with signs reading, "Don't Shoot People" and "Blood is Cheaper than Oil."
1 prelude | |
n.序言,前兆,序曲 | |
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2 nurtured | |
养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 ); 培育; 滋长; 助长 | |
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3 friendliness | |
n.友谊,亲切,亲密 | |
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4 investors | |
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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5 marred | |
adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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6 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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7 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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8 toll | |
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟) | |
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9 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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10 dent | |
n.凹痕,凹坑;初步进展 | |
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11 adviser | |
n.劝告者,顾问 | |
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12 advisor | |
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者 | |
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13 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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14 resentment | |
n.怨愤,忿恨 | |
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15 Soviet | |
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃 | |
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16 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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17 bureaucrats | |
n.官僚( bureaucrat的名词复数 );官僚主义;官僚主义者;官僚语言 | |
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18 authoritarian | |
n./adj.专制(的),专制主义者,独裁主义者 | |
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19 taunted | |
嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 ); 嘲弄; 辱骂; 奚落 | |
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