[promoted to the Frontpage by BooMan. And a big welcome to Soj]
If you want to know why international funding and training made the Rose (Rep. of Georgia) and Orange (Ukraine) Revolutions successful, you need to know only one thing – in today’s world, a successful revolution must be televised.
Unfortunately for the people of Kyrgyzstan, the television cameras from the west are missing. Everything else is in place – a long-ruling, authoritarian, corrupt leader, rigged elections, a restless population and demonstrations in the street. If the world was paying attention, we might be able to get Kyrgyzstan into the democratic column. Alas…
I last wrote about the Kyrgyzstan elections on February 24. Last weekend, Kyrgystan held the run-off elections for all the parliamentary candidates who did not receive over 50% of the votes, as was the case for more than half the candidates. The Kyrgyz authorities managed to get most of the popular opposition candidates “disqualified” from running but Kyrgyz voters have the option of voting “none of the above”. And friends, that’s just what they did.
In the run-off elections, the candidate who gets the most votes, regardless of percentage, is declared the winner. And so President Askar Akayev now has his solidly loyal parliament to rubberstamp his decisions. But the people are not happy and protests continue.
In the town of Kochkor, approximately 3,000 protestors occupied a government building, demanding free and transparent elections.
Protestors also took over a government building in Jalal-Abad, imprisoning a government official within. They also did the same thing in Talas, imprisoning the governor of the region there for 48 hours, also demanding free and transparent elections.
Protests are also scheduled for the city of Osh, which is the biggest city in the southern part of the country.
Both the OSCE as well as ENEMO, which is a pan-CIS monitoring organization, said the recent elections were not free and fair. Amazingly, the American Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan has also stepped up to the plate:
The United States has an air base outside of Bishkek (the capital) and Kyrgyzstan has had particularly close ties with the United States of late, especially the state of Montana (see my report here from 2003).
President Akayev is technically barred from running for re-election this October, but the Kyrgyz opposition fears he will get his newly elected loyal parliament to change the rules so he can run again. I’m happy to report that Ambassador Young said this:
So far, Akayev hasn’t cracked down too hard on the protesters, apparently out of fear that it would draw attention from the western press. Odd, isn’t it? So long as the footage is just of people protesting in the street, nobody cares, but if he gets his goons out there cracking skulls then the footage might make it to CNN or Fox.
Akayev hasn’t minced his words though:
“Today some politicians who have suffered [electoral] defeat and are out of work have thrown away all masks, including the democratic mask,” Akayev said. He added that opposition protest calls were “aimed at plunging us all into unlawful actions and an abyss of civil war and interethnic clashes.”
Knowing that trying to get Akayev to admit a mistake is futile, the opposition has decided to form a parallel government in the city of Jalal-Abad. I remind my readers that Yushchenko did the same thing before the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that the re-run election must be… re-run.
The opposition is also convening its own “parliament” or “congress” (called “kurultai” in Kyrgyz), called the Coordinating Council of Kyrgyz National Unity. They’ve even elected a chairman, Jusupbek Jeenbekov. They’re hoping to convene other kurultais in the Talas and Osh regions as well.
So what’s going to happen? Will Akayev finally lose his patience and send in the troops to disperse these protestors? Will he negotiate some kind of quiet compromise with them? Or will some western cameras get some incendiary footage and put Akayev under the world’s spotlight?
Will Kyrgyzstan get its long-awaited democracy? Only if the rest of the world pays them the same kind of attention that Ukraine got…
Pax
How much did the U.S. involvement in supporting the popular uprisings in Ukraine and Georgia make and is the U.S. not providing support in Kyrgystan because of the military base?
I understand that Kyrgyzstan does not have any television stations (or at least this was the case five years ago, the last time I checked). Could it be that the current leadership won’t let people in with television cameras? This could explain both the lack of coverage and the lack of television stations.
That isn’t to say definitively that the networks would cover this if they could get in, and the print media certainly ought to be covering the situation better.
There were several TV stations in Bishkek in the late 90s, and they did cover political events that we organized, such as candidate debates, conferneces, etc. I can’t imagine that they have disappeared, but whether or not they are covering protests, and whether any footage is making it over to the internationals, may be a different matter.
I had the opportunity to visit Kyrgyzstan back in ’93. Independence was still fresh and people seemed quite optimistic and felt that they were in better shape than the other ‘stans’ (in particular, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan, not to mention Turkmenistan). Have not quite kept up with developments there the last few years and read your diary with great interest.
Thank you.
Not many people could find Kyrgystan with a map and two hands
or any of the other Stans
Makes me feel warm and fuzzy to know that other people are aware that there is a whole other planet out there
we got all the signs of a banana republic here, only one problem, no banana trees
As a kid, growing up in Norway, speed skaters were among my heroes. Still recall the transmissions (no live pictures) from Alma Ata (now Almaty) in modern Kazakhstan, where the fabulous Medeo-track was located. Superb conditions and many world records back in the ’60s and ’70s. Of course, the kid had to look it up in the atlas and encyclopedia.
Almaty, BTW is ugly and drab. Soviet concrete architecture most of it. Hope their new capital brings improvement. Bishkek (Fruenze) is not much better.
And you’re so right, mentioning any of the above places often draws a total blank.
Medeo is truly awesome to see, and Chimbuluk is fun to ski – once.
There are some nice places in Almaty, such as the wooden Orthodox church in the park, and some of the older buildings, but you are right, it is standard Soviet construction for the most part, and not very inviting. People are great, though.
Agreed on Bishkek, but the streets are lined with trees and that helps.
Astana, the new capital, has to be one of the coldest/windiest spots on the planet.
In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, it is almost all new construction, because of the massive earthquake in the late 60s, but the opera house (built by German POWs during WWII), and Prince Michael’s palace, survived, and are really outstanding.
I never knew that speed skating could lead to geographic curiosity, I’ll have to be more careful
I just wondered what happened to all of eastern Asia after the Soviet Union fell apart
one of the more interesting stories I discovered about “the Stans” was that one of them was trying to reform the reputation of Timerlame, to create a George Washington like figurehead for the developing nation
I lived in CA from 1995-2001, and spent a lot of time in each of the countries except Turkmenistan. I do admit that when I was first offered a job in Dushanbe, I did have to look it up. Heh.
Thanks again for this. I am so happy you have made it over to the Booman Tribune. I always subscribed to you over at Dkos. Your diaries always stick with me, with images that are never to be forgotten. You are making a difference speading the word.
This is just an aside here. Welcome to the site Soj. I hope your articles grace our World Recommended Diaries often. You’re the best.
Booman, I think you should frontpage this story.
–Stu
I just got here!
But I’m betting you’re right.
YES!!!!!! TO THE TOP! I absolutely count on soj to teach me about the world. She is marvelous. Smart. And that encyclopedic knowledge.
Thanks! I hadn’t even heard of this website but my filter caught some links to my website coming from here so I checked it out…
With susan here, I really feel at home 🙂
And Booman, I always liked your “Octopus” type (9/11 etc) stuff. Beyond what I’m able to get into now for sure for a variety of reasons.
I remember being on that rat bastard Meese’s tail back before the internet even existed, when I was just a lonely BBSer somewhere in the DC suburbs… does anyone here remember FIDO net? 😉
Pax
With YOU here, I really am at home.
sent you an email a day or two ago. I thought that was how you found the site.
If you didn’t get it, let me know.
Oops you’re completely right. I don’t know how it is that on one hand I can keep tabs on rebel groups in obscure locations in my head (20 just in Assam State, India alone!) but can’t remember other things like who emailed me…
You DID email me, I read it, then I completely forgot it. Then I saw the referral traffic and (maybe because I subconsciously remembered the email) I followed it over here.
It’s a miracle I put on clean socks every day, I’m starting to think… 😉
Pax
I was all over the conspiracy boards on FidoNet in the early 1990s when I lived in Hagerstown, Md. You just brought back a lot of memories.
I’m a firm believer Danny Casalero was on one of the biggest stories ever when he committed suicide.
As always, thanks for the phenomenal reporting soj. Very depressing, especially as it looked at one point (five years ago?) like Kyrgyzstan might be the one Central Asian republic that might avoid post-Soviet authoritarianism. (There was a book, I think, called “Island of Democracy.”)
I just googled and did see that there are a few AP stories, but alas, as you say, no one else seems to be paying attention.
Please keep us updated.
— Stu
It may be the technical word for parliament in Kyrgyz (IDNK, and my handy dandy Kyrgyz dictionary is 19th Century)- but it comes from the Mongol Kiriltai- a popular convention that validates a new regime. In other words a pure expression of popular sovereignty. More like a constitutional convention that a meeting of a legislature.
My $0.02 on a tangent.
No I think you are right.. it’s like an Afghan loya jirga more than an Icelandic Þingvellir..
Pax
The pictures of the little girls you posted over at Dkos months ago is still in my head. Any news pictures and stories you care to share with us here at the Booman Trib?
To the Kyrgyz opposition!
as caller number 300!
Let me link to this Yahoo-article for an update as of today:
Kyrgyz Police Storm Government Buildings
Tried to look for more/alternative sources, but all I got was this site which seems to have many links. I don’t subscribe.
Just as soj stated, no one pays attention.
A couple of stories about today’s events in Jalalabad and Osh:
CNN International:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/20/kyrgyzstan.riots.ap/index.html
and
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4365945.stm
corroborating links in English to this story from Norwegian Aftenposten
(Norway’s largest paper).
The headline states: “Several killed after demonstrations” and the story goes on: “Several persons may have been killed in clashes between the police and demonstrators in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday”.
“A source in the police says that up to 10 persons may have been killed in the clashes, according to the news agency Interfax.”
The article goes on to describe the attacks on government buildings as outlined in other links above.
Has anyone seen confirming reports?
There is a story on RFE/RL which cites “Res Publica” as saying that four people were killed in the clashes, and a denial by authorities.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/03/b0bff8ed-7244-46ea-a80e-35ae450e7fc1.html
Nothing else so far…