New Kyrgyz Leaders Face Down Challenge

Southern Kyrgyzstan remains tense following chaotic scenes on May 13 when protestors seized control of provincial offices in an open challenge to the new government.

A burst of coordinated protests in the three main provincial towns looked like an attempt at counter-revolution by opponents of an interim administration that had only been in power for just over a month, following the mass unrest on April 6-7 which swept Kurmanbek Bakiev from office as president.

The new leadership led by Roza Otunbaeva was in no doubt about whom it held responsible. The unrest was “an attempt by destructive pro-Bakiev forces to destabilise the social and political situation in the country so as to take revenge,” a statement from the government press office said.

Usen Sydykov, who formerly headed Bakiev’s presidential office, was arrested in Nookat, a town in the Osh region, on May 14, and the prosecution service said it was building a case against him as an alleged instigator of the protests. Communist Party leader Iskhak Masaliev, who voice is allegedly heard in an intercepted phone conversation with Sydykov, was also detained.

In the city of Osh, hundreds of people forced their way into the provincial administration building on May 13, and announced that they were installing Mamasadyk Bakirov as governor; he had held the post under Bakiev.

Sooronbay Jeenbekov, the incumbent governor appointed by the new Kyrgyz government, said later that he had to allow the crowds inside the building so to prevent the confrontation escalating as angry protestors milled about outside.

The protests in Osh went off largely without violence, except for a brief clash later that day between pro-Bakiev demonstrators and a group of young men who said they were from Ata Meken, one of the parties now in power in Kyrgyzstan. Police intervened and managed to contain the skirmishes.

Similar scenes played out in another provincial centre in southern Kyrgyzstan, Jalalabad, where some of the approximately 2,000 Bakiev supporters gathered in front of the governor’s office were able to get inside and claim control of the building.

In Batken, the third and smallest region in the south, there were conflicting accounts of what happened, but it appeared that some protesters were able to enter the governor’s office and remain there for some time. They were trying to install Asamidin Tashov, formerly a lower-level local government chief, as governor.

The interim government responded by appointing former defence minister Ismail Isakov as special representative for southern Kyrgyzstan, and dispatching him to Osh immediately.

The following day, May 14, news reports said army and interior ministry troops had been sent into Osh. Bakirov and his supporters were forced out of the governor’s building, and the Kyrgyz government said it was fully back in control of the city. There were some clashes between the ejected protesters and pro-government groups outside, but officials later told the 24.kg online news agency that the former had dispersed.  

The authorities also regained control in Jalalabad on May 14, while the health ministry reported in the evening that one of around 60 people injured in street clashes there had died. News agencies had reported shooting in the town.

The confrontation in Batken remained decidedly low-key. The interim government appointed a new governor, Sultanbay Ayjigitov, to sort things out. He entered into talks with the protestors on a possible deal where their man Tashov might be made deputy governor.

Rumours that Bakiev supporters were about to make trouble had been circulating in Kyrgyzstan in recent days, but the extent of their actions seems to have caught the interim government by surprise.

If the protestors can be classed as pro-Bakiev forces, it is less clear what they actually want. Bakiev left the country shortly after being ousted, and is now in Belarus. An attempt to bring him back does not seem feasible at this point. 

Bishkek-based political analyst Tamerlan Ibraumov believes the protests were encouraged by former Bakiev officials and other politicians who were aggrieved at losing their jobs and wanted to negotiate a way back in from a position of strength.

“In my view, the real reason for these events in the south is about them trying to draw attention to themselves and enter into negotiations,” said Ibraimov.

Concerns that the main political parties in the new administration are handing out too many jobs to members and supporters have surfaced again and again in recent weeks – and not just from aggrieved former officials, but also from civil society groups who were no friends of Bakiev. 

When Bakirov briefly claimed the post of Osh governor on May 13, he insisted he was not acting on behalf of the old regime, but giving voice to popular anger over the way Kyrgyzstan’s new leaders were replacing officials with their own people.

As Ibraimov pointed out, possession of a government job in Kyrgyzstan offers access to all sorts of resources.

Given that everyone was expecting some kind of trouble, the government might have been expected to be more ready for it. Ibraimov argues that the leadership lacks internal cohesion, and the police services it inherited from Bakiev are not in good enough shape to take swift and decisive action.

“The interim authorities are not a group of like-minded people, but rather individuals brought together through an accident of history,” he said. “Moreover, sections of the police force and the security service are demoralised at the moment, and what’s more they’ve been badly weakened by many years of corruption.”

Despite this pessimistic assessment, Ibraimov does not think the government is in imminent danger of following Bakiev’s administration into oblivion.

He argues that the government’s opponents lack the popular appeal to build support for a coup.

“I don’t believe these forces will be able to grow in terms of potential,” he said. “They have the ability to destabilise the situation for a short period of time, but they don’t enjoy broad popular support.”

The government, on the other hand, has a number of well-liked, effective leaders in its midst, and many people are prepared to give it time to sort itself out and embark on the democratic reforms it has promised.

Finally, powerful external players are on the new leadership’s side and want it to restore stability, Ibraimov said. Although he did not name these countries, they include Russia, which was swift to welcome the new Kyrgyz government last month, and worked with the United States and Kazakstan to engineer an exit route for Bakiev so that he left the country rapidly.

Isomidin Ahmedjanov is a freelance journalist in Kyrgyzstan, and Dina Tokbaeva is IWPR country editor, based in Bishkek.

This article was produced jointly under two IWPR projects: Building Central Asian Human Rights Protection & Education Through the Media, funded by the European Commission; and the Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and Conflict Information Programme, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of IWPR and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of either the European Union or the Foreign Ministry of Norway.