There is NOT a civil war going on here

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

June 12, 2010

12:22 am

Two months ago there was a revolution in Kyrgyzstan. The corrupt president fled the country and is likely hiding out in Belarus. The new interim president, Roza Otunbaeva, has created an interim government but there is no parliament yet. A referendum on the new constitution, which would reduce the power of the president, effectively making the country a parliamentary democracy, is scheduled for June 27. However, last night there were clashes between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek ethnic groups in the Southern town of Osj. Most people we talked to today were convinced that this was sponsored by the ex-president's thugs who are paying young, unemployed men to attack each other. Although this can hardly be called ethnic uprising, it has unfortunately caused 42 persons to die so far.

We were hoping that the Kyrgyz would all come to the same conclusion that this is an attempt at destabilization and ignore the provocations. However, tonight, after attending an amazing concert at the National Philharmonic Hall in memory of those who died in the April 7 revolution (classical concert sponsored by the U.S. and Swiss governments), as we were eating Chinese food
we heard gunshots. When we got home we discovered that there had been a couple of thousand young men milling around trying to get supportors to go down to Osj to defend their compatriots. The gunshots were blanks fired by the police to calm and disburse them. We think it worked because things are quiet now.

The crisis will test the interim president who was planning on holding the counry's first democratic parliamentary elections in September. We hope she will get the situation under control as an unstable situation may give Uzbekistan the excuse to move into the Ferghana Valley, which is where Osj is located, and which borders their country. If not, the Russians have offered to help...

We were supposed to be flying home on Wednesday but may re-evaluate the situation over the weekend.

Your correspondent in Bishkek...