Former speaker of the Kyrgyz parliament Omurbek Tekebaev
Photo: ITAR-TASS
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Kyrgyz State Security Botches Frame
The leadership of the National Security Service of Kyrgyzstan resigned yesterday. Their departure is a consequence of an unsuccessful attempt to discredit popular opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev, former speaker of parliament and head of the For Reform movement. Kyrgyz authorities have thus practically admitted that that agency, and President Kurmanbek Bakiev's brother Zhanysh in particular, was behind smear effort. Zhanysh Bakiev has been deputy security chief since last autumn. The country's president signed the order dismissing him yesterday after promising to do so if his involvement in the scandal was proven. Security service head Busurmankul Tabaldiev resigned shortly thereafter. To add to the government's problems, information has surfaced that Boris Berezovsky visited the country in late July. If that information is confirmed, it will also be a blow to the president.
Tekebaev was detained in the Warsaw airport on September 6 after almost 600 grams of heroin was found in his possession at customs. He was released with apologies two days later after Polish authorities discovered that Tekebaev is an opposition leader “in a country where the battle for democracy is not yet finished and that may be the reason for which narcotics were intentionally placed into his baggage.” The Kyrgyz public largely agreed with the Poles, and Kyrgyz officials were quick to disavow their involvement in the incident. Kyrgyz Prime minister Felix Kulov called for the president to form a special government commission to investigate it.
The Kyrgyz parliament held a special session on the day of Tekebaev's release at which a videotape from Manas Airport in Bishkek taken on September 5 that showed airport personnel separating Tekebaev's suitcase from those of this traveling companions, member of parliament Yury Kornilov and professor of law Zainitdin Kurmanov, and returning it 14 minutes later. Head of airport security Nadyr Mamyrov provided the parliament with a statement saying that Zhanysh Bakiev personally ordered the bag removed.
Hundreds of well-wishers and dozens of journalists met Tekebaev when he returned to Bishkek late at night. “We were lucky that the national security organs made the mistake of not erasing the security tapes at Manas Airport,” Tekebaev commented and denied that the scandal was arranged by the opposition to discredit the national security organs and president. Later For Reform spokesman Melis Eshimkanov said that the movement would hold a demonstration on September 17 to demand the president's resignation.
Eshimkanov also declared at yesterday's parliamentary session that scandal-ridden oligarch Boris Berezovsky secretly visited the country on July 29 and 30 and met with President Bakiev and his son Maxim, who is reported to be the richest person in Kyrgyzstan. Under international agreements, Kyrgyzstan should have detained Berezovsky at the airport and handed him over to Russia, which has long been demanding his extradition from Great Britain. A group of deputies introduced a resolution into the parliament to demand the president's resignation. The parliament will vote on it on Thursday. Former government officials suggest that Bakiev will not leave office “without a fight.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 13, 2006
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