LETTERS FROM

KYRGYZSTAN

 

 

 

 

An Uzbek woman who fled the Kyrgyz city of Osh stands

at the Uzbekistan border Photo: AP

 

VilNews received two letters from Kyrgyzstan today. On from a Russian, the other one from a Kyrgyz citizen. Both letters are published below, and at the page bottom we are bringing an article written by Craig Murray, who was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004.

 

 

LETTER 1

SOS !!! SOS !!! SOS !!!

Kyrgyzstan mountains

Dear friends, please, do not delete this letter straight away and read it to the end. Some of us already know, some will hear about the situation in my Wonderful!!! Country Kyrgyzstan!!!

In the east of former Soviet Central Asia lies Kyrgyzstan, country nestled in the Tien Shan Mountains. The Kyrgyz share their country with many ethnic groups including Russians, Uzbeks, Kazaks, Tatars, Uyghurs, Tajiks and many more. These different ethnic groups contribute significantly to the culture of Kyrgyzstan. With the fall of the Soviet Union Kyrgyzstan emerged as an independent country in 1991. There are many challenges that face Kyrgyz people; Kyrgyz are struggling to find their feet in a new and quickly changing world. The Kyrgyz are a unique people, living in a unique land. It is indeed a small, mountainous republic in Central Asia, in a desperate need of developing in a right way and help of whoever can help. The richness and beauty of Kyrgyzstan and its people make this task possible to develop to their full potential as individuals, as communities and as a nation.

I am one of the citizens of Kyrgyzstan truly loving my country and writing to all my friends, friends of friends, colleagues, acquaintance, people who can support us in a very difficult moment and help in any way to make sure that the future influence will be life giving to us and our families. We are a very small “boat” in a very big “ocean” trying to find our own right way and the right “shore”, but we are too weak to do it without the rest of the world. This is a cry from the heart and I am asking for the help of all countries, United Nations Organization (UNO), Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to stop killing innocent people and build the democracy in Kyrgyzstan.

 

Please, forward this letter to all people you know and they can also send it to their friends and I hope we won’t be alone, the cities, countries, continents, the whole World will be with us !!!!

 

 

Thank you to all,

Kyrgyz Citizen.

 

 

 

LETTER 2

URGENT PLEA FOR HELP

 

We are in the centre of a war in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.  It is impossible to imagine the horror of the situation here!!  The news is only reporting a small portion of what is actually going on. It is ethnic cleansing if you can call it that.  Whole blocks of Uzbek homes have been torched and burned.  Women and children are being mercilessly killed.  Many bodies and injured people are lying in the streets without anyone to help.  Kyrgyz youth under the influence of alcohol and drugs are running wild in the streets killing anyone and burning whatever lies in their paths. This ethnic tension (between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks) has existed under the surface for many years but recently has been stirred up for political purposes.  Because of this, it appears that authorities are doing nothing to stop the conflict and are silent.  It seems that the whole situation was planned out in advance and that no one planned to put a stop to it. 

 

One of my relatives went out today at great risk to get groceries for his household.  On his way he saw an old man badly injured who was lying in the street.  He wanted to help him and turned him over onto his back.  Immediately a group of young men ran up and starting kicking the old man fiercely.  My relative heard one of these youths say, “He’s Kyrgyz” Another said, “No he’s Uzbek, let’s set him on fire.”  When my relative returned the old man lay burned to death. 

 

 

Officially the government has issued an order to shoot to kill anyone with a weapon but in reality no one is carrying out this order.  These horrendous acts are continuing to take place.   Police and soldiers are patrolling the streets but doing nothing to stop the violence.  Last night bandits broke into an army storage facility where weapons, helicopters, tanks, etc were stored.   We couldn’t imagine where these simple people had obtained so many weapons before and now they have even more weapons, plus army equipment!

 

On top of all of this there is a shortage of food as the stores have been vandalized.  When our food supply runs out we will go hungry.  The news is reporting that humanitarian aid is getting in but the supply is very limited.  Not long ago bread was given out but for some reason they refused to give it to the Russians.  We are not concerned about humanitarian aid, we simply want to live!

 

Some news reports are saying that things are getting more stable but the truth is it is getting worse.  My goal in writing this is to the get word out to the world about what is actually happening here.  We are afraid that we will be forgotten and alone in this crisis with no one coming to our aid.

 

Presently they are not coming against us as Russians but we believe it is only a matter of time before they turn on us.  People have ‘tasted blood” with no consequences and will not stop the killing.  We are living in a state of fear.  Please send this information out to as many people as possible.  This is our urgent plea for help.

 

 

The above email was written at 8:49 am this morning,

by a Russian living in Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Telegraph.co.uk

 

17 JUNE 2010

KYRGYZSTAN: DEATH, DICTATORS AND THE SOVIET LEGACY

As Kyrgyzstan descends into chaos, Craig Murray explains the background to

the violence – and why Central Asia demands our attention.

Text: H.E. Ambassador Craig Murray, UK

It is arguable that the wave of ethnic killings in southern Kyrgyzstan that started last Saturday – which has left hundreds of Uzbeks dead and tens of thousands homeless – is, at root, the fault of Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union was in theory just that – a union of Soviet socialist republics. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were three of them. But whatever the theory, Stalin had no intention of allowing the republics to become viable entities or potential power bases for rivals. So he intervened personally and the republics were deliberately messed up with boundaries that cut across natural economic units and severed cultural and ethnic links.

The names Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan might give the impression that these Central Asian states are the ethnic home of the Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks. They are quite deliberately not that. For example, the major Uzbek town of Osh, in the Ferghana Valley, which is at the centre of this week's violence, is over the border in Kyrgyzstan. The great centres of Tajik culture, Samarkand and Bokhara, are not in Tajikistan but in Uzbekistan, even though 90 per cent of the population of those cities remain Tajik- speaking – and are now subject to Uzbek government attempts to choke the language.

It is a remarkable feature of the latest chapter in the Great Game that the mountainous little country of Kyrgyzstan hosts major bases for both the Russian and the United States air forces. Both powers view Kyrgyzstan as occupying a strategically crucial position north of Afghanistan, on the route from Central Asia to China. But neither appears to consider that their security strategy might be enhanced not just by a military presence, but by alleviating the appalling poverty and bad government from which the people of Kyrgyzstan have suffered.

Like the other Central Asian states, newly independent Kyrgyzstan fell under the dictatorship of the local Soviet leader, but in Askar Akayev it had by far the best of an incredibly poor bunch, and the only one who was not a former member of the Politburo. Kyrgyzstan is severely disadvantaged by its geography. Distance from markets, poor communications and lack of infrastructure are a barrier even to the development of its mineral resources, but Akayev instituted the freest economy in Central Asia and undoubtedly the least oppressed society.

Sadly, time and the enjoyment of power whittled away at Akayev's democratic credentials. Censorship crept back apace. Deepening corruption centred on his children, and it was for the sake of their political futures that he eventually indulged in widespread vote rigging. When Akayev was overthrown in the 2005 "Tulip revolution", he went back to being a scientist in Moscow. This contrasted sharply with the experience of Uzbekistan a few months later. When demonstrations against President Karimov started to gather mass support in Andijan, Karimov unleashed his army and more than 700 protesters were shot dead. That effectively ended the wave of "colour revolutions" against ex-Soviet leaders.

Akayev's replacement in Kyrgyzstan, President Bakiyev, proved worse than his predecessor in precisely the same problem areas of vote rigging, media control and corruption. His old democratic allies deserted him and fought the 2009 election against him. Bakiyev's re-election in 2009 with 83 per cent of the vote was widely condemned.

 

Bakiyev remained close to the United States. Perhaps too close – his son Maksim was arrested on Sunday in Farnborough, having just flown to Britain. There is an Interpol arrest warrant out for him focusing on massive contracts allegedly given to him by the Pentagon for supply to the US airbase in Kyrgyzstan. This appears to be a standard Pentagon method of dealing with Central Asian dictators. In Uzbekistan, the Pentagon handed FMN Logistics, belonging to the dictator's daughter, Gulnara Karimova, a massively profitable contract for land supply to US forces in Afghanistan and structural work on US bases there.

Bakiyev was particularly unpopular in the capital Bishkek, though he apparently retained the support of rural Kyrgyz, especially in the south. But two months ago, Bakiyev was overthrown in a second popular revolution. The interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, has announced fresh elections but her government has been overwhelmed by the gathering violence. The ultimate loyalties of the police and army are uncertain at this point.

Otunbayeva is a liberal Central Asian and, as is typical of her generation, that means she looks to Russia. Her interim government has appealed to Russia for military assistance, but received a frosty response from the Kremlin.

There had been a concerted campaign in the Russian media against Bakiyev, which undoubtedly contributed to his downfall. Such a campaign would not have been possible without Putin's nod: Bakiyev was viewed in Moscow as too friendly to America. But Otunbayeva is far too liberal for Putin's taste. Russia will be hoping for a strong pro-Russian leader to emerge, and that will be more likely if proposals gain traction for a peacekeeping force from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the regional security mechanism which is effectively a local dictators' club.

 

It would be wrong to characterise the violence in Kyrgyzstan as politically motivated. Ancient ethnic tensions and stereotypes have come to the fore, and poverty is the root cause. But at the same time it is broadly true that the Uzbeks of the south generally support Otunbayeva, while their southern Kyrgyz attackers do not. Bakiyev supporters have played some role in stirring up the violence.

To complicate things further, while Osh's Uzbeks may support Otunbayeva, President Karimov of Uzbekistan most certainly does not, seeing her as an embodiment of the dangers of democracy to dictators like him. And Karimov does not want a flood of comparatively more politically sophisticated Uzbeks from Osh entering Uzbekistan.

So for three days, tens of thousands of Uzbeks massed on the Uzbek/Kyrgyz border, on which Karimov has destroyed most of the bridges and which is mined and wired for its entire length. Eventually the Uzbek government relented but let only women and children through. They have been herded into camps and are not free to leave.

Sevara, an Uzbek woman I spoke to by phone yesterday, told me she and her family were stuck in their home in the Frunsuzkaya district of Osh. She witnessed the destruction of every building in the largely commercial street on which she lives, bar her block of flats. The shops and restaurants, like most Osh businesses, were Uzbek-owned.

She told me that she saw three distinct groups of masked young men arrive, overseen by militia in an armoured personnel carrier. The first group broke in to all the premises, and smashed doors, windows and fittings. Then a second group came and removed all the stock and furniture. An hour or so later a third group came and methodically lit fires inside each building. It was, she said, calm and organised, not a violent mob.

Sevara lives in a block inhabited mainly by Russians. She believes that is why it was not attacked. Yesterday, some Kyrgyz men entered the block saying they were registering people for humanitarian aid; Sevara did not answer the door. Her Russian neighbours said the flat was empty, and have been bringing her food.

Where is Britain in all this? The ethnic conflicts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are inextricably linked with what is primarily an ethnic conflict in Afghanistan. Yet our policy in Central Asia, if it can be called one, is nothing but support for the very dictators who are impoverishing their states. The answer to the growth of Islamic radicalism is not for rival great powers to strive to prop up regional dictators. That approach is already leading to the growth in the kind of radicalism we are trying to suppress. We can no longer afford a short-term policy conditioned by the tactical expediency of securing regional logistic support for the Afghan War. We continue to ignore Central Asia at our peril.

 

Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004