Riot police surround a street demonstration on November 7, 2006 in Bishkek organized by the opposition party "For Reforms!", which demanded the resignation of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Prime Minister Felix Kulov.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Kyrgyz Constitution Taken to the Streets
// Supporters and Opponents of Kyrgyz Authorities Clash in Bishkek
Yesterday riots broke out in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, between supporters and opponents of the country's government. The opposition convened a constituent assembly and adopted a new constitution, which the Kyrgyz president and prime minister called an usurpation of power. For a whole day, Kommersant correspondent Mikhail Zygar followed the attempts of the politicians to escape the crisis with the help of consultations and the attempts of their supporters to do the same – but by means of stones and bottles.
The Night of Victory
"What's going on? We aren't calling them for a drinking binge or for a holiday! We're calling them so that new constitution can be adopted! This is a historical moment! How can they not understand?" raged young Omurbek Babanov, a member of the opposition and the main "DJ" for the thousands-strong protest that took place on Monday demanding the president's resignation and the reform of the constitution. The hour was inching towards two o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, but the parliamentary deputies still had not succeeded in convening a quorum to undertake the constitution project.
"Go find them and convince them to come here," said a colleague of Deputy Babanov's.
It was decided that the speaker and two other parliamentarians would be dispatched to round up the absent deputies. That left 45 people in the room: 50 were needed to constitute a quorum.
The situation was a repeat of an earlier attempt on the constitution: on Monday morning, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev introduced his own project for constitutional amendments that would expand his powers. But the opposition members refused to attend the parliamentary session, depriving the president of a quorum, and that discussion of the constitution never happened. During the night, just the opposite occurred: buoyed by popular support, the deputies decided to immediately adopt their own constitution project, which was worked out a year ago and which would seriously limit the power of the president. But this time it was Kurmanbek Bakiyev's strongest supporters who refused to attend.
Towards 2 A.M. it became clear that a quorum would never be reached. Not only that, but deputies were actually leaving. Parliamentary speaker Marat Sutalinov, who had left ostensibly to find the missing deputies, himself didn't return. Ishak Masaliyev, the leader of the communist party and the son of the last secretary of the Communist Republic of Kyrgyzia, announced that he is not opposed to a new constitution but that he did not want to sit around all night and that he does not like it when people pressure him. And then he left as well.
Several deputies went to the suburban residence of President Bakiyev but were refused entrance by guards, who said that the president was sleeping. Then the deputies, calling themselves a constituent assembly, decided to adopt the new constitution regardless of whether they had a quorum or not. The chairpersons of the Superior and Constitutional Courts, who supported the desire of the members of the newly-minted constituent assembly to adopt a constitution, were immediately summoned to the parliament
"An extraordinary situation has arisen in the country. As such, corresponding measures must be taken," said Constitutional Court chief Cholpon Bayekova.
Her presence inspired the deputies, who first voted unanimously to create a constituent assembly before coming forward one by one to sign the new constitution. Around twenty of the deputies in attendance were considered the opposition's stalwarts; the rest were supporters of President Bakiyev who came forward to sign the document slowly and reluctantly. In order to make sure that – come morning and after a conversation with the presidential administration – they wouldn't decide to change their minds, Kurmanbek Baibolov, the deputy chairing the meeting, forced each of the signatories to have a picture taken for posterity.
"You don't think that tomorrow morning your constituent assembly will be called an attempted revolt against the government?" I asked Omurbek Babanov.
"No, no," he said, yawning hugely and glancing at his watch, which showed 4 A.M. "And anyway you yourself heard Cholpon Bayekova say that what we're doing is legal."
As the deputies left the parliament building, they were met by some two thousand demonstrators near the exit.
"Good work!" chanted the demonstrators.
The Morning of Truth
At 11 o'clock on Tuesday morning, President Bakiyev and Prime Minister Felix Kulov convened a press conference.
"Away from the eyes of the people, under the cover of darkness, having amended the rights of citizens, a group of deputies attempted to illegally grab power for themselves," said President Bakiyev. Looking faintly perplexed, he added that the only way out of the crisis is "the immediate implementation of the appropriate procedures with the participation of all political factions." He also declared that he does not intend to dissolve parliament, though the constitution gives him the power to do so.
As usual, Prime Minister Kulov presented a more decisive face: "[The opposition deputies] have attempted to usurp power, and we will take all legal measures to prevent a division of the country."
The strangeness of the situation was exemplified by the fact that not long ago all of the current leaders of the opposition considered themselves supporters of Felix Kulov and looked to him as their leader. Knowing of several differences of opinion between the president and the prime minister, the opposition had counted on Mr. Kulov at some point challenging Kurmanbek Bakiyev and joining their side. But that never happened: instead, Prime Minister Kulov actively took the part of his former rival Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
"We have received signals from the population that many residents of the city would like to hold a street protest against the creation of the constituent assembly. And we cannot forbid them from doing so," said Mr. Kulov. "So law enforcement officers will do everything in their power to not allow these protests to clash."
By that time, 41 deputies had already signed the constituent assembly's version of the constitution.
A Day of Blood
Large numbers of people began gathering early on Bishkek's Ala-Too Square: November 7 was a holiday in Kyrgyzstan, meaning that many of the city's residents attended the opposition protest together with their families. After listening to speeches and hearing cries of "Ketsen Bakiyev! Ketsen Kulov!" (Down with Bakiyev! Down with Kulov!"), people began to move off down an alleyway leading past the Historical Museum to Stary ("Old") Square, a five minute walk away, where President Bakiyev's supporters were holding their own demonstration.
There around a thousand people had gathered, but most of the activity came from two hundred or so young men in tracksuits. They stood in groups, each group surrounding an older man in a suit, looking like players on a team surrounding their coach at a tournament.
The main organizer of the pro-Bakiyev demonstration on Stary Square was Topchubek Turgunaliyev, a former police officer and the current leader of the pro-presidential party "Erkindyk." An elderly man in a traditional Kyrgyz hat, Turgunaliyev stood on the steps of the parliament next to a sign saying "The people and Bakiyev are one!" and gave an incendiary speech.
"It was I who began the revolution against [deposed Kyrgyz president Askar] Akayev, not them! They have appropriated the right to call themselves members of the opposition! Omurbek Tekebayev is nothing but the kuiruk (tail) of Akayev! Kurmanbek Bakiyev did away with Akayev's regime, and they want to bring Akayev back! Shame!"
"Shame!" cried the two hundred husky youths.
The members of the opposition, whom I had seen just a year and a half ago bring about a revolution together with Topchubek Turgunaliyev and who had stood with him on the same soapbox, were now gathered on the neighboring Ala-Too Square.
"They're saying on television that Omurbek Tekebayev is Akayev's kuiruk! But that's nonsense! It's not true! The real kuiruk of Akayev is Kurmanbek Bakiyev!" cried Deputy Melis Eshimkanov from the speaker's platform on Ala-Too.
Like the day before, a column of opposition protestors again headed for the White House, where the situation was relaxed. Police and national guardsmen, who the day before had stood guard over the presidential palace, were now lying sprawled impressively out on the lawn, propped against the shields that they were supposed to use to push back the demonstrators.
Realizing that the protestors lacked drive, the "DJ of the Bishkek Maidan" (Maidan Square in Kiev is where participants in the Orange Revolution gathered) Omurbek Babanov decided to fire them up again.
"There on Stary Square, at the counterprotest, stand our brothers and sisters. We should go to them and explain what we want and what we are fighting for. We should try to attract them to our ranks."
In a flash, the column of protestors darted off after the truck on which young Deputy Babanov was standing. The procession skirted the Historical Museum and began to approach Stary Square. Seeing the demonstrators approaching, the police began to form up in a line in order to divide the two crowds. From afar, Omurbek Babanov had already begun to appeal to the participants in the counterprotest when plastic bottles filled with water began to fly at him. He immediately jumped down from the truck. The pro-Bakiyev crowd began to throw rocks, and the opposition demonstrators responded in turn with stones and bottles. The police came running and started pushing the two crowds back. Two grenades exploded loudly somewhere on the right. With their shields, policemen began pushing the opposition demonstrators off the square. Both crowds pressed forward while chains of riot police in masks and bulletproof vests attempted to hold them back. A minute later, several grenades were thrown in the direction of the monument to Lenin towards which the policemen were driving the opposition demonstrators, and the area filled with smoke.
"Gas!" cried the arrivals from Ala-Too. Some ran back. Those who hadn't yet arrived at the monument, however, threw themselves forward towards the police and the counterprotestors standing behind them.
For around half an hour, utter confusion reigned on Stary Square. Then I managed to squeeze between two rows of the police chain. The riot police were holding the crowds back at a distance of two meters from each other.
"Ketsen! Ketsen!" chanted the crowd to the right of me, which had come from Ala-Too Square.
"Bakiyev! Bakiyev!" shouted those on the left, who had been on Stary Square all along.
A man in civilian clothes, surrounded by ten officers, was heading in my direction. I ran to meet him.
"I'm from the newspaper Kommersant. Who are you? What's going on here?"
"I'm the head of the National Security Services. And I don't talk to the press."
"But who provoked the use of force?"
"The opposition! Did you not see how that column headed by Tekebayev came this way, to the square? Why? It was obvious that would lead to a confrontation!"
"What means are you using to stop the confrontation?"
"Only gas grenade launchers."
"And how many forces are on the square?"
"You'll have to ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs about that, these are internal troops. Hey, don't push, don't push!" The head of the security services took off in the direction of a scuffle that had broken out between opposition protestors and police.
"We won!" announced an orator from the speaker's platform. "The leaders of the opposition have gotten scared and run off. Are you listening?" he shrieked to the supporters of the opposition. "Omurbek Tekebayev has fled the city!"
The counterprotestors roared their approval, just as those in the opposition crowd had the day before when they were told that Kurmanbek Bakiyev had left town.
I fought my way out of the square in order to check on how things were going in the opposition's camp. On neighboring Ala-Too Square, Omurbek Tekebayev stood on the speaker's platform as if nothing had happened. As I was walking away, the crowd in front of Tekebayev struck up a triumphantly victorious national song, "Kyrgyzstan! Kyrgyzstan!", which the day before had practically become the de facto anthem of the opposition – they must have sung it at least a hundred times during the protest near the White House.
Nevertheless, the mood on Ala-Too was less than triumphant. Ambulance sirens could be heard: eight injured people were taken away. Some in the crowd muttered that two of them had gunshot wounds, while others maintained that the police had used only rubber bullets.
"This is a provocation! The police used force against us! They have attacked their own people! Kulov decided to break up our demonstration! Come tonight to the square to defend our tent city. They're going to try to drive us out of here," came the cry from the speaker's platform.
Omurbek Tekebayev brought a child of about seven years of age out onto the stage.
"I ran, and they beat me" – the boy swallowed his tears. "The policemen beat me. But I'm still not afraid of you, Bakiyev!"
I shouldered my way out of the crowd and left the square. The opposition protestors were going into the yurt that housed their headquarters in order to discuss a plan for further action. Closer to evening, they planned to begin a session of a conciliatory commission: the deputies were gearing up to battle for the constitution.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 08, 2006
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