With Every Kyrgyz Revolution, a Land Grab
IWPR contributors try to find get to the bottom of why, every time Kyrgyzstan goes through political turbulence, there is a rush to claim pieces of land in and around the capital Bishkek.
With Every Kyrgyz Revolution, a Land Grab
IWPR contributors try to find get to the bottom of why, every time Kyrgyzstan goes through political turbulence, there is a rush to claim pieces of land in and around the capital Bishkek.
Soon after the April unrest that led to the ousting of then president Kurmanbek Bakiev, groups of apparently landless Kyrgyz staked out plots they wanted to lay claim to around the city. They justified their actions by saying that previous squatters – most recently following the 2005 “Tulip Revolution” that brought Bakiev to power – had been allowed to hold onto the land they grabbed.
After violent clashes in the village of Mayevka just outside Bishkek (see IWPR’s story Kyrgyz Leaders Struggle With Land Wars), residents of the city set up volunteer militias to prevent their areas being invaded by squatters.IWPR interviewed a member of these volunteer groups who said they were forced to defend themselves, and a squatter who said she could not afford the rent on her flat.
In the longer term, analysts interviewed for the report said, government needs to ensure decisions about how land is distributed and who gets it are dealt with in a fair, above-board manner. The perception that officials are corrupt will only encourage people to take the law into their own hands and take land for themselves.
The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in
