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| Sunday, 10 April 2005 |
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As US exports velvet revolution Kyrgyzstan government falls Globescan by M.P. Muttiah
Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev resigned on April 4. However, the Kyrgyz Parliament failed to decide whether to accept the resignation. On Friday it has stripped Akayev's immunity and lifted a ban on seizing his family's property, but delayed formally accepting the veteran leader's resignation until next week. Akayev said in a recorded resignation speech shown to Parliament on Thursday that he had fled the country to prevent a civil war and did not stain his hands with blood of his compatriots. The unicameral Parliament has repealed a resolution adopted by the former bicameral legislature that set June 26 as date for Special presidential Election. A new was to be set only after legislators review the issues of former President Akayev. Kumanbek Bakiyev's government which took over power violently after protestors stormed the Presidential Palace and rioted on March 24 and 25, before which Akayev left the country, strongly opposed the return of the President. Members of the new leadership are familiar faces to Washington. Kyrgyzstan's neighbours Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China, Russia and the United States, with political interests in the region have begun to cooperate with the new authorities. Leader of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Dimitrij Rupel said the 55-nation security body considered the new leadership legitimate. Kyrgyzstan with a population of five million is a small Central Asian country.Kyrgyzstan, formerly Kirghizia, proclaimed independence from the Soviet Union on August 31, 1991 and joined the Commonwealth of Independent States. It became a member of the United Nations and the IMF in 1992. People endorsed market reforms in a referendum held in June 1994. President Akayev who was leading the country since Soviet times won the re-election held in October 2000. Opposition blamed him for corruption. Parliamentary elections were held in February 27 this year. The results of the run-off elections in March 13, were no more favourable to the Opposition. With 71 of the 75 seats decided the Opposition could win only six when compared with the 20 seats that they held in the old House which had 105 members. In a major blow to the Opposition, Bakiyev was roundly defeated in the bid for a seat. The Opposition politicians claimed the run-offs had been plagued with the same irregularities as the first round. The OSCE monitors echoed their report on the first round, citing the same violations, and the US Embassy in Bishkek followed suit. The regimes and monitors from the Commonwealth of Independent States expressed their satisfaction with the fairness of elections. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced on February 28 that it would recognise the new Parliament as legitimate and began cooperation with it. Bishkek-based Economic Policy Institute's director Marat Tazabekov said the election was relatively fairer and more objective compared with previous ones. The director of the EPI, which is a research institute initiated with the sponsorship billionaire George Soros and receives funding from various sources said Akayev had suggested several times that he would not run for presidency on October and more power would be transferred to the parliament. Akayev until recently followed a balanced foreign policy towards Russia and the US, that allowed both Moscow and Washington to have military bases in Kyrgyzstan. He accepted aid from all sides and tried to avoid having to choose between them. In 2004, Akayev came under pressure from the two interested powers. Russia wanted the US out of Central Asia and has presumed Bishkek to end the US military presence. The US sensed its unfavourable position and ordered its Ambassador Stephan Young to urge the Kyrgyz regime to hold free and fair parliamentary elections. Young's statement made in November 2004, had a negative response from the government. As the parliamentary elections drew nearer, Akayev made it clear that the balance had tilted in favour of Moscow. He declared that ``Russia has been, is now, and will be our chief strategic ally and partner," and noted that ``the US air base exists only to support the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan and will be closed down as soon as stability is achieved in that country, whereas the Russian base is meant to provide security throughout the Central Asian region." During the run-up to the first round of parliamentary elections, Akayev visited Moscow and met with President Vladimir Putin. He said that Kyrgyzstan needed Russia's moral support and criticised the Opposition for seeking support from Washington. On the eve of the elections, Ambassador Young spoke again saying that Washington had been providing aid to Bishkek for many years and now wanted to see ``the real results" of its assistance. After the OSCE monitors report on the first round was released, Ambassador Young echoed it and urged to take immediate steps to correct the deficiencies prior to the March 13 run-off. On February 15, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Askar Aitmatov announced that the country had rejected the US request to deploy AWACS surveillance planes at its base in Kyrgyzstan, but Young quickly responded that there was no such request from the United States. Aitmatov also stressed that Bishkek would step up security cooperation with the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which Russia and China bind Central Asian states into a firm regional security network bolstered by economic cooperation. Young was correct in his statement that the United States had dumped millions of dollars to 'promote democracy' in Kyrgyzstan. Last year it spent $12 million under 1992 Freedom Support Act, passed by the US Congress. Hundreds of thousands of dollars pumped into Kyrgyzstan from other US government's financial institutions, such as the National Endowment for Democracy. Shortly before the elections, an Opposition newspaper, called MSN for My Capital News, funded by the US government, published photograph of luxury home under construction for Akayev that helped in setting off widespread outrage and violence. Mike Stone's Freedom House press publishes about four opposition newspapers. When there was sudden power cut to the press on February 27, the American Embassy provided two generators. After complaints and threats from the US Embassy and from US Senator John McLain, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the printing house, the electricity was restored. Opposition candidates received 200,000 copies of a special issue free-of charge and distributed as campaign literature. Meanwhile, supporters of Bush administration argue that events in Kyrgyzstan help justify `Bush Doctrine' or the globalisation of American democratic values. Many believe that Bush Doctrine served as a major source of inspiration for the Kyrgyz opposition.In a way of proving this theory, Ambassador Young met with Bakiyev and separately with the OSCE to ``explore ways to ensure to conduct free and fair elections in the coming months." However, reports say that already infighting between Bakiyev and former Interior Minister Felix Kulov began to surface as both are expecting to contest the Presidential Election. |
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