WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 465, September 28, 2006 KYRGYZ OPPOSITION FAILS TO SEIZE INITIATIVE A new round of protests is promised at the end of October, but some doubt the opposition has the willpower needed to take on the president. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek
ANGER AT "BIASED" COVERAGE OF KYRGYZ POLITICAL SCANDAL State television reporting of a political dirty tricks campaign proves nothing has changed since the Akaev era, says the opposition. By Aziza Turdueva in Bishkek UNEMPLOYMENT DRIVES TURKMEN TO TURKEY In a country where jobs are scarce, the possibility of well-paid work is tempting many Turkmen abroad. By IWPR staff in London **** NEW AT IWPR ****************************************************************** IWPR LAUNCHES CENTRAL ASIAN NEWS AGENCY: News Briefing Central Asia is a new concept in regional reporting, comprising analysis and "news behind the news" in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Available at: www.NBCentralAsia.net **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/rca/rss.xml TURKMEN RADIO: INSIDE VIEW is an IWPR radio training and broadcast project for Turkmenistan. View at: http://www.iwpr.net/?p=trk&s=p&o=-&apc_state=henh RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** KYRGYZ OPPOSITION FAILS TO SEIZE INITIATIVE A new round of protests is promised at the end of October, but some doubt the opposition has the willpower needed to take on the president. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek Opposition parties in Kyrgyzstan are planning to seek the resignation of the country's president and prime minister - but not quite yet. A recent gathering offered them a chance to deal a blow to the authorities as they struggled to cope with a major political scandal, yet little came of the meeting, and it is now unclear whether the government's opponents are capable of much more than dire threats. The September 17 "kurultai", or popular assembly, should have had everything going for it. It brought together major political parties - the Movement for Reforms, MfR, an umbrella group encompassing most opposition parties, and the Asaba party of Azimbek Beknazarov, a high-profile member of parliament. There was a lot to complain about - the failure of President Kurmanbek Bakiev to deliver the reforms demanded at opposition rallies earlier this year, and a fresh political row about Omurbek Tekebaev, the MfR's leader and until February 2006, the speaker of parliament. Tekebaev was arrested at Warsaw airport on September 6 when more than half a kilogramme of heroin was found in his luggage. However, he was quickly released after a Polish court ruled that he was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign. Kyrgyzstan's parliament began a vigorous investigation of the matter, and came up with evidence implicating the security service or SNB in planting the drugs. Following the revelations, the president was forced to sack his brother Janysh Bakiev as deputy head of the SNB; the agency's head Busurmankul Tabaldiev resigned shortly afterwards. Finally, organisers chose a venue that was full of symbolism. The village of Bozpiek is located in the southern district of Aksy, where in 2002, police firing live rounds caused the deaths of six people engaged in peaceful protests, sparking months of demonstrations against the government of President Askar Akaev. Aksy is Beknazarov's power-base, and the demonstrators were seeking his release after the Akaev regime jailed him. Bakiev, though he later joined the opposition and took part in the March 2005 revolution that ousted Akaev, was prime minister at the time and thus, according to his critics, to some extent accountable for the violence. The kurultai got off to a good start, according to Dooronbek Sadyrbaev, a member of parliament who attended. "There were many hard-hitting, critical speeches about the country's present leaders. Speaker after speaker demanded the resignation of the Bakiev-Kulov 'tandem'," he said, referring to the alliance between the president and his prime minister, Felix Kulov. The meeting ended with a six-point list of demands to the Bakiev government, calling for a new constitution and other reforms, and urging the president to dismiss other family members from his administration. Two of his brothers serve as Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to Germany and counsellor at its Beijing embassy. The statement warned that if these demands were not met, opposition parties would seek the resignations of both Bakiev and Kulov. A deadline of October 24 was set, coinciding with the end of Ramadhan, the holy month in which Muslims fast and strive for restraint and forgiveness. After staging protest rallies in the spring, the opposition suspended its protests over the summer, and the decision to postpone action for another month raises questions about whether the anti-Bakiev movement has lost momentum. Although the statement also called for the prosecution of those found to have ordered the Tekebaev incident, some analysts say opposition politicians have passed up a golden opportunity to target the president. "If nothing happens at the end of October, another demand will be heard - for Bakiev and Kulov to resign. It may take a month or even years, but people will insist on them resigning," said Temir Sariev, a member of parliament and kurultai participant. "There are some people who say that we're constantly postponing matters and that we don't want the situation to develop in the way they want, using force. [But if we did that], the authorities would use force as well and we'd plunge the country into chaos." Another deputy, Melis Eshimkanov, took a similar view, saying, "We are postponing the deadline... because of our responsibility to avoid civil war and conflict. We are giving the regime another chance... we are saying, 'Bakiev, sort things out'." "After Orozo Ait [Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadhan], the opposition will take very serious actions, tougher and more practical. We see the political struggle growing more intense then. So now we are giving the people and ourselves a breather, and are giving the president carte blanche to meet our demands." This threat of future action does not convince the political analysts interviewed by IWPR. Tamerlan Ibraimov, for example, believes that come November, the opposition will be more vocal, but he says this will not force the Kyrgyz leadership to resign, and will merely drive his opponents to take up more radical positions. Valentin Bogatyrev, deputy director of Vostok, a Central Asian think-tank, believes that Bakiev is in fact making tentative concessions, even if the opposition prefers not to notice them. "The opposition feels it should constantly pressure the government, and that the important issues have not been tackled," he told IWPR. "But it seems to me that the Bakiev administration is far from inactive. For example, has he reacted to the kurultai by sending constitutional drafts to parliament, and if the latter responds appropriately and realises that compromise does not mean weakness or retreat, but can bring progress toward reform, then everything will be fine. Usually the problem is that the administration does not want a compromise, but that is not the case at the moment." Bogatyrev pointed to what he sees as a lack of real drive among opposition members, "The problems with this kurultai and the way the [Tekebaev] scandal has developed indicate that the opposition has no drive. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is they are missing - money, ideas or leaders capable of fighting for their views. But what is clear is that they've been unable to make intelligent use of a gift like this scandal." That criticism may not be entirely fair, though. In the Tekebaev affair, the Kyrgyz parliament showed itself resolute and uncompromising in pursuing the truth. On September 22, it kept up the momentum by declaring the Bakiev-Kulov "tandem" to be unconstitutional in that there is no provision for prime ministers to be appointed on the basis of a pre-election deal with the president. It urged Bakiev to form a new cabinet, to embark on constitutional reform post haste, and to place the SNB firmly under government control. Taalaibek Amanov is the pseudonym of an independent journalist in Bishkek. ANGER AT "BIASED" COVERAGE OF KYRGYZ POLITICAL SCANDAL State television reporting of a political dirty tricks campaign proves nothing has changed since the Akaev era, says the opposition. By Aziza Turdueva in Bishkek Leading members of parliament in Kyrgyzstan and civil society activists have criticised state television's coverage of an apparent dirty tricks campaign against opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev, and renewed their calls for the channel to be removed from government control. Tekebaev, a former speaker of parliament who resigned earlier this year after falling out publicly with President Kurmanbek Bakiev, was jailed in Poland on September 6 when airport border guards discovered heroin in his luggage. He was soon released after a Warsaw court dropped all charges. President Bakiev was forced to sack his own brother Janysh as deputy head of the National Security Service, SNB, after parliament got hold of a document alleging he had ordered the drugs to be planted. Not surprisingly, the incident has caused a storm of controversy in Kyrgyzstan and has been widely discussed in parliament and by the general public, with furious speculation about who is to blame and whether the government was involved. Government critics, however, say this lively discussion has been far from evident in the output of the State Television and Radio Corporation, which consigned coverage of a key parliamentary debate on the incident to a late-night slot on its television channel KTR. Deputy Melis Eshimkanov described the coverage as one-sided, and said KTR showed biased programmes supporting the authorities and the Bakiev family. These include sympathetic interviews with Janysh Bakiev. Programmes about Tekebaev have been unflattering, said Eshimkanov. Another deputy, Kanybek Imanaliev, accuses KTR of "running an aggressive campaign against members of parliament". "I have recently seen a programme in which people were saying that deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbaev should be killed, [former prosecutor general] Azimbek Beknazarov should be jailed, and that Tekebaev himself was behind the provocative incident against him," said Imanaliev. KTR was traditionally a mouthpiece for the ruling regime in Kyrgyzstan and under former president Askar Akaev was used as ideological weapon against the opposition. Hopes that this would all change were high after the March 2005 revolution, when opposition forces forced Akaev from power and put Bakiev in power. The new president pledged to transform the state broadcaster into a public service company, meaning that it would become like western TV and radio stations that receive state funding but are run by independent management and insulated from political influence. So far there has been little progress. On September 6, Bakiev rejected a law passed by parliament that providing for the plan to create a public television and radio service, with a watchdog board whose members would be appointed in equal numbers by the president, parliament and civil society groups. The president said he vetoed the bill because it would require a major outlay of money that the country could ill afford. But his decision drew harsh criticism and accusations that he is reneging on his election promises. "This will create obstacles for the development of the media sector," said Elvira Sarieva, the Kyrgyzstan director of the media development group Internews. Sadyrbaev doubts that Bakiev rejected the draft law for purely financial reasons, suggesting that he likes having control over state TV. "If KTR is transformed into public television, the authorities will be deprived of a major lever of influence," said Sadyrbaev Bakiev denied the allegations that KTR is simply a government mouthpiece, telling parliament on September 13 that there have been changes at the station. "Kyyaz Moldokasymov was appointed to head the channel, a person who was previously in charge of the Kyrgyz branch of Radio Liberty," he said. Moldokasymov, too, insisted that the station "is no longer the personal television channel of one family, as it was under ex-president Akaev, but serves the people instead". He also denied the accusations of biased coverage of the Tekebaev affair. "We do not have one-sided broadcasts," he said. "The incident concerning Tekebaev has been covered not one-dimensionally, but objectively. The channel has broadcast different opinions. There were many more statements in support of Tekebaev and denigrating the authorities [than those made against him]." Moldokasymov said opposition members were more than welcome to appear on KTR. "Many people continue to criticise the state channel out of force of habit, although we have long provided coverage of different opinions on any issue," he added. The head of the presidential press service Dosaly Esenaliev, who held the same job under Akaev, echoed that view. He said his office no longer told KTR which stories to cover, as was standard practice under the previous regime. It is the idea of a watchdog to oversee a public-service broadcaster that concerns Moldokasymov's deputy, Beishenbek Bekeshov. "The state channel belongs to the people and to the state, so it should be controlled by those who have the right to speak on behalf of the people - the president and parliament," he said. Adakhan Madumarov, the Kyrgyz secretary of state, says that having a state-run channel is no bad thing. "There are independent television companies of every kind in this country. In these circumstances, we must not lose the state channel," he said. The state TV station Osh-3000, broadcasting in southern Kyrgyzstan, was made into a public broadcaster last year, but critics say the change is illusory since the president appoints the supervisory board that oversees the editorial output. A former editor of the state-run Kyrgyz Tuusu newspaper, Bakyt Orunbekov, sees the hand of government in this recent turn of events. "This demonstrates yet again that the government is not interested in reforming either the state television channel or the printed media," he told IWPR. Aziza Turdueva is a correspondent for Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz service of RFE/RL in Bishkek. UNEMPLOYMENT DRIVES TURKMEN TO TURKEY In a country where jobs are scarce, the possibility of well-paid work is tempting many Turkmen abroad. By IWPR staff in London Turkmen workers are flocking to Turkey to escape chronic unemployment and poverty at home. Some say the long and expensive trip is worthwhile, while others complain of abuse and slave-like treatment at the hands of their Turkish employers. Gulnara Batyrova, who comes from Makhtumkuli in the country's western Balkan region. was one of the lucky ones. She worked for over a year as a private nurse for a family in Istanbul, getting paid 800 US dollars per month. Batyrova is now back home, but plans to return to Turkey and find work as a nanny. "How can I earn so much money in my home country?" she asked. Many Turkmen live on little more than two dollars per day in a country where unemployment has been estimated at 50-70 per cent, though no official statistics exist. Other migrant workers from Central Asia, mostly Tajiks and Uzbeks, head to Russia and Kazakstan. For the Turkmen, however, Turkey is the top choice as a visa is easier to obtain, there are more direct flights, and jobs there are better paid. It is hardly surprising, then, that people are flocking to illegal travel agencies that organise tourist visas for would-be economic migrants. Many are willing to sell everything they own in order to make the trip to Turkey. "We sold our car, carpets and crockery. We spent all our money to send my husband to Istanbul. My three children and I stayed home in Turkmenistan to wait for his salary," said Jennet Muradova, an unemployed mother of three small children from the eastern Lebap region. Galima Narbaeva tells similar story. When her husband was fired from his job as a caretaker, the family decided Turkey was the best option. "We have a very large family, and everyone pitched in and gathered the money for him to go to Istanbul," she said. Most of the migrants are working in Turkey illegally, which exposes them to numerous risks including mistreatment at the hands of employers, and possible deportation. Narbaeva's husband Juma, a driver by profession, got a job on a factory building site in Istanbul alongside other workers from around the world. Juma said he was fed poorly and his passport was taken away. He managed to steal it back because his boss was absent-minded, but after a month-long stint of hard physical labour left without any pay. "There are hundreds of thousands of people like me," said Juma, who had a return ticket so was at least able to come home. "It's real slavery. I can't appeal for a compensation or protect my interests, because I went there illegally. There's nowhere for us to appeal here either, because the law does not protect our rights in these cases." Human rights activists say that people in Turkmenistan should be made aware of the harsh realities of working illegally, and those who end up in trouble should be offered help. But that seems unlikely. A support programme for labour migrants proposed two years ago by the International Organisation for Migration's Ashgabat office was rejected by the government. In the eyes of the authorities, illegal migrants like Juma simply do not exist. At a roundtable meeting to discuss the issue, a representative from the interior ministry said there was no need to protect illegal migrants because they were all prostitutes or pimps and should instead be prosecuted. The government's reluctance to acknowledge the problem is understandable. President Saparmurat Niazov has declared a Golden Age for his people, and the state-controlled media carry glowing reports of new factories opening, creating lots of jobs. Acknowledging the existence of illegal migrants would undermine this propaganda. The reality is that work is thin on the ground. Factories stand idle for most of the year and workers go unpaid because of the lack of raw materials. The capital provides most of the job opportunities, but there are only so many to go around. "There is some sort of work in Ashgabat," said Begli Gurbanov, from the Balkan region. "But what can you do in the regions? There is no work there at all." (All names in this article have been changed for safety reasons) **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Central Asia Programme Manager: Saule Mukhametrakhimova; Editor in Bishkek: Kumar Bekbolotov. IWPR Project Development and Support: Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Managing Director: Tim Williams. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice. Institute for War & Peace Reporting 48 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050 For further details on this project and other information services and media programmes, go to: www.iwpr.net ISSN: 1477-7924 Copyright © 2006 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting **** www.iwpr.net ********************************************************************
