Once considered an island of democracy in the Central Asian region, Kyrgyzstan is in danger of being submerged under waves of instability a decade after it declared its independence.
Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev gained a reputation as a champion of democracy after the Soviet Union's collapse, but flawed presidential and parliamentary polls have since tarnished those credentials.
The former Soviet state now struggles to deal with 60 percent poverty while attacks by Islamic extremists have undermined stability in the country and the central Asian region as a whole.
As Kyrgyzstan celebrates its tenth anniversary of independence Friday "there is a growing sense of disappointment and recognition that Kyrgyzstan is not a shining example to the rest," one western source said.
Surrounded on all sides by mountains, Kyrgyzstan had fewer natural resources than its Central Asian neighbours to attract foreign investment to its economy after the Soviet Union's disintegration.
Although the country is credited with launching liberal economic and democratic reforms, it has so far failed to boost the living standards of many of its people.
The economic decline is visible in Bishkek, the country's dusty capital, where pensioners sell plastic bags and cigarettes to supplement pensions of around eight dollars a month.
In rural regions the situation is even worse and extended families are forced to eke out a living from a patch of land in areas where unemployment can reach 80 percent.
The tiny, mountainous state also owes 1.5 billion dollars in debt, some 130 percent of its gross domestic product.
Poverty, competition over jobs, and scarce resources as well as perceived discrimination are in danger of aggravating unease between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, some experts believe.
A land and housing dispute between the two communities boiled over into bloodshed in 1990 in the southern cities of Osh and Uzgen.
In a sign of their growing frustration, some ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan have turned to religious movements like Hizbut Takhrir, which have gained a significant foothold in the impoverished south.
Kyrgyzstan, which has been unsettled by incursions by Islamic extremists into its southern Batken region in 1999 and 2000, appears undecided over how to deal with the religious group.
"They understand that a lot of people in the south are attracted to these organisations due to poverty and because they feel cut off from the government," said one western observer.
As the perceived instability mounts, Akayev, a former scientist first elected president in 1991, has tightened his grip over this central Asian state.
The apparently mild-mannered leader, often pictured wearing the traditional Kyrgyz felt hat, has been accused of trying to straitjacket the media, political opponents and non-governmental organisations.
The media, "especially from 1998 and 1999 came under assault from the government and the ruling elite" said head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Kyrgyz office Jerzy Wieclaw.
International observers condemned as a sham the country's 2000 presidential polls, which saw Akayev reelected with nearly 75 percent of the vote.
Soon after those elections, Akayev's main political rival and a former vice president, Felix Kulov, was jailed for seven years on abuse of authority charges.
International experts warn that the complex array of problems now plaguing Kyrgyzstan are seriously undermining stability in the former Soviet state.
Kyrgyzstan faces a choice of reinvigorating genuine economic and political reform or following an authoritarian path, a report from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned.
"If the president continues on his current course, the likelihood of violence ... will only continue to rise, and the once heralded island of democracy will disappear into a sea of instability," it added. |
