Bishkek's investigation into June’s ethnic violence seems more about fingering easy blame - and buttressing nationalist fantasy - than uncovering truth. Members had previously agreed to release their findings on September 10, but it looks like they couldn't wait.
Provisional President Roza Otunbayeva established the National Investigative Commission on July 15 to research the June ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan that left at least 370 dead and more than 2,000 wounded.
Once again, the media is at fault.
Zhypar Zheksheev, a member of the commission, suggested we foreign journalists have blood on our hands because we were poking around in the South before most of the violence started. Our presence in May, for example, demonstrates we knew the ethnic violence would occur.
“We have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the date of publication [of these foreshadowing articles] and to evaluate their content. In addition, we intend to find out who accredited and invited these media outlets and how they learned in advance about how and what will happen in reality,” he said on August 17.
With all due respect, Mr. Zheksheev, it didn’t take a genius to see the place was imploding. In fact, here’s a story from May 19 about ethnic violence in Jalalabad.
Zheksheev is continuing a tired narrative blaming the foreign press for being, we hear ad nauseam, “anti-Kyrgyz.”
The same day, three weeks before the commission was to announce its findings, boss Abdygany Erkebaev blamed ethnic Uzbek leaders for instigating the clashes, including Kadyrjan Batyrov.
Baytrov again? Would someone please show the evidence? He’s been the easy scapegoat since before it all started.
Erkebaev also said 20,000 ethnic Uzbeks had left Kyrgyzstan, taking the Uzbek guilty parties with them. How convenient.
The day before these untimely revelations, Alexander Knyazev, a respected political analyst and commission member, announced his resignation. He argued that Erkebaev’s commission was not working together, but had arrived at conclusions without doing the proper research. “The heads of the commission invited me to take part in its work. I agreed. But when concrete work started, the commission members disappeared. I learn about their activity only from the mass media. All my attempts to contact them fail,” he said, decrying the nationalism worming itself through government and polity.
“The national chauvinism policy, supported by the authorities, may lead to a loss of statehood for Kyrgyzstan,” Knyazev added.
Aziza Abdyrasulova, a celebrated Kyrgyz human right activist, also lambasted Erkebaev for announcing his stillborn conclusions.
So what will happen to the investigation? Will it just be another causality of the rabid nationalism threatening, as Knyazev warned, the future of this country?
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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