From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Feb 13 2003 - 08:52:01 EST
Kyrgyz opposition takes its battle to the Internet
Kyrgyzstan's opposition is making better use of the Internet than the
official authorities, according to a report by Daniyar Karimov and
published on the Kyrgyz newspaper, Vecherniy Bishkek, web site on 7
February. The report, entitled "Web agents", claims that modern
dissidents use the web to disseminate their ideas and "meet"
fellow-thinkers and there is little the authorities can do about it.
What is happening, according to Vecherniy Bishkek, is "an information
war ... without rules or propriety". The following is the text of the
report; subheadings are the newspaper's own.
Today's heroes are not wrapped in machine-gun cartridge belts and hand
grenade cords. The weaponry of the new generation of fighters are
personal computers. And the licence to kill is a modem for access to the
world wide web... [ellipsis as published]
More and more often now the future of mankind is connected with the
development of electronic space. In Kyrgyzstan the future is murky and
unpredictable. Anarchy rules in the national electronic network. Who
will seize Kyrgyzstan's electronic space?
Full matrix
None of the experts can say for sure how many Internet sites there are
in Kyrgyzstan. There are said to be more than 1,500. The reason for such
"secrecy" is simple - a banal lack of information. According to
information from the UNDP [United Nations Development Programme],
roughly half the domestic sites have not been analysed and are therefore
categorized as "varied".
At the same time, experts are saying that domestic banks are the most
advanced in terms of Internet use. Every single one of these financial
organizations has free access to the world wide web. According to data
from the Marketing Service Bureau, industry has fared much worse. The
Internet is most used in the food industry - 22.5 per cent of all
companies in this sector of the Kyrgyz economy have access to the
Internet. Nevertheless, Kyrgyzstan is becoming ever more tightly
entangled in the electronic web.
The creation of the Public Administration Information System (PAIS) may
be called a great achievement in the development of our republic's
Internet space. It unites all the biggest ministries and departments of
the Republic of Kyrgyzstan into a single computer network. And, as
intended, it makes it considerably easier for citizens to access the
resources of state organizations and to acquire information from them
directly from the Internet or e-mail. About 50 ministries and
departments in Bishkek and Osh are connected to PAIS. Almost all the
remaining catalogues of Kyrgyz Internet resources are created, as a
rule, by private Internet providers.
The majority of Internet users (80.94 per cent) are residents of
Bishkek. For the most part they are office workers or students. In the
regions, with the exception of Osh Region, the Internet is a rare
phenomenon, as are the miracles of electronic technology.
According to the UNDP, there are 70 personal computers per 1,000
inhabitant of Kyrgyzstan! There are about four Internet access centres
per 100,000 inhabitants. And only one in every 100 working persons in
Kyrgyzstan uses e-mail. Far from everyone is able to have even an
ordinary telephone. For example, according to the UNDP, two-thirds of
Kyrgyz residents do not have access to this benefit of civilization.
The underground Internet
What is amazing is that until recently the political elite of Kyrgyzstan
was very poorly represented in Kyrgyzstan's information space. The
battleground for power began to be displaced to the Internet only at the
end of the 1990s.
Today, for example, the authorities' political opponents are represented
in the Internet by official party sites. Either by electronic pages of
the mass media or more often by pro-opposition sites. They contain a
wealth of loud statements and exposes . Or by votes on political topics.
It is interesting that materials which are displayed on opposition sites
on the Kyrgyz Internet appear slightly later in Kazakhstan's electronic
space. Indeed, and this is no surprise, they often appear on Kazakh
opposition pages. Birds of a feather... [ellipsis as published]
Incidentally, what is much more interesting is another phenomenon of
domestic opposition on the Internet is the issue of "loners". These
people specialize in forums, conferences and chat rooms. You can find
the same signatures under messages on the most diverse Kyrgyz sites,
where discussion of burning topics of the day takes place. "Loners" make
use of tried and tested methods of the authorities's official political
adversaries, criticizing the authorities and the government and
appealing for other types of state order. There is only one aim -
disinformation or the propagation of opposition ideas.
The strategy of a typical "loner" is, it would seem, borrowed from
manuals on the tactics of sabotage. He prefers, for example, to appear
on enemy territory, in other words on the servers of the opposition's
political opponents. Moreover, like experienced members of any
underground movement, he always hides behind a pseudonym that he uses
only on the web. "Internet saboteurs" leave no means of making contact.
And can always unfailingly recognize like-minded people among other
users of the Internet.
It has been noted that many "loners" are linked by ties if not of
friendship then of common values. It is not impossible, therefore, that
several "sabotage" groups are at work on the Kyrgyz net. It is certain
that some of the Internet opposition have an electronic meeting place -
a "secret address" so to speak.
The main way in which "loners" differ from the mass of Internet users is
in the odd combination of a high level of education and - ill-bred
vulgarity. There is no censorship on the Internet. As a result, it is
often used for blatant mud-slinging that is not, as a rule, supported by
argument or endorsed by facts. Basically, an information war has been
unleashed on the Internet, without rules and without propriety.
Sabotage or provocation?
Kyrgyzstan's Internet is ideally suited to a war without rules since it
is practically unprotected. The only threat to a member of the Internet
opposition are the programmers who service the sites and forums of the
"loners'" political opponents. True, the worst the natural enemy of the
electronic "saboteur" can do is to destroy seditious articles. Even this
harsh method, however, is no panacea. After a little while, a similar
message will appear on Kyrgyzstan's Internet.
For example, for more than a month now, several of the republic's
electronic forums have been graced by a report of a plot against the
president. The anonymous author of the message names well-known young
politicians among those behind the coup that is allegedly being
prepared. This "well-wisher" calls for support for the plotters and
voices his own whole-hearted support for their ideas. It would seem to
be disingenuous, however. The report can only be called an attempt at
political provocation.
Internet providers could be a tangible barrier in the war against
Internet "saboteurs". According to some reports, these organizations
have the technology to decipher the electronic address of any disturber
of the Internet peace. Fighting dangerous political dissidence is not
what they're about, however.
For your interest
According to some reports, in terms of Internet use Kyrgyzstan has
outstripped neighbouring Kazakhstan and even Russia. More than a year
ago, SGI CMA and the (?Public Foundation for IT Development) carried out
a study of the country's electronic auditorium. This serious piece of
research revealed that 10.6 per cent of the adult population of the
republic's main cities could be said to be Internet users - that's
105,400 people. In Russia, for sample, maximum Internet use is only 10.3
per cent of the adult population and 9.5 per cent in Kazakhstan.
Source: Vecherniy Bishkek web site, Bishkek, in Russian 7 Feb 03
BBC Mon CAU Casia pd/mjm
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