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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Kyrgyzstan on the verge of collapse

A warning for politicians
15 June, 2010 - 00:00
REUTERS photo

Building an independent state, developing democracy, ensuring the freedom of expression are tasks easier said than done. Recent events show that those in power in Kyrgyzstan aren’t measuring up. After the atrocious revolution that paved their way to power they are unable to get the domestic political situation under control, especially the interethnic hotbeds in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Only recently this country was praised as an island of democracy in Central Asia, but after two revolutions the incumbent government appears unable to overcome the resultant anarchy and is actually falling under the failed state category. In other words, Kyrgyzstan may well emerge as the first failed post-Soviet body politic, considering that those in power there failed to overcome the confrontation between the rich north regions (dominated by Kirghiz communities) and the poor south dominated by Uzbeks.

Osh, a city in the south of Kyrgyzstan, saw the start of a Kirghiz-Uzbek confrontation, Friday night, that quickly evolved into a bloodbath, with blocks of flats, offices, shopping centers and bazaars burned down and the streets in the hands of marauders. In fact, there are reports of fires still blazing there, and that there is no electricity in Jalal-Abad, that its university and TV studios were razed to the ground, with mutinous mobs seizing a military unit (some reports have it that the armory and a BTR armored personnel carrier were taken away). According to an official of Kyrgyzstan’s emergency management ministry, a firefighting team on its way to a fire was apprehended and shot by the rebels.

Sporadic fighting continued in the south of Kyrgyzstan Monday night. Osh started having problems with water and food supplies. At dawn, armed marauders began robbing the shopping centers.

A total of 118 died in the course of this public unrest, 1,500 required medical aid.

Over 75,000 ethnic Uzbeks fled the south of Kyrgyzstan, ending up in Uzbekistan whose emergency management ministry’s reports read that refugee camps, complete with food, water, medical supplies, and trained psychologists, have been set up in the Andijon, Namangan, and Fergana regions. Most of the refugees are reportedly women and children, and that there are wounded among them.

Experts describe this upsurge of violence in Kyrgyzstan as the largest interethnic conflict in Central Asia over the past several decades. Over several days of public unrest hundreds of homes, offices, shopping centers in the ethnic Uzbek-dominated areas in the south of Kyrgyzstan were razed to the ground. BBC reports the burning down of the Uzbek drama company and Uzbek-Kirghiz university, with the military on board BTRs looking on as the rebellious mob had its way. Kirghiz teenagers armed with crowbars and axes were observed driving captured Uzbek cars.

UN experts are assessing the scope of the humanitarian crisis in the south of Kyrgyzstan on an emergency basis, considering that lots of ethnic Uzbeks had to flee their homes. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon discussed the situation in Kyrgyzstan with EU and OSCE officials. The latest reports point to the three world bodies sending envoys to Kyrgyzstan. Roza Otunbayeva, the interim President of Kyrgyzstan, forwarded a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation, asking for help. His press secretary, Natalia Timakova, told journalists that the Russian President regards the public unrest in Kyrgyzstan as that country’s inner conflict, and that for the time being there is no way for Russia to get involved in settling this issue.

Timakova added that a decision on dispatching a peacekeeping contingent to Kyrgyzstan, along the lines of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, could be made only in accordance with the UN Charter, after consultations with the CSTO members. Meanwhile, sources in Russia’s power structures report the landing of three IL-76 military cargo aircraft at the Russian military base in Kant, delivering a reinforced battalion of the 31st Paratroop Division, tasked with protecting the local contingent of Russian servicemen and families.

On Sunday, it became known that the Kirghiz war department had started “partial mobilization” drafting the republic’s populace, all citizens fit for duty as reservists up to 50 years of age. They are instructed to report to the military registration and enlistment offices at their place of permanent residence.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, ex-president of Kyrgyzstan currently residing in Belarus, has made a statement to the effect that he has had nothing whatsoever to do with the public unrest that broke out in the south of Kyrgyzstan last Friday, and that he believes Roza Otunbayeva’s government is responsible.

Aleksandr Knyazev, director, CIS Countries Institute, Bishkek, told Komsomolskaya pravda Radio that Bakiyev’s cronies are actually behind what’s happening in the south of Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan is in the limelight with media across the world. Many are wondering what caused this interethnic confrontation in this former Soviet republic, why its government hasn’t been able to start democratic institutions functioning after two revolutions. Vladimir Milov, a Russian politician, believes the turmoil in Kyrgyzstan is the most vivid manifestation of the fiasco of the authoritarian political system. “The pattern is simple enough, with the powers that be moving in the direction of clannish authoritarianism, along with mounting public disillusionment and protest, climaxing in revolution, followed by another step taken in the direction of clannish authoritarianism, a new round of public dissatisfaction and tensions, followed by yet another revolution accompanied by social degradation, rampant corruption, socioeconomic stagnation. Kyrgyzstan is toppling into the failed-state abyss, when those in power are no longer capable of keeping the situation under control, when it is necessary to seek foreign aid to keep this body politic ticking,” he told Echo of Moscow.

At press time, there was no data on the outcome of yesterday’s consultations between the CSTO Security Council secretaries, concerning measures to respond to the situation in the south of Kyrgyzstan. These consultations were initiated by the Russian President (currently he is acting Chairman, CSTO Security Council). Reportedly the key topic on the agenda is Kyrgyzstan’s official request that a CSTO peacekeeping contingent be deployed in the ethnic-unrest-affected Osh region (CSTO is made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). There is ponderable likelihood of this peacekeeping mission being assigned.

By Mykola SIRUK, The Day
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