Postcard from Bishkek

March 24th is the anniversary of what has become known as The Great Escape.

Back in 1944, 76 prisoners escaped from Stalug Luft III for captured airmen in Lower Silesia, (now part of Poland), through three specially dug tunnels called Tom, Dick and Harry.  Only three of them managed to complete their escape; two eventually reaching neutral Sweden and the third travelling across France, finally ending up at a British consulate in Spain some three months later.  Fifty of the seventy three that were recaptured were executed.

Oddly enough, the site of Stalug Luft III had been specially chosen because it was considered that it would be difficult to escape from it by tunneling.  Ironically, it is known for two spectacular escapes, both of which involved tunneling and were to be depicted later in films: The Great Escape and The Wooden Horse.

Although by no means as dramatic, the flight of Askar Akaev from Bishkek as a result of the Tulip Revolution on 24th March, 2005, also constituted a remarkable escape, (although there was no tunneling involved).  Today is technically a Holiday to commemorate the events of that day, seven years ago.

Askar Akaev is back in the news again, having given an interview to a Kazakh newspaper about life in Kyrgyzstan following his overthrow.  Needless to say, he is not very complimentary.  In answer to the opening question about the move to a Parliamentary democracy, he said that he tries “not to give interviews on political topics” … but on this occasion he will, and he makes clear that he thinks it is a mistake and only time will tell if the public will accept the change.  The journalist seemed to want to concentrate on the prospect of a third revolution … to which Akaev noted that “under the guise of revolutionary demagoguery each of the figures pursued their own selfish purposes” whereas in Russia and Kazakhstan attention has focused on a creative effort to, step by step, improve the political system, lift the economy and increase the well-being of people, in Kyrgyzstan there was a struggle for the division and redistribution of power and national ownership.  As a result Kyrgyz society is “demoralized” leading to people taking to the streets in protest.  Life for the ordinary Kyrgyz citizen, he thinks, has deteriorated when compared to that of 2004 and he stressed the need to attract an influx of foreign to shore up the economy.   Even his comments in support of Kyrgyzstan’s entry to the Customs Union were barbed: about the risk of a restless and unstable Kyrgyzstan being a weight pulling the Union down.  There was another acerbic element in his comments in reply to the question about the most significant achievement of Kyrgyzstan since 2005, which he considered to be that it had retained its integrity and not split into North and South – but was still not beyond the bounds of possibility.

The journalist question about the possibility of a third revolution wasn’t an isolated speculation.  There has been some talk about how Kyrgyzstan always has revolutions in the Spring, (always?, well, twice at least), and perhaps there’s a move to create another one.  Personally, I don’t see it.  Even if there is still disappointment at the rate at which life is improving for the “ordinary person”, there doesn’t seem to be the same groundswell of universal dissatisfaction.  Things are moving, things are improving, albeit slowly.

There’s been another interesting escape in the news this week, that of US Air Force Major, Jill Metzger who disappeared from the Manas Air Base in September, 2006.  A search was initiated and three days later she reappeared in Kant claiming that she had been kidnapped from outside the TsUM department store in the center of the capital and had managed to effect her escape by stabbing one of her captors in the foot with a stick, (some accounts say a pencil),  that she had sharpened into a shank and then locking him in the room where she was held, eventually knocked on the door of a local couple, who took her to police.  There was a lot of doubt cast on her story, and much speculation as to what really happened, but she was whisked back to the states before an investigation could be completed here in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz officials disputed her claim, and she became the subject of many Internet rumors, with bloggers claiming that she made up her story and that the Air Force was trying to sweep the incident under the rug.  Now, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations says they have completed their inquiry and, according to an official spokesman, found that the evidence supports the major’s account.

I expected to see a lot more reaction to this story than I have.  Although there is still continuing opposition to the base at Manas, no-one seems to have picked up on this story even though it might add to the general anti-Manas sentiment that has been developing.

When Atambaev started adamantly saying that Manas would close in 2014, everyone seemed to think that he was posturing Kyrgyzstan for a more pro-Russian position, but then a number of issues cropped up which caused a bit of a strain in relationships between the two countries.  One of the major questions was the future of the Russian bases in the country, and arguments over the rent payable on them.  How, however, he has now said that the Russian military bases won’t be closed, (the term of the agreement on the Kant airbase, for example, has been extended to 2020),  It’s not just a question of the bases.  Kyrgyzstan has been critical about the Collective Security Treaty Organization, (CSTO), and is seeking changes.  Russia has also, unilaterally, changed the agreement for the mutual recognitions of citizenship.

A major plank in the government’s foreign and economic policies is an application to join the Customs Union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belorussia.  Consultations are taking about the accession process and help is being sought from Kazakhstan over several issues, particularly the garments industry which is quite important to Kyrgyzstan.  To complicate issues even further, the process of establishing an Eurasian Economic Union, (based on the Customs Union), is also gathering momentum.   It is going to be discussed at a summit in May.  There seems to be a doubt, however, about Kyrgyzstan’s status in the new organization; will it be a “member”, or just a “partner” – Kyrgyzstan is not happy at being granted “observer” status in the discussions.

Now there is also a question about the packet of shares in Dastan, (Kyrgyzstan’s Torpedo plant – Yes, landlocked Kyrgyzstan has a factory which produces state of the art torpedoes).  An earlier agreement whereby Kyrgyzstan would give Russia just under half the shares in exchange for writing off of some of Kyrgyzstan’s debt, still hasn’t been fulfilled three years after it was reached and Russia is now insisting on a three quarters in the plant stake instead.

This doesn’t look too good, especially when people remember what happened last time the Russians got upset with a Kyrgyz president,

The Labour code, the basic law covering employment issues, has been a big issue this week.  The Trade Unions have been up in arms as they say a new draft version of the code has been developed by the Ministry of the Economy and Anti-Monopoly Policy without due consultations and has removed some 300 safeguards built in to protect employees.  The Ministry says that many of these are discriminatory and discourage employers from hiring certain groups of workers and that removing them will actually increase their employability.  Protests are being organized in defence of the existing code and demanding the withdrawal of the new draft.

The thorny question of the traditional practice of Ala Kachuu, (Bride kidnapping), has been back in the news again this week.  This time, fortunately, it wasn’t a case of an example going wrong; the girl objecting or worse, committing suicide.  The Ombudsman was speaking at a conference about Violence against Women and basically said that the practice has to be eliminated.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story was his claim that members of the parliament were invited to the meeting, none of them turned up.  He’s obviously not particularly impressed with the elected representatives, complaining that they “didn’t listen to him” when he presented his report and adding that, “Today, only the public is concerned about the problem of violence against women while MPs ignore discussion of this problem.”

A couple of deputies are in a little difficulty having been expelled by their party.  Their local branches took offence to some of their public statements a short while ago and voted to eject them from the party, but the parliamentary caucus and the leadership ignored the decision.  Now, however, even they have lost patience with their colleagues and voted to confirm the decision, demanding that they vacate their seats; something the two are refusing to do.  I have to admit that I am confused, because I thought the seats were allocated to parties and not to individuals.  Each seat is allocated to a particular person on the basis of a party list.  If someone resigns then instead of a by-election being held, the place is simply filled by the next person on that party’s list.  If the members are no longer members of the party, then how can they occupy a place allocated to that party?  They say that they will continue sitting as “independents”, but if they were to “cross the floor of the house” to join another party, like Winston Churchill did, then we could have the position that seats allocated to one party on the basis of the election being occupied by people in another party.

It has been announced that the commission working on selecting a new Flag for the country will present a selection of possible alternatives in May.  We are all waiting agog.  It’s nothing to do with me of course, being a foreigner, but I can’t say that any of the ideas that have been floated so far strike me as an attractive alternative.  Another foreigner had the temerity to tweet that this was “just what Kyrgyzstan needs; a new flag”, but there has also been some criticism of the process from locals as well and a campaign has been started to retain the existing flag.

Bishkek City Council has decided to hold a competition for the best kept areas in the city.  There’s nothing new in that; every year as the Dehn Goroda, (City Day), approaches they urge everyone in the city to tidy the place up.  This year, however, they’ve added an interesting twist. They are going to hold an “anti competition” for the dirtiest compound, dirtiest neighbourhood, dirtiest store and so on.  The idea has been borrowed from Russia where several big cities hold similar contests.

 

This week saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget Speech back in Britain, where he sets the tax rates for the coming year in order to raise the funds in order to fulfill the government’s spending plans.  It’s not something that I normally take a lot of interest in because, of course, I am here and taxed here in Kyrgyzstan.  This year however, a number of things did catch my attention:

Maybe it’s because I am approaching retirement age, (well, I still have six years to go, but my mind is obviously beginning to focus on that sort of thing a lot more these days), and I see that certain allowances available to pensioners have either been abolished or frozen.  This apparently means that those who are affected will lose out on about 285 pounds a year on average: as that’s an average, some people will be less affected … but some people more.  The Chancellor actually said that this change would be welcomed by many pensioners as it would them of the necessity of filling in the annual tax returns.  That may, or not, be the case but I can’t help recalling that when here and had to pay tax back in the UK as well as here, the forms were huge, (over thirty pages in several sections), and very complicated.  The Kyrgyz tax forms on the other hand were much shorter, (one page at that time – now it’s three, and two of those are filled with zeroes), and much simpler.

Another measure was an increase in the duty on cigarettes.  The Chancellor has decided to increase this 5% above the rate of inflation which means an increase of about 37 pence on a packet of 20.  A quick bit of maths told me that was the equivalent of about 28 som … which is more than most packets of cigarettes cost here in Kyrgyzstan.

The centerpiece of the Budget was apparently  sharp increase in the tax-free personal allowance for workers, “removing two million from paying income tax at all”.  Hey, that’s roughly equivalent to the entire workforce in Kyrgyzstan!  (According to the CIA World Factbook the available Labour Force in 2007, the latest figures they have available, was about 2,344,000).

 

Today also happens to be World Tuberculosis Day, commemorating the announcement by Dr Robert Koch 130 years ago, (on 24th March, 1882) that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis: the TB bacillus. At the time TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. The disease still kills about two people a year and it’s estimated that a third of the world’s population is infected with it. Koch’s announcement not only astounded the scientific community of hi9s day but it also led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize as his discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing tuberculosis.

I always take an interest when I see stories about Tuberculosis, because my mother suffered from it when I was born.  My father told me that they “drew the curtains on her” twice, (that is, they thought that she was dying.   In the end, she survived and recovered, but it cost her a lung.  On the other hand, I benefited in that it in that I seem to have been given a natural to the bacillus as a result of my early exposure to it.

“To date, the incidence of tuberculosis in the Kyrgyz capital is 93.6 per 100000 of the population. Mortality from this disease is 9.6 per 100,000 population “, according to the Ministry of Health and there have been a number of events held here in Kyrgyzstan to mark, not only the day, but a whole month long publicity campaign under the title “TB is curable!”, culminating in a race held in Bishkek yesterday.

 

Finally, it looks as if we have, at long last said goodbye to winter.  The sun is shining, it is quite warm and the forecast for the ten days is quite good.  The prolonged and unusual amount of snow has had its effect, however, cutting off parts of the country and causing havoc with feeding the livestock in some of the remote mountainous regions.  Several roads have been close, including the main Bishkek-Osh highway and there have been several deaths, (livestock and people), under avalanches.  Spring is definitely in the air!

 

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:

·         Djusup Balasagyn , about the

·         Polygon – Bishkek’s Rubbish Dump, Something we often take for granted but Bishkek’s rubbish dump is growing to mountainous proportions

·         Storytelling, about the oral tradition amongst the nomadic Kyrgyz

·         Who Shot J.R.?, That was the question on everyone’s lips back in 1980 … this year, here in Bishkek, everyone is asking “Vesnya ne budet?” – will there be a spring?

·         Bread, a staple food, but one which is often thrown away in Britain – but why that doesn’t happen here.

·         The other WMD, nothing to do with “Weapons of Mass Destruction” but World Meteorological Day … and the funny weather we’ve been having – especially the resulting avalanches.

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: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards