What happened in Kyrgyzstan yesterday was no velvet revolution. President Askar Akaev fled. There are victims. Special Kommersant correspondent Mikhail Zygar followed every step of the revolution from an addiction clinic to the White House.
Morning in the Hospital
The revolution started with a curious little incident several months ago. Doctor Nazaraliev's drug and alcohol addiction clinic put up billboards all over the city with the legend “Papa, don't drink!”. They lasted exactly one day. The presidential administration saw them as an allusion to Askar Akaev and ordered the ads removed. Doctor Nazaraliev was furious. And yesterday an opposition rally took shelter in his medical center and grew into a revolution.
At ten in the morning, there were already nearly a thousand people in front of the hospital with placards reading “Akaev go” and “Doctor, we're with you!”. Opposition leaders spoke from the shelter of the front entrance. Suddenly, the new Interior Minister, Keneshbek Dyshebaev, appeared on the street right in front of the crowd. He was appointed only yesterday, but he was already being praised for breaking up the meeting and, as the opposition alleged, ordered the distribution of authorized weapons to the police. The minister was smiling.
“If your meeting is peaceful, we won't lay a hand on you. I'm not going to hide from you; I came to see what you're talking about. The police are with the people. We won't do anything bad to you if you maintain order.”
The protesters were overjoyed.
“Well done!" the elders cried and shook his hand.
Journalists pressed the minister.
"Under what circumstances would you use the special forces?" asked TVC journalist Vera Kuzmina.
The minister turned away. The journalists followed him. After being pursued for about ten minutes, he finally answered.
“You can read the law on law enforcement agencies for yourselves. It's says that in the event of mass disorder, we can use gas, rubber bullets, and batons. But I hope it won't come to that.”
After this, the journalists immediately lost interest in the minister, and the two of us were left alone.
“The opposition claims there are several truckloads of stones and provokers who will compel the police to use force against the protesters. Do you know anything about this?” I asked.
"I haven't heard anything about it, but we'll try not to let this happen. If the meeting is peaceful, I think we'll be able to cope with provocation together.”
“Is it true that some high-ranking Interior Ministry officials switched sides to the opposition?”
“Which sides are you talking about? No one has gone over to any sides. You see, I came here especially to find out what they're saying here, what their slogans are. I'm with the people myself, and I want to show that the police are all with the people.”
“So why did they break up the demonstration on Sovetskaia Street yesterday?”
"It wasn't authorized by the city authorities. But in any case, we released everyone we arrested yesterday."
“And is today's meeting authorized?”
“No, but I came here to take a look at it, and I think that if it's peaceful, we won't do anything.”
“If they order you to shoot, how will you handle that?”
“Who could give me such an order?”
”The president.”
“No, he can't order me to do that. I command the police, and I won't give such an order.”
“What can you say about the events in Jalal-Abad and other cities that the opposition controls?”
”The only legitimate authority is the one that is elected and not the one that seizes government building.”
“Fine, but will you fight against them, will you try to take the rebellious regions under your control?”
The minister turned abruptly and left. They had just called him to the stand to speak to the people.
I also entered the clinic and went up to the third floor to speak with its owner, Zhenishbek Nazaraliev. He was sitting in his office. A rifle lay on the table in front of him.
”Yes, all our actions will be peaceful, but if the police open fire, we won't retreat. We'll answer fire with fire,” he said, grabbing the rifle and shaking it in the air.
“Are you certain you'll overthrow Akaev today and not wait for the presidential elections in October?”
”No, only today. We won't back down; we'll sweep away this government right now.”
”And then what?”
"And then we'll talk. We'll form a provisional government and declare parliament nonlegitimate. Then we'll hold both presidential and parliamentary elections in October.”
“But many of your colleagues in the opposition will probably disagree with you.”
“I have nothing to do with the opposition. I'm with the people. I don't need power. I'm not aiming for it, although I already have a 95% chance of becoming president, because the people are with me! But I don't need this. I have my patients, and I have to work with them.”
I went back down. Minister Dyshebaev and opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiev, the former prime minister, were going in the opposite direction. They went into the conference room to hold talks. The first floor was crammed with bodyguards. Lost patients wandered among them – recovering drug addicts. Doctors appeared and demanded that the bodyguards leave. The guards refused. The doctors burst into the negotiating room and demanded that Bakiev and Dyshebaev send the guards away. They gave the OK.
“Now everyone clear out,” one of the doctors said exultantly, “except journalists.” The minister drove away. A meeting of the opposition's coordination council began. Bakiev related that the minister had promised him the demonstrators would be allowed to pass freely as long as they did not interfere with traffic. We all left the building together. Former deputy Oksana Malevannaia gave everyone a daffodil. The column of demonstrators started off for the center. The procession stretched for half a kilometer. They were heading to Ala-Too Square, the local Independence Square. There were no cars or police. The minister had kept his promise. People on the sidewalks waved at the procession and smiled.
From Daffodils to Tulips
A crowd was already standing in Bishkek's Ala-Too Square. All of them were wearing blue ribbons on their sleeves.
“Those are Akaev supporters, provokers; they paid them 50 soms each,” the demonstrators whispered. The oppositionists were wearing yellow and pink ribbons – the color of daffodils and tulips. But the “blue armbands” didn't budge; they were lined up a bit to the right of the square and stared indifferently at the column of oppositionists. The demonstrators entered the square. It is very large, and they quickly vanished in it. The five thousand or so people took up less than one-fifth of the square. The leaders went right up to the stand, left over from Soviet times. Bakiev began to make a speech. The crown chanted “Ba-ki-ev! Ba-ki-ev!” I went over to talk to the blue armbands. They were reluctant to talk, but said that most of them were power company employees who had been taken from work. They hadn't been paid anything; their appearance in the square was simply counted as a full working day.
“So, is this a bad working day? Standing here smoking?”, asked Valera, one of the “blues”. “We're actually for peace; we don't want disorder. I don't like Akaev at all. His family has bought up everything; no one can live.”
“Then you should be at the demonstration,” I said.
“What's the difference, they're the same as Akaev.”
At that moment, stones started flying. A group of blue armbands had gone round the demonstrators on the left and started throwing stones at them, and stones flew in response. Panic ensued. Several thousand people were running and howling.
They hustled the opposition leaders off the stand. The blues went after them. An honor guard standing near the national flag raised in the square ran to the other side. There was panic and screaming. The meeting vanished without a trace. A man with a fractured skull lay in the square.
“Tigers back, to me!” one of the blue organizers shouted.
“Now I understand. Tiger is a private security company that Akaev always hires,” an old woman hiding under the stand whispered to me. “I worked as an election observer, and I know these tigers campaigned for the president's daughter."
After a minute, the demonstrators returned. They grabbed several blues and kicked them savagely. For nearly half an hour, no one could understand anything. The blues fled, and the “yellow and pink” crowds wandered about the square, afraid they would come back. In anticipation, they tore off marble slabs from the pedestal of a monument and shattered them into rubble. Suddenly, a column of yellows with banners reading “Osh” appeared from the direction of Sovetskaia Street. It was help from the south. They crossed the square and went straight to the White House – the presidential palace located about 500 meters from the square. Lines of OMON [riot police] blocked all approaches to it. A scuffle started. The crowd ran from the White House back to the square. The OMON were right behind them, beating their batons on their shields. They were met by a hail of stones. The OMON stopped and covered themselves with their shields, but the forces were clearly unequal. A small island of about 200 OMON formed on the edge of the thousands of demonstrators, where they were bombarded with marble fragments. After about a minute under the shower of stones, the OMON ran back towards the White House with the crowd on their heels.
At about two in the afternoon, a new column appeared, also from the direction of Sovetskaia Street. This was a second demonstration led by Almaz Atymbaev. Their demonstration had begun two hours later than Bakiev's, and they were coming from a different place, from Alma-Atinskaia Street. Theses leaders were better prepared. They drove at the head of the procession in a small truck and broadcast through a
megaphone. And, in contrast to the leaders of the first procession, they were carrying tulips rather than daffodils. Atymbaev looked like a victor; Bakiev, his fellow oppositionist and simultaneously his rival in the struggle for leadership, had fled from the stones, and now he was taking his place.
However, he did not go to the stands, but climbed onto the cab of his truck. He began talking about how his demonstration was peaceful, that there was no need for force. It was enough to stand in the square. Akaev was so afraid of them anyway he would leave. But words could no longer restrain the active part of the crowd. More and more people were running towards the White House. The OMON, who at first hid from the crowd behind the building's fence, started running into the White House.
I also ran to the presidential palace. The iron gates were already flung open, and the vanguard of the demonstrators broke down the wooden doors. Stones flew through the White House windows. After a few minutes, a window on the first floor was broken from within, and a man in the national cap appeared and raised his hand in victory – the White House had fallen.
The Smoke of Victory
In the hall of the White House was a huge puddle; people tormented by thirst had opened the fire hydrant, and now a powerful stream of water gushed onto the marble. They had already swiped packages of Italian biscuits and bottles of mineral water from somewhere. I went towards one of the staircases; soldiers were running down it.
“Get out of here, or things will go badly for you,” one of the rebels advised them.
The soldiers were young. They were recruits held in reserve on the roof of the building. The bureaucrats and OMON had had time to evacuate before the assault, but they forgot about the soldiers. They left through the main entrance, right against the crowd. The crowd stepped aside and let them through to the gate. I went upstairs; everyone said Akaev's office was on the seventh floor.
A crowd was already gathering in the main office. A well-known Kyrgyz human rights activist wearing the national cap was sitting in Akaev's chair and shouting into a megaphone that looting would not be tolerated and that there was no need to touch anything. The next room was the president's private room. On one side was a treadmill; there were books on a table and gifts from foreign leaders in a cabinet. A shattered and trampled framed photograph of Akaev and
Vladimir Putin on the bank of the Issyk-Kul lay on the floor. There was a noise from the neighboring room, where the kitchen was. The hungry young rascals were already opening the refrigerators.
“Hey, there's caviar here! You want some? Let's see… Wine, let's open it. Champagne!”
I looked at their faces, and it seemed to me that I had seen them not long ago in the crowd of blue armbands. What difference was there now, though?
I went on. Two gray-haired men carrying huge paintings taken from the conference room were coming towards me.
“Don't look at us like that. We're artists ourselves. The paintings are shit, worthless, but he really liked the frame.”
I returned to the waiting room and noticed several police officers and a severely dressed woman at the doors. They were standing as if planted there and were looking in horror at the people in the president's office. I tried to talk to them, but without success at first.
“Why do you want to know anything about me?” the woman asked me scornfully. “Better to interview those democrats'.”
”Why didn't you leave with everyone else?”
”I work here and I'm not leaving until they fire me.”
“That's right,” said an ensign standing behind her. “We're here to guard the building and we're not about to run. Do know who was the first to abandon ship?”
There were something like ten telephones on the table in front of the woman. One of them was ringing. She picked up the receiver.
“Yes? How are things? Everything's fine.”
She hung up.
“You know, I'll tell you one thing. I'm the president's secretary. And I'm a soldier. My only regret now is that they didn't give me a weapon.”
“You're Akaev's secretary? What are you doing here?” an old man shouted.
“Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Look how you're behaving. Do you have children? How will you be able to look them in the eye.”
“Why should I be ashamed? It's you and Akaev who should be ashamed. It was Akaev who drove his people to this insanity. You and he sit in warm offices, and the people swell from hunger. It's all your Akaev!” he shouted.
“No, my Akaev…,” the secretary interrupted.
“Your Akaev is shit,” said the old man, not listening.
“No! You're shit. What are you doing here?”
“People come here, and here's Akaev's secretary!”
People came running instantly, took her by both elbows, and tried to pull her out from behind the table. She was silent. The police and I and one more woman who came running up tried to take her away. One of her attackers was waving a kitchen knife. Finally, the police managed to push her into a small neighboring room. She sat in a chair and covered her face with her hands.
Bakiev soon appeared in the office. He seized the megaphone from the human rights activist and, without sitting in Akaev's chair, spoke to the crowd. He demanded that they stop the rioting and immediately disperse. He spoke in Kyrgyz and refused to repeat it all in Russian, saying that these words were not for journalists.
"Today they're celebrating, but within two days, they'll all be at either other's throats,” said a man next to me. He introduced himself as Chingiz, an expert in the economics department of the presidential administration. He had also decided not to leave. He said the women were the first to be evacuated from the White House, even before it was stormed, and Akaev, even earlier.
“If the president had been in the building, the guards would have had orders to open fire. But he left without giving the order.”
Roza Otunbaeva was wandering in the main room looking lost. She was in shock and was completely incapable of speaking.
The teenagers who had already raided the kitchen ran about breaking glass and tearing curtains. Activists of the opposition youth group KelKel were trying to act as security guards and pacify the rioters. Two cars were set on fire behind the White House. Smoke engulfed the entire building as they burned.
A meeting of opposition leaders was starting somewhere in the White House. They said Feliks Kulov was coming; he is an opposition leader and former vice president sent to prison. However, I was unable to find out where this meeting was being held. But very soon, I saw a distraught Atymbaev. He and his guards were trying to get out of the building. All the entrances were barricaded to prevent new looters from getting in. Well-dressed people were frequently encountered in the corridors shouting at the looters and vainly trying to subdue them.
“Don't write about us; there's no need. Please don't darken our revolution,” one of them begged me.
“You didn't happen to see any of the opposition leaders by any chance?” I asked, overlooking his request.
“I'm one of the opposition leaders.”
I left the White House. The demonstration was still going on in Ala-Too Square. Atymbaev was once again saying something about peace and order. Towards evening it was learned that looting had broken out in the city. They had smashed up the
Beta Stores supermarket belonging to Akaev's wife. All NK Alyans service stations owned by Akaev's son Aidar were quickly closed. All other stores also closed, and the streets became unusually dark. There was talk that parliament was just to assemble. A talk show appeared totally unexpectedly on national television. At a table in the studio sat well-known oppositionists and leaders of the KelKel youth organization. A popular state television host introduced them, as usual, in a stern, dry voice and then at the end added that these people had taken part in today's….” She made a long pause.
“… in today's events.”
The pause became even longer.
“…in today's celebration of the people's victory,” she suddenly dared to say.
The Solid Residue
An emergency sitting of the previous session of parliament began in the evening. Kurmanbek Osmonov, chief justice of the Supreme Court announced the annulment of the results of the parliamentary elections held in Kyrgyzstan on February 27 and March 13 and declared illegal the decision of the
Central Election Commission concerning the new parliament, which held its first sitting on March 22. Thus, the former parliament remained legitimate in the republic.
Parliament entrusted government functions to the Coordination Council of National Unity. General Feliks Kulov, who was freed from prison, was appointed head of the power agencies. Opposition leader Ishenbai Kadyrbekov was elected parliamentary speaker. Under the constitution, in the absence of the president and prime minister, he fulfils their duties. However, the sitting was interrupted due to the start of looting in the city. The deputies set out to calm the crowd. The question of forming a government was postponed until morning.
Meanwhile, as this issue was going to print, news agencies reported that a helicopter with Akaev on board had landed in Kazakhstan not far from Almaty. Officials in Kazakhstan would not confirm this information, but did not deny it either. According to media reports, Akaev's family had also arrived in Kazakhstan earlier.
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Askar Akaev's Counterrevolutionary Propaganda
“Certain zealous politicians have rushed to gather votes. They travel around the regions, excite the people, and force the situation. Frankly speaking, this disturbs all of us. We're not up to it. We would do better to roll up our sleeves and make our lives better” (at a meeting with workers in Chui Region on January 30, 2004).
“We must strive for harmony in the country so that Kyrgyzstan remains a tolerant and peaceful country… We must reject the political forces that are preparing scenarios approved in Georgia and Ukraine on the money of Western financial structures…” (on a television bridge with the people of Kyrgyzstan on December 25, 2004).
"The time for revolutions has passed; now is the time for constructive endeavors” (at a meeting with activists of Osh Region in January 2005).
“We have no such slogans as there were in Ukraine – 'Kuchma out!'. You won't hear the slogan 'Akaev out!' in Kyrgyzstan… Students support me. And of course, the capital supports me. Remember, in Georgia and Ukraine, the capitals were in the hands of the opposition… The Kyrgyz are hereditary nomads. And this is our advantage: there is less danger of nomads becoming infected with radial ideas (interview with Nezavisimaia Gazeta on January 28, 2005).
“There won't be any revolution or upheavals in Kyrgyzstan; there are no conditions or reasons for them in the republic…People in all corners of the republic understand the importance of stability is society…” (speech to the kurultai [opposition congress] Kyrgyzstan on February 5, 2005).
“I have recently visited many regions of the country. Meetings with residents of the republic showed that our people are in a positive mood and are interested in stability in the country; they reject any revolutionary upheavals… Unlike Georgia, we are far advanced in carrying out economic reforms” ( in a conversation with journalists on February 18, 2005).
Chronicle of the Kyrgyz Revolution
On February 27, the first round of parliamentary elections took place in Kyrgyzstan. On the following day, the Central Election Commission announced that the pro-presidential parties had won a majority of the seats in parliament.
On March 4, opposition rallies began in the country; oppositionists attempted to seized the regional administration building in Jalal-Abad
On March 10, opposition party members formed a council of national unity.
On March 13, the runoff of the parliamentary elections took place. On the following day, the Central Election Commission announced that, according to preliminary data, the pro-presidential parties had won an absolute majority in parliament.
On March 18, oppositionists seized the regional administration building in Osh, the country's second most important city.
On March 19, OMON forces liberated the regional administration building in Osh.
On March 20, oppositionists seized the airport, the regional administration building, city hall, and the Internal Affairs office in Jalal-Abad.
On March 21, the opposition occupied the regional and city administration buildings, the Internal Affairs office, and the office of Kyrgyzstan's national security service in Osh.
On March 22, the Central Election Commission announced the official results of the runoff. The first session of the new parliament began in Bishkek.
On March 23, unrest began in Bishkek.
Moscow Speaks
Mikhail Fradkov, prime minister of the Russian Federation:
“Russia is disturbed by the development of the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan. We would not like to see it resolved by forceful means.”
Sergey Ivanov, defense minister of the RF:
“The development of the internal political situation in Kyrgyzstan disturbs me. What is happening in the southern part of this country went beyond legal limits long ago. Kyrgyzstan is our ally in the Collective Security Treaty. I think the so-called opposition, which has not controlled anything for a long time, has enough sense to find the strength within itself to calm down and shift the development of the situation to a political dialog.”
Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB):
“Force, the practice of street pressure, and organized disorder are not the best means of settling political questions. An alternative to it is a peaceful, constitutional way out of the confrontation.”
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, vice-speaker of the State Duma from the LDPR faction:
“There's no point in Moscow being silent. We need to intervene and stop this Rose Revolution.”
Viktor Ozerov, head of the Federation Council committee for defense and security:
“I don't think we need to intervene in this situation. If there is an official request from the lawfully elected authorities in the person of the president or parliament, Russia may consider the question of assistance. But I would really not like to see our military resolving problems in Kyrgyzstan too. “
Mikhail Grishankov, vice-chairman of the State Duma security committee:
“I am deeply convinced that the director of these two events is located in one place, possibly in the United States. There are a lot of people who would like to depose the legitimate leaders of countries in the post-Soviet space, but in any case, in Kyrgyzstan, everything must be resolved within legal limits.”
Konstantin Zatulin, member of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs:
“Unlike Georgia and Ukraine, I believe there is no reason to suspect our new rivals in the CIS – the Americans – of having a hand in events in Kyrgyzstan. The well-known events in Georgia and Ukraine only showed the Kyrgyz opposition how to act, but the primary factor in the mass unrest were the internal disorder of this Asian country, poverty, and trouble in its southern regions.”
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