Kyrghyzstan change may trigger freedom wave in region

MOSCOW: The fall of the government in the former Soviet republic Kyrghyzstan could shake up authoritarian regimes in Belarus, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. The democracy ripples are likely to spread after radical opposition leaders ended the 15-year rule of Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev on Friday following mounting protests over what protestors saw as flawed elections February 27-March13.

Opposition-led protests had earlier led to renewed elections and a change of government in Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics.

Akayev fled Kyrghyzstan (a mountainous nation of five million bordered by China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) on Friday in the face of violent demonstrations..

An angry crowd stormed the Kyrgyz government offices and the national television station in capital Bishkek on Friday. Opposition groups fought a pitched battle with the far outnumbered riot police and defence ministry troops guarding the White House, location of the presidential administration and parliament, before overpowering them. Protesters then surged through the gates of the White House.

Protests against the election results, corruption and human rights abuses have rocked the country over the past week. Several towns across southern Kyrgyzstan, including the second largest city Osh, fell to opposition supporters in rapid succession.

By nightfall, media reports said Akayev had fled in a helicopter along with his close family members to Kazakhstan and then to Russia. Russian interior ministry officials neither denied nor confirmed these reports to IPS.

“An anti-constitutional coup d’etat has been carried out in Kyrgyzstan,” the Kyrgyzstan national news agency Kabar quoted Akayev as saying. “A handful of irresponsible political opportunists and conspirators have embarked on a criminal path to seize power by force. An uncontrollable and destructive wave of anarchy and riots has flooded the capital and many regions of the country. The extremists are using deceitful revolutionary slogans and appeals in committing their violent criminal acts.”

In an address to the nation Kabar published on its website, Akayev denied that he had resigned and said his “current stay outside the country” would be a “temporary event.”

Human rights groups and the opposition hailed his departure as the end of authoritarian rule in the country.

Rachel Denber, the European and Central Asian acting director of Human Rights Watch had warned Akayev of an outbreak of political violence last month. “Regrettably, a series of troubling statements made by you and other government leaders seem designed to intimidate and impugn civil society activists and members of the political opposition,” she said in a letter to Akayev.

Akayev dismissed the opposition as “extremists” and suggested that the mass movements were a creation of the west.

But protests rose in the face of a government crackdown. Recent legislation curbed freedom of assembly. The government refused to register several opposition candidates. Voices critical of the government were silenced or marginalised in the media. The police began to intimidate opposition members and civil society activists.

The economic situation, created in part by Kyrgyzstan’s failure to move out of a socialist economy remains dire, particularly in the south. Factories remain shut, unemployment has soared, and social dissatisfaction is high.

Russia remained substantially sympathetic to Akayev. “The development of the situation in Kyrgyzstan was not anything unexpected for us,” President Vladimir Putin said in a statement. “This is a result of the weakness of power, and the accumulated socio-economic problems in the country. At the same time, it is regretful that once more in a country in the post-Soviet area, political issues are decided by unlawful means, accompanied by riots and casualties.”

Putin said he hoped the opposition would bring the situation under control. “These people are well known to us,” he added.

Several Russian politicians said the election process fell far below European standards. Communist Party of Russia leader Gennady Zyuganov said the flawed election, poverty, and possible interference by the United States were likely reasons for the developments in Kyrgyzstan.

“I have a feeling that the Americans are not very satisfied with those who rule Kyrgyzstan,” Zyuganov said at a news conference in Moscow. “The main reason, in my opinion, is that Akayev’s clan has helped all its members — starting with children and ending with the most distant relatives — win parliamentary seats. They have done everything in their power to suppress the opposition.”

Kyrgyzstan’s impoverished population has come close to the bottom line, he said. “The average salary in Kyrgyzstan’s southern regions is four dollars and the average pension is three dollars,” Zyuganov said. “This indignation among the people is quite justified and understandable.”

Fresh presidential elections will now be held June 26, the upper chamber of the Kyrgyz parliament decided on Saturday. Acting prime minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev has said a provisional government to be set up by parliament soon will take charge until then.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.

Progressive writers from India

THE gathering of like-minded people a few weeks ago at the residence of Dr Mubarak Ali was no co-incidence. The 20 or so people assembled there had come to revive the dormant Progressive Writers’ Association in Pakistan. Foremost among the organization’s supporters were Ali Javed from Delhi and Dr Kamla Prasad from Bhopal.

By unanimous agreement, a coordination committee was formed with the understanding that writers, artists and actors would work towards the fulfilment of the same goals as were laid out in the first session of the Progressive Writers’ Association held on April 9, 1936, in Lucknow. Though the writers gathered at Dr Mubarak Ali’s residence were smaller in number when compared with the association’s first pre-Partition session, all was well compensated by the writers’ spirit.

“That first session in Lucknow was held under the presidentship of Munshi Prem Chand at the time of Britain’s imperialist rule. It was decided by all those gathered in Lucknow that writers would use their pen power against war, imperialism and injustice in society. It was a momentous occasion for poets and writers because they were unified against aggression and war. We want to re-ignite that spirit and build on the principles taken up in 1936,” said Ali Javed, a leading Urdu writer and a teacher at the University of Delhi.

Sitting beside Prof Ali Javed was Dr Kamla Prasad, who had come from Bhopal to Lahore for the purpose of bringing the writers and poets of the subcontinent closer. He too felt that the power of writing to change the structure of society was needed as much now as it was back in 1936.

“What is acutely required is to fight communalist and fundamentalist writers. This should be one of the primary aims of the Progressive Writers’ Association now. As members we need to start a movement against capitalism, feudalism and communalism. I believe that the association should not be restricted to writers only and should include actors, artists and musicians of both India and Pakistan because our problems are the same. That’s why we should work together to find solutions to those problems,” said Dr Prasad.

Dr Prasad and Prof Javed are fervent readers of Faiz and Jalib and feel that their revolutionary poetry is as relevant today as it was in the past.

“The foundations laid by Faiz, Firaaq or later by Habib Jalib, who happens to be the hero of our people as well, should be encouraging to the contemporary poet or writer to fight rules set by a particular class. But only a few can match Jalib’s courage who recited these verses in the presence of dictator, Aisay dastoor ko, subh-i-benoor ko, main nahin manta, main nahin manta. We need to change that constitution, that tradition which is only for the privileged,” stated Prof Ali Javed.