The recent ethnic clashes in Osh have sent the local rumor mill into overdrive. Starved of reliable information and isolated in their communities, people have been chewing events over among themselves. In some cases, especially in the Uzbek mahallas (neighborhoods) where people blocked themselves inside for fear of attack, they became convinced that the most unlikely sounding events were talking place beyond the barricades.
One of the most popular topics of conversation has been snipers. In many Uzbek mahallas, inhabitants offer convincing testimony of gunmen targeting their neighborhoods from vantage points. Men barricaded into the Arygali Niyazov neighborhood, for example, testified to seeing gunmen on the upper floors of a nearby medical institute hostel with a view over the district's narrow streets. They said that during the height of the violence these gunmen were covering attackers and looters, assaulting their area with sniper fire. Men in other Uzbek neighborhoods tell similar stories.
Whatever the truth about these gunmen, the idea of snipers has assumed a life of its own. Many people are convinced that they’ve seen foreign mercenaries acting as snipers. These alleged foreign combatants are distinguished by their appearance – inhabitants report seeing black snipers and tall, blonde, female snipers from the Baltic states. The idea that English snipers have been roaming the streets of Osh shooting at Uzbeks is also popular. There’ve been no independent corroborations of such sightings by foreign journalists or representatives of international organizations.
Another rumor that’s been doing the rounds is that plans existed to poison water supplies to the Uzbek mahallas. No one can give a convincing explanation of how supplies to Uzbek areas could be poisoned without affecting Kyrgyz neighborhoods, given that they’re interspersed throughout the city.
When Suyun Sherbayev and Sobirjon Satybaldiyev set off for work at the Osh local government office on June 11, they had no idea it would be anything other than a routine work day. The two colleagues were unaware that ethnic violence had erupted in the city overnight.
Minadjan Inamova lies listlessly on the floor in a dark room, clutching the hand of her one-year-old son. She raises her head now and then to let out a rasping cough as her mother-in-law, Zamira Inamova, watches anxiously, holding a neighbor’s baby in her arms.
Those who lived through five days of violence in southern Kyrgyzstan are not sure who started the fighting, or why. But many have a horror story to tell.
On June 15, a new bill making President Nursultan Nazarbayev the "Leader of the Nation" – which he modestly opposed – became law.
Without Nazarbayev’s approval, the legislation came into force automatically under an obscure clause in the law governing the work of parliament. The full content of the Leader of the Nation bill rushed through parliament in May was revealed to the public for the first time on June 15.
The law brings far-reaching changes to the political landscape, giving Nazarbayev a say in policy-making after his eventual retirement (he is already exempt from term limits and is eligible to stand in the next election, due in 2012). He has been granted the right to intervene in domestic, foreign and security policy and to sit on bodies such as the Constitutional Council and Security Council after retirement.
Enhanced immunity provisions mean that Nazarbayev cannot be brought to book for any actions committed while he was president, and the new law also guarantees that he and close family members get to keep property they acquired while he was in office.
Uzbek refugees living in Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty, say they had a rude awakening on the morning of June 9, when law-enforcement officers carried out a coordinated raid that resulted in the detention of dozens of men.
It has been widely reported that Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has rejected parliament-approved amendments to enhance his executive powers. But Nazarbayev’s refusal to sign the legislation may not be the end of the story.
Kazakhstan’s performance so far as chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe perhaps has been a source of disappointment in some foreign circles. But President Nursultan Nazarbayev continues to enjoy robust popular support at home.
Kazakhstan’s parliament is mulling legislative changes that would bestow vast, new powers on the incumbent president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. In addition to granting Nazarbayev the title of “leader of the nation,” he would gain the right to intervene in politics after he officially retired from the presidency and would enjoy enhanced immunity from prosecution.
When President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed drawing up a doctrine to promote national unity, he probably did not expect that he would lift the lid on inter-ethnic tension in Kazakhstan. But that is exactly what happened.
