Red Cross say Kyrgyzstan situation is "an immense crisis"

The International Committee of the Red Cross say at least 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the crisis in southern Kyrgyzstan. An ICRC team which arrived in the remote area yesterday said Uzbek authorities have registered 75,000 adult refugees and an unknown number of children in Uzbekistan while tens of thousands remain stranded on the Kyrgyz side of the border. "We've seen for ourselves and also heard about pockets of displaced people ranging from several hundred to several thousand in number, so it's impossible to say with any certainty exactly how many people have been forced to flee their homes,” said Séverine Chappaz, the ICRC's deputy head of mission in Kyrgyzstan. “It's an immense crisis."

ICRC staff visited the main detention centre in Kyrgyzstan’s second biggest city Osh where they delivered food provided by the World Food Programme to around 1,000 detainees. It was part of an emergency WFP operation to deliver food to 13,000 people affected by the humanitarian crisis. WFP said transporting aid from the capital Bishkek was difficult, as roads are not safe and commercial trucking companies are reluctant to risk their vehicles. “This crisis is unfolding rapidly and WFP is mobilising its global expertise to ensure that the vulnerable – particularly women and children – do not suffer,” said WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We implore all sides to ensure humanitarian access to the vulnerable, trapped by the crisis.”

Officially almost 200 people have died in that crisis though the real death toll is likely to be much higher. Osh, the stronghold of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has been the epicentre of violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek people for a week, though the roots of the violence date back a couple of months. Bakiyev was ousted from government in April in a coup that left 75 dead and hundreds injured in fighting between police and protesters. Ex-Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva said the opposition had taken over the reins of government and driven Bakiyev from office. Otunbeyeva was subsequently installed as interim leader.

However Bakiyev refused to accept the coup despite having lost the support of his Kremlin backers. He was first elected president in 2005 and re-elected in 2009 though there was a strong suspicion of electoral fraud in both elections. After the coup Bakiyev initially fled to Osh before eventually going to Kazakhstan. Bakiyev remained popular in the south of the country and it is not difficult to imagine his supporters being behind some of the violence that erupted spectacularly last week. The new Kyrgyz government was quick to blame Bakiyev for the violence. It said he hired "provocateurs" to instigate the deadly riots and they complained of a lack of international support, saying: "We were left alone with the enemy in the most difficult days."

However Kyrgyzstan’s most difficult days were not entirely Bakiyev’s fault. Clashes erupted on 11 June with the large Uzbek population of the city targeted by gangs. It soon spiralled out of control with possibly a thousand people dying in the clashes. It is not entirely clear who is driving the violence but it is tapping into ancient enmities. Ethnic Uzbeks make up 14 per cent of the country's population of 5.3 million but are almost half the population of Osh and neighbouring Jalal-Abad. In echoes of ethnic conflicts elsewhere, they are also a target being overly represented in the commercial class. Ex-pat Craig Murray in the British Telegraph suggests the violence may have been orchestrated by Moscow to undermine the overly Liberal Otunbeyeva regime.

The Kyrgyz administration has declared a state of emergency in the Osh and Jalal-Abad provinces and the next most important date for the interim regime is 27 June. On that date there will be a constitutional referendum to pave the way for parliamentary elections in October. The new leadership is determined to hold the vote, which it needs in order to entrench its legality. "The situation in Osh is stabilising. We have enough forces," said Azimbek Beknazarov, an interim deputy premier. “We need this [referendum] like air. Everyone who calls themselves a Kyrgyz citizen must vote."

Tulips tiptoe again in Kyrgyzstan

The president of Kyrgyzstan signed a new constitution on Wednesday to limit his power in a bid to defuse a political crisis. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed the document in the capital Bishkek in front of the parliamentary speaker, officials and journalists after a week of protests and tensions. Bakiyev is hoping that the move will prevent the ex-Soviet republic from descending into chaos less than two years after an uprising known as the Tulip Revolution drove long-time leader Askar Akayev from power. An opposition spokesman said “This is our victory, this is a step toward peace. We can avoid civil war, civil confrontation."

The Central Asian Islamic nation emerged as a distinct ethnic group in the 15th century. The Khanate of Kokand inherited the territory known as Kirgizia from the Mongols. Kirgizia was annexed into the Russian Empire in 1876 and quickly became assimilated. The Russians began large-scale housing, mining, and road construction projects and the construction of schools. But Kirgizia, like the other central Asian colonies, suffered from the negative effects of the Russian Empire's repressive policies. Kyrgyz nomads were used as slave labourers and had their lands confiscated for Russian settlers. In 1916, it joined a Central Asian revolt which was ruthlessly put down by the Tsar’s forces. Kyrgyzstan enjoyed a brief period of independence after the 1917 October Revolution but was eventually conquered by the Bolsheviks.

In 1926 the official name was changed to the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic before the region achieved the status of a full republic of the Soviet Union in 1936. Although Stalin repressed local culture the Central Asian nationalist identities survived through the communist era. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, ethnic tensions erupted in Kyrgyzstan’s border Osh province between Uzbeks and Kirghiz. The majority ethnic Uzbek population were dissatisfied with what they saw as discrimination in official hiring policy and access to land and housing in favour of ethnic Kyrgyz. Despite this violence there was much optimism for the newly independent state. In 1991, Kyrgyz replaced Russian as the official language and the name of the capital, Frunze, was changed back to its pre-revolutionary name of Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan's relatively strong democratic credentials nosedived as corruption and nepotism took hold during President Akayev's years in office.

Askar Akayev ruled the country for 15 years between 1990 and 2005. He was trained as a scientist and a member of the old Supreme Soviet. He was elected leader as a compromise candidate to become the new country’s first president. Although initially seen as a libertarian, he quickly became autocratic and corrupt. Under his watch elections were flawed, opposition figures were arrested and newspapers were closed. His increasingly authoritarian regime was tolerated by the US when agreed to allow American forces to use Bishkek's Manas airport as a base for the attack on Afghanistan in 2001.

By 2005 he had made too many internal enemies. The trigger for his overthrow was yet another flawed election. Protests grew as it became apparent that election results would favour Akayev yet again. The Tulip Revolution grew from the violence that greeted those early protests. Activists seized government buildings throughout the country. The police eventually switched sides in favour of the demonstrators and a coalition united to unseat Akayev. He fled the country by helicopter as the protest movement gained unstoppable momentum. Imprisoned opposition leaders were freed and the Kyrgyz Supreme Court declared the election results invalid. The newly-elected parliament named the Southerner Kurmanbek Bakyiev as acting Prime Minister and President. Exiled in Moscow, Akayev agreed to resign. New presidential elections were held in July 2005 and Bakiyev won a landslide victory with 89% of the vote.

Bakiyev is an engineer who served with the Red Army in the 1970s. He became involved in local politics in 1990 and served as first secretary of the council in the small town of Kok-Yangak. He rose to provincial governor and eventually prime minister of his country in 2000. He was the right man in the right place to take advantage of Akeyev’s fall from power. After the usual hopes of his honeymoon period, many Kyrgyz have complained that they had seen no improvement in their standard of living since then. Bakiyev's term in office has been marred by the killing of several anti-corruption parliamentarians, prison riots, and widespread corruption. Wednesday’s constitutional changes strips his right to dissolve and parliament and limits his power in naming the prime minister. However it does not change his term of office which expires in 2010.

Kyrgyzstandards

Last year. Kyrgyzstan overthrew their soviet style leader Askar Akeyev. He subsequently sought asylum in Russia.

He was supposed to step down after party elections. The elections were, as these things tend to be, rigged. Opposition candidates were disqualified. Nepotism was rife, the parliament was stacked with his family and friends.

The Akeyev clan had been in power since the end of the Soviet era in 1991. Now following in the footsteps of colour-coded people power elsewhere (the Orange revolution in Ukraine and the Rose revolution in Georgia following purple reigns in Prague) the people of Kyrgyzstan were taking to the street wearing pink and yellow armbands heralding a lemon tulip revolution.

I looked in my Times Concise Atlas of the World 1990 and the weariness of the years showed – I could not find the capital city Bishkek in it. My similar vintage dictionary (Collins English c1992 talks about ‘The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic – an administrative division of south central Soviet Union annexed by Russia in 1864. Capital: Frunze.)

Frunze is not on my map and appears to be where today’s newspaper places Bishkek. Another victim of post-victory renaming syndrome. Just like poor old Sankt Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad, it must have a real identity problem.

The current opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakayev was installed as acting president and he won the election in July 2005.

Russia, the local power (and ex-annexer) has given tacit support to the new regime (despite offering asylum to Akeyev).

The Americans with their itchy trigger fingers are keeping an equally close eye. They have brought out the hoary old chest-thumper of Al Queda. “A terrorist organisation with links to Al Queda may be planning may be planning terrorist acts against US interests”. Yawn.

But if they do plan them, then there’ll be plenty of firepower to meet them on homesoil. Both the US and Russia have military bases in Kyrgyzstan.