Sons were catapulted into key positions by Kyrgyz leader forced to flee office
By Shaun Walker
April 10 2010
Residents of Bishkek yesterday flocked to the city’s main square to remember the dozens of people who died in Wednesday’s violence. But grief was tinged with anger at ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who authorised troops to shoot on demonstrating civilians.
Mr Bakiyev fled to the south of the country as his government fell. Many in Bishkek hope that he, and his hated sons, will not return. The ousted president has denounced the revolution, which led to government offices being torched and looted, as a foreign-backed coup and told The Independent after fleeing that he still has the support of the majority of the country.
However, the mood on the streets yesterday suggests that he is out of touch with a people furious at his authoritarianism, corruption and nepotism. More than anything, it was the catapulting of his sons and brothers into senior state positions that angered ordinary Kyrgyz. It is telling that while interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has said Mr Bakiyev will be guaranteed safe passage out of the country if he capitulates, no such offer has been extended to his family members.
The country’s new prosecutor-general yesterday announced that a case was being prepared against Maxim Bakiyev, the president’s son and the most reviled man in the country.
Aged 32, he was, many suspect, being groomed to succeed his father. He headed a specially created agency to manage the hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian loan money, called the Central Agency for the Development of Investment and Innovation.
Critics noted that the Russian abbreviation for the agency sounded remarkably like “Tsar” – which is exactly what many in the country thought Mr Bakiyev behaved like.
“Even in the name of this agency, the ambitions of the Bakiyev sons for power were clear,” said Daniil Kislov, the editor-in-chief of the respected Fergana.ru website.
“They helped their father usurp power, and also seized various different businesses.
“They directly gave orders to put pressure on journalists, politicians, oppositionists and even members of parliament who opposed them. Many of these people had to leave Kyrgyzstan, and some of them were killed.”
Last December, Gennady Pavlyuk, a prominent Kyrgyz journalist who had often criticised the authorities, died after falling from an upper-storey apartment window on a trip to neighbouring Kazakhstan. Earlier last year, Medet Sardykulov, a former head of Mr Bakiyev’s administration, who had gone into opposition, was found dead in his car on the outskirts of Bishkek.
One of Mr Bakiyev’s key platforms when he came to power in the so-called Tulip Revolution in 2005 was that he would end the nepotism with which the ousted Askar Akayev had ruled. But politics came full circle, and in recent months his opponents have accused his regime of being even more corrupt and authoritarian. In addition to Maxim, Mr Bakiyev’s other son, Marat, and three of his brothers all held senior positions in the government.
After the uprising, Mr Bakiyev defended his family and insisted that he had put them in senior positions because of their experience.
“Maxim has an excellent knowledge of business, finance, and foreign languages, and was highly qualified to do the job he was doing,” he told The Independent. “Many of my relatives have had positions in the government for years, even before I came to power. They are highly qualified people.”
This is unlikely to placate his opponents. Prosecutors say they have testimony showing that it was he who ordered troops to fire on the protesters. Whether they will have the chance to prove this in court is unclear. Maxim Bakiyev is said to have departed for the United States shortly after the demonstrations started.
There were rumours spreading yesterday that in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad, Mr Bakiyev was readying supporters to stir further violence. Ms Otunbayeva insisted that the country would not spiral into civil war. “We have enough resources and capabilities and all the people’s support that we need,” she said. Source
The Death toll apparently has reached 79. Approximately 1,400 have been injured.
April 09, 2010 — Kyrgyzstan is holding a day of national mourning for the victims of bloody protests which ousted the government.
The first funerals are being held for those who died in the unrest which forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the capital.
Mr Bakiyev has refused to resign but has offered to talk to the opposition, which has set up an interim government.
But interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has said she has no plans to negotiate with Mr Bakiyev and demanded he stand down.
Both the US and Russia have key military bases in Kyrgyzstan, and are watching the situation there closely.
The US says it has now resumed normal operations at its Manas base after military flights were suspended on Wednesday.
The deputy head of the interim government, Almazbek Atambayev, has gone to Moscow “for talks on economic aid”, the government said in a statement.
‘Never forgive’
Thousands of mourners gathered in the main square of the capital, Bishkek, on Friday to remember those killed in Wednesday’s violence
Kyrgyz pray as they gather to mourn revolt victims on central square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Friday, April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Kyrgyz people mourn revolt victims on central square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Friday, April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergey Grits)
Related
Kyrgyzstan: Thousands of protesters furious over corruption 40 deaths over 400 injured/Updated April 9 2010
Recent
Injured people by a NATO airstrike are brought to a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (AP Photo)
September 7 2009 Child being treated in hospital.
A wounded man is transported in a taxi to a hospital after an airstrike killed scores of people in Kunduz September 4, 2009. REUTERS/Wahdat
A Doctor treats an injured full of burns, of NATO air strike, at a hospital, in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (AP Photo)
Afghan hospital workers carry an injured Afghan villager in hospital after Friday’s NATO air strike in northern Kunduz September 4, 2009. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
Rahmatullah, 19, a victim of Friday’ NATO air strike, tries to sit up on his bed in a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
An Afghan doctor in a regional hospital treats a villager injured in Friday’s NATO air strike in northern Kunduz September 4, 2009. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
An Afghan villager injured lies in hospital after Friday’s NATO air strike on a Taliban target in northern Kunduz September 4, 2009.
Afghan police inspect the site of an airstrike in Kunduz September 4, 2009. NATO aircraft opened fire on hijacked fuel trucks in Afghanistan before dawn on Friday. REUTERS/Wahdat
Afghani policemen look at one of two burnt fuel tankers, near Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009.
Afghans bury some of the victims of an airstrike in a mass grave near Kunduz September 4, 2009.setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people on Friday in northern Afghanistan when NATO aircraft struck hijacked fuel tankers as villagers came to collect fuel, Afghan officials said. REUTERS/Stringer
Local Afghani people bury their villagers killed in a NATO air strike, in a mass grave near Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (AP Photo)
Local Afghani people burry their villagers killed in a NATO airstrike, in a mass grave near Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (AP Photo)
An Afghan child, who was wounded by coalition airstrikes in the Zerko area of Shindand district stands with his father at a hospital in the city of Herat province southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, July 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)
Two American soldiers are escorted a detainee in fob Robinson who is going to be flown back to Kandahar base in a Chinook for further questioning.
Private Dan Burris of the 82nd Airborne’s 1/508 Parachute Infantry Regiment, Alpha Company, Third Platoon kicks in a door after staging a nighttime air assault into Sangin, Helmand province, the largest air assault in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war, on Thursday, April 5, 2007.
Afghan demonstrators gather at a demonstration as black smoke billows from burning tires in the background, following a U.S. operation on their village in Qarabagh district of Ghazni, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad)
Afghan men surround a child who was wounded by air strikes as he lays in a hospital after he was transported from Helmand to Kandahar province for treatment on Saturday, July 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)
Afghan boy in Aasad Abad
Tala 9, an Afghan girl who was wounded in coalition air strike on Monday night in Bala Baluk district of Farah province recovers in a hospital in Herat, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 9, 2009. A joint U.S.-Afghan investigation has found that civilians were killed during a battle in southern Afghanistan, but officials have not been able to determine how many.(AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)
Haji Barkat Ullah speaks with her daughter Frishta, 7, who was wounded in coalition air strike on Monday night in Bala Baluk district of Farah province recovers in a hospital in Herat, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 9, 2009. A joint U.S.-Afghan investigation has found that civilians were killed during a battle in southern Afghanistan, but officials have not been able to determine how many. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)
Afghan paramedics treat a wounded Afghan boy in a hospital after he was wounded in a roadside bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Saturday, April 18, 2009. A roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle in Kandahar city killed a woman and wounded five other people including three civilians, said Abdullah Khan, the provincial deputy police chief.(AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)
The body of an infant boy who died after a military raid is seen in a village in Gurbuz district of Khost province April 9, 2009. U.S. and Afghan forces killed four militants, including two women, and detained three others on Wednesday near Khost city, some 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Kabul, U.S. forces said in a statement. But local residents disputed the military’s account, saying five civilians, a female teacher, her son, brother in-law and two more non-combatants were killed in the raid. Another woman was wounded, they said. REUTERS/Kamal Sadat
Afghan villagers pray opposite the bodies of victims of an earthquake, during a funeral in Sherzad district, Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, April 17, 2009. Two earthquakes shook eastern Afghanistan early Friday, collapsing mud-brick homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21 people. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Did You Know 