Kyrgyzstan: The Freedom March Stops Here

Media types and a few on the right are fully expecting the revolutions that flourished in Georgia and Ukraine to continue to the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. Right now opposition protests against the government have persisted for several weeks in the wake of election fraud allegations. In the south of the country, opposition leaders have taken over government buildings. In the capital of Bishkek and the north, very little has been accomplished. The government of President Askar Akayev sent the riot police out yesterday to break up the Bishkek protest, and named a hardliner as the new head of security.

Akayev has already sworn in the Parliament (whose election is being questioned), and they are on the verge of passing emergency-rule legislation, which will allow force to disperse the protestors and restore order. Akayev is believed to be a tyrant by the opposition, through he's a term-limited one (one thing the protestors allege is that he'll get his compliant Parliament to amend the constitution and allow him a third term). What's funny is that Akayev used to be the reformer in Central Asia, though his intolerance of dissent is clearly troubling, particularly the shooting of 6 peaceful protestors in 2002.

This was the money graph for me in the AP article:

Kyrgyz politics is heavily clan-based, and Akayev has strong support in his native north. If the fractured opposition can carry its protests north across the mountain range bisecting the country and toward the capital, Bishkek, tensions could explode in a strategically important country where both the United States and Russia have military bases.

We have a base there? Well, yes.

The United States operates a military base, used for refueling planes in Afghanistan, outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, about 200 miles north of Osh.

To me, this seems like where we get off the freedom boat. The US has been pretty silent on this issue, only going so far as to call for calm and negotiations. By the way, this statement came out of the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan, not the State Department. Way to go out on the limb there, guys.

The fact that we have already achieved military basing there seems to me to be a big reason why we're letting this play out and stressing calm. The world of realpolitik dictates that sometimes it's better to have order than democracy. By purportedly putting democracy at the head of foreign policy goals, we come up against ourselves in places like Kyrgyzstan. We're using their airport as a combat operations point of departure. Why do they need freedom now? Maybe this case will make people realize that "freedom" to this foreign policy crew means "the freedom to do what we want."

Russia has a clear interest in keeping the Kyrgys in line, and is definitely moving to do so. Our relative silence merely props up the "don't leave Mother Russia" view.

By the way, Kyrgyzstan is in a prime region for Islamic fundamentalism, and neighbors Uzbekistan, which may have the worst human rights record on the planet. I guess that doesn't mean anything to us. After all, we already have a base!