Salon.com > Kyrgyzstan

The long shot in Central Asia

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:59:00 +0000

Betting on democratization in Kyrgyzstan may seem a fool's errand. What chance is there for competitive politics in a poor, remote country that in recent months has experienced the overthrow of a president, an abortive restorationist coup and a massive outbreak of interethnic violence? Against all odds, Kyrgyzstan has thus far confounded the skeptics. In late June, it conducted a successful constitutional referendum, and on Sunday the citizens of Kyrgyzstan gave their verdict in a hotly contested parliamentary campaign, which was widely recognized as the fairest election in the history of Central Asia. In President Obama's words, the people of Kyrgyzstan "demonstrated by their participation in [Sunday's] historic election that they are committed to selecting their government through peaceful, democratic means."

U.N. says 400,000 uprooted by Kyrgyzstan unrest

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Some 400,000 people have been displaced by ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, the United Nations announced Thursday, dramatically increasing the official estimate of a crisis that has left throngs of desperate, fearful refugees without enough food and water in grim camps along the Uzbek border.

U.N. Humanitarian Office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said an estimated 300,000 people have been driven from their homes but remain inside the nation of 5.3 million people. She said there are now also about 100,000 refugees in neighboring Uzbekistan. The last official estimate of refugees who fled the country was 75,000. No number of internally displaced has been available.

Violence erupted last week between the majority Kyrgyz population and minority ethnic Uzbeks. Kyrgyzstan's government has accused the country's deposed president of igniting long-standing ethnic tensions by sending gunmen in ski masks to shoot members of both groups. The government, which overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, accuses the leader of deep corruption and says that he and his supporters were attempting to shake official control of the south and reassert their control of the Afghan heroin trade in the area.

New Kyrgyz leaders vow to prosecute ex-president

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:32:28 +0000

With the tremors of Kyrgyzstan's violent revolution subsiding, the country's provisional leader said Friday that her government will push for an international probe of the former president, who has fled the country.

Ousted leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev left Thursday for neighboring Kazakhstan on a flight arranged by the U.S., Russian and Kazakh leaders in an unusual joint mediation effort. The United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also helped negotiate Bakiyev's departure, which eased fears of a civil war in the strategically placed ex-Soviet nation.

Bakiyev was driven from the capital, Bishkek, on April 7 after troops opened fire on protesters, who then stormed government buildings.

This mountainous country of 5 million bordering China hosts the U.S. air base at the capital's airport which provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and serves as a major transit hub for troops. Russia also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan.

Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva said Friday that Bakiyev's departure, organized "with the help of our friends from other countries, was the only chance to avoid the escalation of violence, tensions and setting one part of the nation against another."

If you want to understand Kyrgyzstan, read this

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:30:00 +0000

At a political fundraiser in the fall of 2008, a congressional candidate introduced me to Rahm Emanuel and explained that I was an expert on Kyrgyzstan. Emanuel quipped that if one of his daughters ever needed to do a book report on an exotic land, he'd give me a call.

Emanuel probably had no idea that, less than two years later, he and the White House would be confronting yet another major crisis in relations with this remote Central Asian nation: this week’s popular revolution, which endangers a critical American military base and also America’s long-range ties to a country in the strategically important borderlands between Russia, China and the Middle East.

The peril for America is compounded by one simple fact: While Washington backed Kyrgyzstan’s now-deposed dictator, Russia -- American’s chief rival in the region -- supported the triumphant forces of change. The fallout, in the months and years to come, could be considerable.

Is the Kyrgyz turmoil another of the color revolutions?

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:09:00 +0000

Writing yesterday about Kyrgyzstan, I stated that the events did not represent a Colored Revolution, and indeed might go on to be considered the first "post-colored revolution" revolution in the post-Soviet space. I'm writing now to elaborate a bit on what I meant by this.

By the term "Colored Revolution," I am referring to particular pattern of events (which Professors Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik have perhaps more accurately labeled the electoral model, whereby government change took the follow format: the opposition coalesced in preparation for an election; the election was held and the government implicated in (usually massive) electoral fraud effecting the outcome of the election*; protests were held following the election; and eventually a change of government of some form occurs. I have previously written as to why I think fraudulent elections are a particularly useful vehicle for allowing individual citizens who oppose the government to overcome collective action problems associated with protesting against the government, and there was also clearly a learning effect as these Colored Revolutions spread from country to country.

Kyrgyzstan forms interim government backed by army

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:44:00 +0000

An opposition coalition proclaimed a new interim government Thursday in Kyrgyzstan after clashes left dozens dead and said it would rule until elections are held in six months. It also urged the president, who has fled the capital, to resign.

The new interim defense minister said the armed forces have joined the opposition and will not be used against protesters.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for calm and said he would immediately send an envoy to Kyrgyzstan, which he had criticized just last week for its human rights violations.

China on Thursday said it was "deeply concerned" about the violent uprising in its small western neighbor, echoing comments by Russia and the United States. The impoverished Central Asian nation is home to a key U.S. military base supporting the fighting in Afghanistan that the opposition has said it wants to close. It also hosts a Russian military base.

Kyrgyzstan, which shares a 533-mile (858-kilometer) border with China, is also a gateway to other energy-rich Central Asian countries where China, Russia and the U.S. are competing fiercely for dominance.

Kyrgyz uprising seizes security headquarters

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:59:00 +0000

An opposition politician has seized the headquarters of a branch of Kyrgyzstan's security forces -- the first concrete sign that a violent uprising is now in charge of the Central Asian nation.

An Associated Press reporter saw opposition leader Keneshbek Duishebayev sitting in the office of the chief of Kyrgyzstan's succesor agency to the Soviet KGB, issuing orders on the phone to people Duishebayev said were security agents. He also saw Duishebayev giving orders to a uniformed special forces commando.

Duishebayev told the AP that "we have created units to restore order" on the streets. This mountainous former Soviet republic houses a U.S. military base that is a key supply center in the fight against the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- Thousands of protesters furious over corruption and spiraling utility bills seized government buildings and clashed with police Wednesday in Kyrgyzstan, throwing control of the Central Asian nation into doubt. Police opened fire on demonstrators, killing dozens and wounding hundreds.

Beware the cheap Chinese yurt invasion

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:22:00 +0000

As if replacing lead in children's jewelry with toxic cadmium wasn't bad enough, HTWW has now learned that Chinese synthetic yurt manufacturers are threatening the financial stability of Kyrgyzstan's domestic yurt industry.

David Trilling has the story at Eurasia.net. (Found via the Hurting the Feelings of the Chinese People blog.) And a fine story it is, rich with detail concerning the cultural importance of the yurt in Kyrgyzstan. I did not know that Kyrgyz funerals traditionally require yurts, or that the felt required for a single authentic yurt consumes the wool from 100 sheep. But the next time I'm in Bishkek needing a yurt, I know who to call: Damira Sakieva, an entrepreneur who runs a "dial-a-yurt" rental business in the Kyrgyzstan capital city.

What a surprise: The convenience of cheap, easy-to-assemble yurts made in China's western Xinjiang province pose a threat to traditional Kyrgyz yurt-makers across the border. Even if a true Kyrgyz would prefer not being caught dead in one.