Kyrgyzstan Calling for Help to Quell Ethnic Violence

If you thought that the political arguments going on in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan faded away, think again. Kyrgyz leaders are calling on Russia to help with peacekeeping and other countries to help with humanitarian response to support its first large wave of families displaced by violence. See these videos linked here from Rayhan Dmitrye with the BBC.

Although most Kyrgyz are peaceful people looking for friendship with the world, democracy, and economic viability for their otherwise gorgeous and fertile country, there was a relatively brief battle in April over the conduct of government. Now, sadly, extremists may be using the environment of uncertainty to provoke violence in other parts of the country, namely Osh, near the border with Uzbekistan.

David Trilling over at Eurasianet.org writes on how the long-grumbling radical, possibly Al Qaeda-linked, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) rebel force, may or may not have to do with this second outbreak of violence in Kyrgyzstan.

Confused? Let's break down the situation and what the U.S. options are. Kyrgyzstan 101:

Central Asians are mostly all Muslim by identity, but their practice became generally very moderate when Russia conquered their territories and then transformed into the Soviet Union. Among the Central Asian Muslim groups were the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz living beside each other. Their Turkic language is very similar but distinct; there is just enough nationalist ideology for some people to highlight distinctions for political purposes.

When the Soviet Union drew its state borders, leaders not only awarded the large ethnic groups their own states but (many sources are now convinced) intentionally drew the borders so that each ethnic group straddled borders rather than remained confined within them, so as to raise the costs associated with declaring independence. So there are some Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan and some Kyrgyz in Uzbekistan.

After independence from the Soviet Union, some Central Asians decided to have Islamic revivals. Some revivals were moderate, others extreme. The governments, particularly the Uzbek government, were so worried about Islamic radicalism, particularly after their neighbor Tajikistan fell into a bloody civil war, that they sometimes outlawed or discriminated against the more radical Islamic parties and groups.

This gave those repressed groups the motivation to seek support outside Central Asia, some may have received support from Al Qaeda. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan began bombing police stations throughout the Fergana valley, which their country shares with Kyrgyzstan, but until recently Kyrgyzstan stayed peaceful.

In April 2010, after voters became severely divided over whether their first democratic leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, had turned corrupt, riots ensued, eventually leading to the ouster of Bakiyev. The country, for only the third time since independence, was faced with uncertainty.

For the most part, the population is calm and hoping for a new election and new leadership. But this week, ethnic riots between gangs claiming Uzbek and Kyrgyz identity broke out in the city of Osh, killing about 40 and displacing hundreds, maybe thousands.

Some fear that the IMU or some other group is provoking the violence. If talks happen quickly, with the two governments, and perhaps Russia, local leaders believe greater violence can be prevented. But if the fighting groups carry out any provocative ethnic murders, it could ignite a war between local militias across the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border.

What can the U.S. do? Some Russian observers believe that the U.S. funding of democracy groups and journalists, seen as political conversion colonialism by some in the East, was responsible for much of the violence because it may have encouraged mass protests and government crack downs on anti-democrats and Islamic radicals.

However, most locals are in the middle, wanting democracy and free journalism, but just not American puppetry. Now with the new wave of violence, the Kyrgyz government has decided to split their chances, calling specifically on Russia for peacekeeping and negotiation help, but only calling on the U.S. and other countries for rapid humanitarian aid and local level conflict mitigation support.

Concerned Americans can pressure their congressional representatives, the state department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to raise Kyrgyzstan on the priority list - for conflict prevention aid - and/or donate to international aid and human rights agencies responding on the ground. [See a list of updates and humanitarian activities and organizations here.]

Photo credit: Onar Vikingstad (Statue of Lenin still standing in Osh square, Kyrgyzstan)