Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:38 pm Post subject: Major trouble in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan: protesters kill government minister as violence escalates Opposition followers killed Kyrgyzstan's interior minister, took the deputy prime minister hostage and captured state television in a deadly revolt against President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
7 Apr 2010
Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades in repeated efforts to disperse thousands of protesters surrounding Bakiyev's offices in the capital Bishkek, but retreated as demonstrators tried to ram the gates with an armoured vehicle. A police source said that at least 12 people had been killed.
In a desperate bid to contain the unrest, Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov declared a state of emergency. But shortly after the announcement, opposition protesters stormed the Kyrgyz television centre, forcing a halt to all programmes, in a dramatic sign that the government was fast losing its grip.
A source in the office of Interior Minister Moldomus Kongantiyev then revealed that he had been killed in riots in the northwest hub of Talas where the first protests had erupted. Kongantiyev had been attacked by protesters in Talas who had also taken deputy prime minister Akylbek Zhaparov captive. In Bishkek, explosions from stun grenades reverberated across the city and the crackle of automatic weapons fire filled the air as protesters in the main square gasped for breath in a fog of tear gas.
Amid appeals for calm from Russia, authorities in the ex-Soviet republic said three opposition leaders had been arrested for perpetrating "serious crimes". The United States, which maintains an airbase in Kyrgyzstan used in the Nato campaign in nearby Afghanistan, also voiced "deep concern".
The riots in Bishkek were the culmination of spiralling protests by the opposition which accuses the government of rights violations, authoritarianism and economic mismanagement. Between 3,000 and 5,000 protesters overturned cars and set them on fire as they marched from the opposition headquarters towards the presidential offices, witnesses said. Protesters appeared to have seized several heavily armoured police vehicles and were standing atop them waving red Kyrgyz flags and the blue flag of the opposition movement.
The violence came a day after more than 1,000 opposition protesters burst through police lines and took control of government offices in Talas. In the central city of Naryn, hundreds of opposition protesters on Wednesday stormed the regional government headquarters after the local governor refused to negotiate. Witnesses in the city of Tokmak, just outside the capital, said around 2,000 demonstrators had gathered there. Residents in three regions near the southern town of Osh also told of protests in the streets.
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country perched at the strategic junction between China, Russia and southwest Asia, is among the poorest countries to have emerged from the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. It has been plagued by corruption and chronic instability and the troubles resemble widespread unrest that washed over the country in March 2005 and resulted in the ousting of President Askar Akayev. Opposition leaders accuse the Bakiyev government of basic rights violations, authoritarianism and arbitrary economic management that has resulted in sharply higher prices for basic goods and services.
As the unrest unfolded, Kyrgyzstan's prosecutor general Nurlan Tursunkulov announced police had arrested former prime minister and presidential candidate Almazbek Atambayev, ex-parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev and his aide Bolot Cherniazov. Bakiyev's government vowed on Tuesday to "severely" crush the protests but as the demonstrations gathered momentum, Russia called for Kyrgyzstan not to use force against the protesters.
"We consistently stand for all disagreements – political, economic and social – to be solved within the framework of the democratic procedures that exist in Kyrgyzstan, without the use of force and harm to the Kyrgyz citizens," deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the Interfax news agency.
The United States has an airbase at Manas that has become a pivotal staging ground for the battle against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. In a statement Tuesday, the US embassy in Bishkek said it was "deeply concerned" and urged "all parties to show respect for the rule of law and ... to engage in talks to resolve differences".
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There wasn't a mention of this on the BBC news at 6.
Kyrgyzstan: Death, dictators and the Soviet legacy As Kyrgyzstan descends into chaos, Craig Murray explains the background to the violence – and why Central Asia demands our attention.
An Uzbek woman who fled the Kyrgyz city of Osh stands at the Uzbekistan border
It is arguable that the wave of ethnic killings in southern Kyrgyzstan that started last Saturday – which has left hundreds of Uzbeks dead and tens of thousands homeless – is, at root, the fault of Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union was in theory just that – a union of Soviet socialist republics. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were three of them. But whatever the theory, Stalin had no intention of allowing the republics to become viable entities or potential power bases for rivals. So he intervened personally and the republics were deliberately messed up with boundaries that cut across natural economic units and severed cultural and ethnic links.
The names Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan might give the impression that these Central Asian states are the ethnic home of the Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks. They are quite deliberately not that. For example, the major Uzbek town of Osh, in the Ferghana Valley, which is at the centre of this week's violence, is over the border in Kyrgyzstan. The great centres of Tajik culture, Samarkand and Bokhara, are not in Tajikistan but in Uzbekistan, even though 90 per cent of the population of those cities remain Tajik- speaking – and are now subject to Uzbek government attempts to choke the language.
It is a remarkable feature of the latest chapter in the Great Game that the mountainous little country of Kyrgyzstan hosts major bases for both the Russian and the United States air forces. Both powers view Kyrgyzstan as occupying a strategically crucial position north of Afghanistan, on the route from Central Asia to China. But neither appears to consider that their security strategy might be enhanced not just by a military presence, but by alleviating the appalling poverty and bad government from which the people of Kyrgyzstan have suffered.
Like the other Central Asian states, newly independent Kyrgyzstan fell under the dictatorship of the local Soviet leader, but in Askar Akayev it had by far the best of an incredibly poor bunch, and the only one who was not a former member of the Politburo. Kyrgyzstan is severely disadvantaged by its geography. Distance from markets, poor communications and lack of infrastructure are a barrier even to the development of its mineral resources, but Akayev instituted the freest economy in Central Asia and undoubtedly the least oppressed society.
Sadly, time and the enjoyment of power whittled away at Akayev's democratic credentials. Censorship crept back apace. Deepening corruption centred on his children, and it was for the sake of their political futures that he eventually indulged in widespread vote rigging. When Akayev was overthrown in the 2005 "Tulip revolution", he went back to being a scientist in Moscow. This contrasted sharply with the experience of Uzbekistan a few months later. When demonstrations against President Karimov started to gather mass support in Andijan, Karimov unleashed his army and more than 700 protesters were shot dead. That effectively ended the wave of "colour revolutions" against ex-Soviet leaders.
Akayev's replacement in Kyrgyzstan, President Bakiyev, proved worse than his predecessor in precisely the same problem areas of vote rigging, media control and corruption. His old democratic allies deserted him and fought the 2009 election against him. Bakiyev's re-election in 2009 with 83 per cent of the vote was widely condemned.
Bakiyev remained close to the United States. Perhaps too close – his son Maksim was arrested on Sunday in Farnborough, having just flown to Britain. There is an Interpol arrest warrant out for him focusing on massive contracts allegedly given to him by the Pentagon for supply to the US airbase in Kyrgyzstan. This appears to be a standard Pentagon method of dealing with Central Asian dictators. In Uzbekistan, the Pentagon handed FMN Logistics, belonging to the dictator's daughter, Gulnara Karimova, a massively profitable contract for land supply to US forces in Afghanistan and structural work on US bases there.
Bakiyev was particularly unpopular in the capital Bishkek, though he apparently retained the support of rural Kyrgyz, especially in the south. But two months ago, Bakiyev was overthrown in a second popular revolution. The interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, has announced fresh elections but her government has been overwhelmed by the gathering violence. The ultimate loyalties of the police and army are uncertain at this point.
Otunbayeva is a liberal Central Asian and, as is typical of her generation, that means she looks to Russia. Her interim government has appealed to Russia for military assistance, but received a frosty response from the Kremlin.
There had been a concerted campaign in the Russian media against Bakiyev, which undoubtedly contributed to his downfall. Such a campaign would not have been possible without Putin's nod: Bakiyev was viewed in Moscow as too friendly to America. But Otunbayeva is far too liberal for Putin's taste. Russia will be hoping for a strong pro-Russian leader to emerge, and that will be more likely if proposals gain traction for a peacekeeping force from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the regional security mechanism which is effectively a local dictators' club.
It would be wrong to characterise the violence in Kyrgyzstan as politically motivated. Ancient ethnic tensions and stereotypes have come to the fore, and poverty is the root cause. But at the same time it is broadly true that the Uzbeks of the south generally support Otunbayeva, while their southern Kyrgyz attackers do not. Bakiyev supporters have played some role in stirring up the violence.
To complicate things further, while Osh's Uzbeks may support Otunbayeva, President Karimov of Uzbekistan most certainly does not, seeing her as an embodiment of the dangers of democracy to dictators like him. And Karimov does not want a flood of comparatively more politically sophisticated Uzbeks from Osh entering Uzbekistan.
So for three days, tens of thousands of Uzbeks massed on the Uzbek/Kyrgyz border, on which Karimov has destroyed most of the bridges and which is mined and wired for its entire length. Eventually the Uzbek government relented but let only women and children through. They have been herded into camps and are not free to leave.
Sevara, an Uzbek woman I spoke to by phone yesterday, told me she and her family were stuck in their home in the Frunsuzkaya district of Osh. She witnessed the destruction of every building in the largely commercial street on which she lives, bar her block of flats. The shops and restaurants, like most Osh businesses, were Uzbek-owned.
She told me that she saw three distinct groups of masked young men arrive, overseen by militia in an armoured personnel carrier. The first group broke in to all the premises, and smashed doors, windows and fittings. Then a second group came and removed all the stock and furniture. An hour or so later a third group came and methodically lit fires inside each building. It was, she said, calm and organised, not a violent mob.
Sevara lives in a block inhabited mainly by Russians. She believes that is why it was not attacked. Yesterday, some Kyrgyz men entered the block saying they were registering people for humanitarian aid; Sevara did not answer the door. Her Russian neighbours said the flat was empty, and have been bringing her food.
Where is Britain in all this? The ethnic conflicts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are inextricably linked with what is primarily an ethnic conflict in Afghanistan. Yet our policy in Central Asia, if it can be called one, is nothing but support for the very dictators who are impoverishing their states. The answer to the growth of Islamic radicalism is not for rival great powers to strive to prop up regional dictators. That approach is already leading to the growth in the kind of radicalism we are trying to suppress. We can no longer afford a short-term policy conditioned by the tactical expediency of securing regional logistic support for the Afghan War. We continue to ignore Central Asia at our peril.
Kyrgyzstan death toll could be 2,000, warns leader Rosa Otunbayeva says Uzbek refugees will be allowed to return home and that wrecked city of Osh will be rebuilt
Luke Harding in Osh and agencies
guardian.co.uk,
18 June 2010
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Rosa Otunbayeva said today that the death toll from savage ethnic violence in the south of the country could be as high as 2,000, as she paid her first visit to the region since the unrest began.
Otunbayeva, who pledged that the hundreds of thousands of Uzbek refugees would be allowed to return home, told Russian media that she would "multiply by 10" the official death toll of 191. Without mentioning the Uzbek community by name, Otunbayeva said the wrecked city of Osh would be rebuilt. After arriving by military helicopter, she visited Osh's inter-regional hospital, where Kyrgz victims of the conflict are being treated. But there was still no sign of aid deliveries for the ethnic Uzbeks whose homes have been razed, with packages apparently being distributed only to Kyrgyz victims.
Across the street from the hospital, and standing next to their gutted homes, Uzbek men said they had received no help. "We appeal to the international community to help us. We need Americans or British to give us aid. We have nothing, our homes have been destroyed, and our women and children are now in camps in Afghanistan," Davron, 32, said.
The former Soviet republic has been rocked by unrest since a revolt in April toppled the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev and brought the interim government to power. Some 400,000 people out of Kyrgyzstan's population of 5.3 million have fled since 10 June, some to refugee camps in neighbouring Uzbekistan.
The US assistant secretary of state, Robert Blake, flew to inspect refugee camps on the Uzbek side of the border, where a stable security situation has allowed authorities to set up more orderly camps to house about 100,000 people.
In one camp, lined with rows of tents marked with the United Nations logo, dozens of women, many in tears, surrounded Blake, who was later due to fly to Kyrgyzstan. "It is important to establish peace for your safe return," he told them through an interpreter." An investigation should be carried out to prevent this in the future."
Otunbayeva, whose government has not been formally elected, has accused Bakiyev of organising gangs of armed men to shoot at both Uzbeks and Kyrgyz to ignite ethnic violence in the south, Bakiyev's traditional stronghold. Both ethnic groups have suffered in the violence but losses on the Uzbek side are considerably greater.
In Osh, where streets are strewn with rubble and still echoing with occasional gunfire, Uzbek neighbourhoods have set up barricades separating them from Kyrgyz areas. Sporadic attacks have continued but major violence has subsided since Monday. Some residents started venturing out of their homes to pick through the wreckage.
"Osh residents are in urgent need of protection and humanitarian assistance," Human Rights Watch said. "The tense security situation, barricades and checkpoints have significantly limited distribution of aid, medical supplies and access to medical treatment." The government hopes to stick to its plan to hold a constitutional referendum on 27 June.
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