The Aksu incident – 2002
Kyrgyz society (both Civil and Political) was rocked in March 2002 by an incident in the Southern Djalal Abad oblast that led to several politicians (including the serving Prime Minister – Karmanbek Bakiev) being dismissed and continuing tensions which eventual resulted in the Tulip Revolution of 2005. The incident has been referred to as “watershed” and “one of the blackest days” in the country’s short history.
A local politician, Azimbek Beknazarov – a deputy in the Jorgorku Kenesh (parliament) and former procurator (prosecutor), had been arrested on charges of corruption and abuse of power. His supporters claimed, however, that the charges were “trumped up” and politically motivated – an attempt to remove an opponent of incumbent president Askar Akaev – who had been especially critical of a “secret” agreement with the Chinese government, signed by Akaev, which resulted in certain remote mountain areas claimed by both countries being ceded to the Chinese – and other border disputes with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Beknazarov, who was the chairman of the parliament’s Committee on Judicial and Legal Reforms, was arrested and charged in January 2002 with abuse of power. The case against him was based on a 1995 murder case that he handled when he was the Toktogul District prosecutor. It was alleged that he failed to prosecute the murder suspect, and that he improperly detained some of the victim’s relatives. In the trial, he was convicted and was about to sentenced, when a crowd of over a thousand of his supporters gathered and planned to march to court in order to protest the decision.
The security services blocked the road in an attempt to stop them in the village of Bozbek, in the Aksu region of Djalal Abad oblast. A well known human rights activist arrived and asked for a microphone to address the crowd … according to some of the protestors the police “grabbed” him and began to push him back into his car. In the ensuing confused situation, violence erupted and shots fired … killing a number of the protesters and injuring scores of others. One source claimed that the demonstrators were shot in the back – an accusation which was later to inflame passions. Over the next few hours many people were received treatment in various medical facilities in the neighbourhood – police and protestors alike.
The authorities claimed that the first shots had come from the crowd … the protesters claimed that the police had panicked and shot wildly into the crowd. In early April a 30 minute videotape of the event, (officially “from an unknown source” – although it appears to been filmed by police), began to circulate. Although the new evidence contained in the videotape was inconclusive, (the sounds of stones hitting police shields can be heard on the soundtrack and it doesn’t show any of the police firing shots), but many who saw the film in its entirety felt that it did seem to support the demonstrators’ claim that the police made what was already a volatile situation even worse.
The government immediately launched an investigation into the deaths, establishing a special commission, (comprising of representatives from the government, the opposition and non-governmental organizations), to conduct it. Whilst the commission was conducting its enquiries, protests spread around the country demanding freedom for Beknazarov; that the authorities find and punish those responsible for the shootings and for the resignation of the President. The official report was issued about a month later and found that the police and local authorities were to blame. Local officials were named as being responsible and later jailed by the court – but were later to be released under an amnesty.
Under continued and growing pressure, the government finally fell in May and over the next couple of months, the newly appointed prime minister, (Nikolai Tanaev), repeatedly warned that the country was on the brink of civil war.
Protests continued in the capital for many months – and although it eventually appeared that the new government had “weathered the storm”, tensions remained which helped to fuel the general dissatisfaction with the Akaev regime which eventually led to the Tulip Revolution in March 2005. Following the revolution there were calls for the events to be reinvestigated – and for the guilty parties to be “punished”.
A roadside memorial was erected to the fallen at the site of the demonstration.
Bishkek