Central Asian Failed states

From our newest contributor, Shannon Hiller:
The third annual Failed State Index, produced jointly by a The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine, came out with mostly depressing news. The index ranks 177 states on 12 indicators, meant to asses their “vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration.” The 2007 report includes data [...]

Agym’s new owner & Eshimkanov’s dealings

Aynagul Saparbek kyzy, Chief Editor of the powerful opposition daily “Agym” gave a short interview on the Bishkek Press Club website on the new owner of the newspaper, which was recently sold by opposition Parliament member Melis Eshimkanov. Saparbek assured concerned readers that the new owner is a Kyrgyz citizen and not someone with any [...]

Kyrgyz regionalism – threat or hype?

CXW over at neweurasia reports on signs of the potential crisis evolving out of Kyrgyzstan’s urban-rural, rich-poor and North-South divides, which have been politicized around the April standoff by both opposition and government media. Particularly with recent village clashes reported in the North and South pitting Kyrgyz against each other, analysts fear a further escalation [...]

Promising start from United Front

IWPR runs a report on the United Front’s recently opened “School of Democracy.” Located in a Bishkek suburb, classes are taught on ‘human rights, the structure of the state, and legislation,’ with a reported 41 graduates already. Teachers include Felix Kulov himself, who’s been known to style himself in the past as the “Kyrgyz Mahatma [...]

Bishkek : Party’s over, for now

Bishkek’s Ala-Too square has been cleared of almost all traces of the opposition tent city after clashes with riot police. Depending on whose reports you read, the violence was instigated by government thugs lobbing rocks or the opposition protestors. At the square however, shopkeepers I talked to claim their windows were smashed by riot police, [...]

Bishkek protest violence and “Young swords”

Protests turned violent on the 4th day as provocateurs circulated among crowds to incite over-reactions & discredit opposition at a rally outside the National TV and Radio Broadcasting Corporation office, where protestors were demanding unbiased media coverage of the rally. One of the instigators was beaten unconscious and a journalist from the nation’s leading news-site, [...]

Atambayev, the info war and Bishkek grafitti

In today’s opposition protests in Bishkek, the new moderate prime minister Almaz Atambayev came out to address the crowds but was booed off stage before he could finish. When he was first appointed just two weeks ago, I thought someone like Atambayev, while definitely a last minute swap on Bakiyev’s part, could promote some reasoned [...]

Cartoon: Protests kick off in Bishkek

Protests have started on Bishkek’s Ala Too square with 21yurts already set up and plenty of material for more. Just by yurt count, these protests will be clearly bigger than last November. Kyrgyz President Bakiyev has promised to take strict measures to maintain order if necessary. A small protest has started outside the White [...]

Waiting for the Grand Convergence of..

United-Front opposition protests kicked off today throughout northern Kyrgyzstan – reportedly ranging from hundreds to thousands of demonstrators in four main district centers. Just as with the alleged 100 hunger strikers parked outside Parliament, numbers seem largely inflated with Russian press taking the lead. (Over 3 visits, the most I’ve seen just standing around is [...]

Bakiyev’s Last-ditch Hat-trick

The latest cartoon from Tom Wellings of The Times of Central Asia. Only this time, it was too incendiary for them to run it.
60-100 protesters, including one Parliament member, started an indefinite hunger strike in yurts set up outside the Kyrgyz Parliament today. United Front leader Felix Kulov, freshly returned from Moscow, announced the [...]