Postcard from Bishkek

Most people have heard of the Boston Tea Party and the role that this protest against stamp tax imposed on the colonies from London played in the lead up to the American Revolution.   The first blood to be shed in what was to become the American Revolution, (known variously as the Boston Massacre or the King’s Street Incident), occurred outside the State House in Boston on March 5th 1770, a few years before the declaration of Independence and outbreak of the Revolutionary War itself.

British troops had been stationed in Boston, (the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay), since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation, including the billeting of soldiers – one of the many contentious actions which aroused so much enmity. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by a small company of troops, who were also subjected to verbal threats and objects thrown at them by the mob.  They fired into the crowd, apparently without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident.

Such incidents are, unfortunately, not all that uncommon in history: Peterloo in Manchester 1819; Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg in 1905; Kent State University in Ohio in 1970 and Aksy, Kyrgyzstan on March 17th 2002, to mention just a few examples.

I wrote a postcard back in 2010 to give some background to the Aksy incident which rocked Kyrgyz society, (both Civil and Political) and led to several politicians, (including the serving Prime Minister – a certain Karmanbek Bakiev), being dismissed and continuing tensions which eventual resulted in the Tulip Revolution of 2005 which ousted Askar Akaev. The incident has been referred to as “watershed” and “one of the blackest days” in the country’s short history.  A protest rally in support of a local politician, Azimbek Beknazarov – a deputy in the Jorgorku Kenesh (parliament) and former procurator (prosecutor), who had been arrested on charges of corruption and abuse of power -  descended into chaos as a fracas broke out and shots were fired killing six of the protestors.

Despite suspicions, accusations and repeated calls for investigations and the guilty to be brought to justice- the officials originally charged were acquitted.  Beknazarov was also cleared of any wrongdoing and went on to play an important role in both the 2005 and 2010 revolutions.

Anyway, today has been declared a memorial for the victims and a number of events are being held to commemorate the unhappy anniversary. It’s not a holiday, but a day of remembrance.  As it happens, we already have three public holidays in March, ( International Women’s Day – March 8th, Nooruz – the 21st, and the People’s Revolution Day – the 24th, marking the anniversary of the 2005 revolution) .

Holidays usually involve looking back and celebrating or commemorating something from the past.   Much of the news this week however, has been looking forward to what might, or might not happen.

There was the visit, for example, of the US Secretary of Defense, (because he was American, I will u se the American spelling), Leon Panetta.  There was a lot of speculation in the international press that he would be trying to persuade the Kyrgyz to extend the lease on the Manas airbase beyond the current expiry date of 2014.  If that was indeed, part of the purpose behind his visit, then he will have been somewhat disappointed as there was no meeting with President Atambaev, just with his Kyrgyz Counterpart.  Meanwhile, the President himself has been maintaining his position.  There have been more protests calling for the base to go including one protest meeting which must go down in the history books as one of the smallest ever … it only attracted 30 people, although they said that they were expecting others.

(Another Protest meeting caught the attention of the press when desperate protester erected a sign on the fence around the White House, (Government House), announcing that he was looking to sell a kidney to help pay off a loan.  Credit terms are quite high here and a lot of attention has been given to attempts to bring down interest rates.  There is a proposal to cut the tax on bank profits in order to help cut the cost of mortgages.)

If the Americans look as if they are losing influence, then according to some commentators, they are not alone.  One made a point of saying that Russia is struggling to maintain its influence; and not just in Kyrgyzstan but throughout the whole of Central Asia,  It’s not just the payment of Rent for the Russian military bases, but there have been comments, (from no less a person than Atambaev, himself), about foreign intelligence agencies being busy at work in the country, (in particular, from Russia and Kazakhstan) .  One of the deputies has taken up this theme and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if some members of the law enforcement services weren’t arrested on spying charges soon.

Mind you, Russia are not going to sit back and take this sort of thing lightly.  They have already annulled a bilateral agreement with Kyrgyzstan on naturalization procedures … something which is being blamed by some people here on comments made by Atambaev when he was Moscow, even though the decision  was made before his visit.

They have plenty of other bargaining chips if they want to use them … not least the supply of oil.  Kyrgyzstan depends heavily on Russia for these and it is one of the issues that helped to push the country into the revolution that ousted Bakiev.

Our other big neighbor, China, has also been the subject of some comment, especially the projected and long awaited China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.  One report I saw suggested that the idea of such a railway was first floated in 1996 under Askar Akaev, but there were plans for such a railways back in the nineteenth century.  Jules Verne even wrote a novel about it.  Kyrgyzstan desperately wants the railway but is cash strapped and needs considerable foreign investment to implement the project.  One way of obtaining this that has been proposed is a swap of mineral rights, which it is thought would be quite attractive to the Chinese.  On the other hand, the Kyrgyz are reluctant to go down that particular path and Atambaev has said that it won’t be a plank in any policy of his presidency.  Concessions to China are perceived to have helped lead up to the challenge which led to the demise of the Akaev presidency.  There is, however, another suggestion, (although it is not clear to me if this is a serious proposal), apparently comes from some German investors who given some incentives under Kyrgyzstan new Public Private Partnership law, including the right to operate the railway in order to recoup its investment

There are other infrastructure projects in the news …  one that caught my eye was about the rehabilitation of Kyrgyzstan’s water supply system.  It seems that something like three quarters of the existing infrastructure are old and in need of replacement – they are not deemed fit for the purpose … and in remote rural regions, many villages do not have access to a water supply system at all.  Much of what does exist was built during the days of the Soviet Union at the expense of the local collective farms, but they no longer exist.  Even some systems built during the early days of independence and paid for by donor agencies, apparently do not work properly.

We had an interesting situation here in Bishkek at the end of last year.  We had to have some work done on the plumbing in the building where our office is, and that required turning off the water to the building for a couple of hours.  We got permission to do this but were stymied because we couldn’t find the tap.  We consulted the water authority but even so, couldn’t locate the manhole cover that would lead us to it.  It seems that someone had asphalted over it. It looked as if we were going to turn off the water to the whole of the district but eventually the water authority found it for us and, although it a couple of months, we were thankfully able to deal with the problem before anything untoward happened

In fact I remember similar stories about the water supply and sewerage systems of some of Britain’s great cities such as London and Manchester, which dated from Victorian times and were in rapid and increasing need of renovation if not a complete overhaul and replacement.  (Much to the chagrin of us Brits, unfavourable comparisons were drawn with the system in Paris.)    Well, it seems as if the pipes here in Kyrgyzstan are going to cost something like five and a half billion som to repair – that’s about 120 million dollars.  You can expect that cost to be exceeded as a result of inflation, cost overruns, and so on.

I am not sure where we are going to get that sort of money.  The economic results have taken a downturn over the last couple of months, (output apparently dropping by a third), and, according to some reports, we even have an eight and a half million debt to Kazakhstan for natural gas.

There has been a huge furore about the escape of Ahmat Bakiev from custody.  Some high profile names are said to be implicated in the affair, but although this has been hinted at, so far, no-one’s been actually named; officially, that is.  Stories in the media have been discounted.  Amongst some of the more outlandish accounts, there has been a suggestion that he was smuggled out of the country on a flight to Qatar containing the Prime Minister, several Ministers and Deputies on an official visit.

Whatever, assuming he has left the country, it’s unlikely that he would have needed a visa.  The proposal to relax the Visa Regime has taken a sudden turn with the Security services saying that they no longer oppose it; the parliamentary committee where it was stalled has finally sent the Bill back to the parliament for its next reading and several of the political parties have approved it, albeit with modified provisions, (i.e. reducing the visa free period from 90 days to 60, or 45).  So, it looks as if we might soon be able to offer tourists a much easier visit to the country … unless there are some other surprises waiting in store for us.

At the end of the week there were a couple of interesting stories about the World Heritage list.  Kyrgyzstanm has been smarting ever since China proposed the Manas epic and was happy that the Suleiman Too Mountain in the center of Osh was incorporated into the list, although that’s not been such good news as there are threats to remove it as a result of building work which is seen as threatening the site.  Now, it seems as if Kyrgyzstan, together with China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are proposing that the Silk Road be included.  We are also proposing, together with Kazakhstan, that the yurt should be included in the list of intangible cultural heritage.

We are all looking forward to Spring and, indeed, the days are getting lighter and drawing out.  It’s also getting warmer, and the snow has more or less melted, (at least here in Bishkek).  The politician who declared that Zima ne budet, (There’ll be no winter), far from being downcast by the turn of events has gone further declaring Kyrgyzstan to be the center of the world.  I have even heard of someone saying  that the  Kyrgyz were the original inhabitants of Eden,  and this week one spokesman equated Manas to God, and that the Kirghiz, as the Aryans, should not prevent the recurrence of fascism committed by Germany in 1941… and the latest claim: konets sveta ne budet – there’ll be no End of the World.  We are all hoping that they are right about that last one at least.

Once again I have exceeded my planned word limit and there is so much more to write about: mail order brides, the new trade center and hotel that the Chamber of Commerce are planning in downtown Bishkek, the restart of work on the proposed 24-storey building opposite my office, the disbanding of the Financial Police, the local election results, the trials and tribulations of the alcohol industry and the mining sector, the visit of the Russian journalists to the Manas airbase – and the refusal of the Russian to let him visit the Kant base, the debate about whether we should adopt a new flag, Kyrgyzstan’s rating on the Gender Equality Index, (which wasn’t too bad actually – we came in 44th place out of 154 … with Afghanistan taking the last place), donor projects on mental health and education, the continuing row over radioactive coal  … and so on.  But I can’t get it all into just 2000 words.

 

Postcard from Bishkek: the weekly postcard that I send out as an email also gets posted on the website ianbek.kg each week – and there are other postcards which don’t get sent out.  This week, for example, there were postcards about:

Disaster Recovery – on the anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake and Tsanami, (not to mention the radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, I took a look at Disaster planning in the Kyrgyz Republic.

• What Goes Around, Comes Around …  - the question of whether Kyrgyzstan should apply to join the HIPC, (Highly Indebted Poor Countries), initiative has resurfaced once more …
• The Sports Palace Named After Kojumkol – a look at the Sports Palace, one of Bishkek’s premier venues, and the man after whom it is named.
• A Slice Of Pi, Anyone? – On March 14th, (3.14 – Pi Day), I take a look at an attempt to redefine the mathematical concept … fortunately, not in Kyrgyzstan, this particular piece of madness took place in the US at the end of the nineteenth century
• Yaks – a look at the large bovine creatures that can be found in some of Kyrgyzstan’s highland areas
• One Size Doesn’t Fit All  - some problems associated with defining standards

It is now possible to follow me on Facebook, (where I have specific pages for Celestial Mountains and ianbek … and also links.kg and Kyrgyz Diary), and on twitter, (@Bishkekpostcard and @celestialMTC ).

 

If you decide that you don’t want to receive these weekly postcards in your email anymore, please drop me a line to  and I will take you off the distribution list.  Alternatively, if you know someone who might be interested in being added to the mailing list, then get them to drop me a line and I’ll be happy to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: