KYRGYZ ROADBLOCK REVEALS PERSISTENT ANGER TOWARD PRESIDENT
5/31/02

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A controversial treaty, under which Kyrgyzstan will transfer about 95,000 hectares of its territory to China, continues to serve as a source of political tension in the Central Asian nation. President Askar Akayev, who signed the Kyrgyz-Chinese border pact May 29, has attempted to soothe opposition criticism with a government reshuffle. Despite naming a new prime minister, however, anti-Akayev protests still are being held.

About 1,000 demonstrators staged an unsanctioned rally in the southern city of Jalalabad on May 31 to denounce the transfer of territory to China, according to RFE/RL. Demonstrators also demanded Akayev's resignation. Conditions in the Jalalabad region have been especially tense since mid-March protests resulted in a confrontation with security forces in which at least five people died and dozens were injured.

After photos and video appeared to show police shooting protestors in the back, protests gained volume and Akayev had to shift from tacitly defending the police to acknowledging the public's legitimate rage. "Kyrgyz society is right when it refuses to forgive the authorities and the law enforcement system for violations of human rights and infringements of democratic freedoms," he said on May 22. Akayev's cabinet resigned on May 22; two days later a court sentenced Beknazarov, the reformist parliament member whose jailing prompted the protests, merely to time served.

Politicians are scrambling for advantage. Akayev has named a new cabinet and promised a "genuinely new team," with ethnic Russian Nikolay Tanayev replacing Kurmanbek Bakiev as Prime Minister. Akayev has also shifted from tacitly defending the police to acknowledging the public's legitimate rage. But popular revulsion at the crackdown will not fade so easily. Pointing to arrests and media bans at Beknazarov's trial, dissidents like Ramazan Dyryldaev, who runs the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights from exile in Vienna, say the new government remains afraid of true democracy. Many still call for Akayev to step down.

A day before the cabinet resigned, citizens ended a nine-day roadblock of a highway between the capital, Bishkek, and the southern city of Osh. "I asked demonstrators questions about blocking the road and they said that the government taught them" the technique, Dyrldaev told EurasiaNet in an email. "When people were going to the court on Beknazarov's case, government blocked roads in 3 places so people could not get to the court. At its peak, the roadblock had included as many as 8,000 people. According to a Westerner living in Kyrgyzstan, it "was lifted following the intervention of three opposition deputies led by [Adakhan] Madumarov."

While the government claims that its own agents persuaded the protestors to clear the highway, the enhancement to Madumarov's reputation is itself significant. The parliamentarian is positioning himself as Akayev's foe. He voted against confirming the new prime minister, calling his selection a sop to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Political observers say Russia has been watching Kyrgyzstan warily since American troops began arriving there; some 1,900 American personnel now occupy an air base near the capital.

With Kyrgyzstan's domestic institutions in tatters, opposition politicians may continue focusing on Akayev's bids to shore up foreign support. The roadblock ostensibly responded to the passage of the land treaty with China by Parliament on May 10, more than two years after the government worked it out in secret.

Akayev planned to visit Kazakhstan, Switzerland and Russia beginning June 3. The new government has not promised any concrete new policies, except to make it easier to print leaflets. The fifth photo in this essay shows a sign reading "Akayev Must Go."

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Posted May 31, 2002 © Eurasianet
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