Agence France Press
BISHKEK July 5-It may not have the natural resources of its
neighbors, but as Kyrgyzstan prepares to go to presidential
polls on Sunday, competing powers are eyeing the tiny republic
as an ideal outpost for their strategic interests.
Located at the crossroads of energy-rich and authoritarian
Central Asia, west of China's rapidly expanding economy and
north of a restless Islamic world, the weakness of tiny
Kyrgyzstan has made it an easy target for competing powers,
analysts say.
With just days left before the presidential vote, the United
States, Russia and China are watching the interim leadership
of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan closely, as the country continues
to be wracked by instability following the March ouster of
veteran leader Askar Akayev.
"This used to be a distant corner in a great empire but today
it is the focal point for the attention of many states," said
Muratbek Imanaliev, the Soviet Union's former ambassador to
China and Kyrgyzstan's ex-foreign minister.
The United States already has an airbase used for its military
operations in Afghanistan here, while Russia hopes to upgrade
its presence in the republic with a second airbase that it claims
it needs to combat terrorism.
Interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev recently made overtures to
Moscow, Kyrgyzstan's former overlord, in local media, saying
military cooperation with Russia was "developing successfully,"
while the US airbase would likely be shut "after the situation
in Afghanistan stabilizes."
The two countries' military presence on China's western flank is
sure to irritate Beijing, which has focused its efforts on
securing oil deals with Kyrgyzstan's giant neighbor Kazakhstan.
But the presence of foreign forces in Kyrgyzstan is also becoming an
issue at home.
"Some of the countries surrounding Kyrgyzstan view the bases as a
threat, which makes them a real threat to us, because fighting the
bases means fighting Kyrgyzstan," Imanaliev said.
"Now we're a target," said the former diplomat.
Historically more liberal than its neighbors Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan, this country is the location of choice for the
regional offices of a host of western-backed pro-democracy groups
and aid organizations.
The country has in effect become a testing ground for regime change
elsewhere in Central Asia, both by setting an example with its March
revolution and as a regional center for influencing opposition groups
in neighboring states.
"The Americans were ready for the devil himself to come to power here
as long as it wasn't Akayev," said a source close to Kyrgyzstan's
interim president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is set to win Sunday's vote.
"They needed to set a precedent for regime change in Central Asia."
"They couldn't care less about Kyrgyzstan itself, they're working on
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we are important as a trigger that can
detonate the situation," the source said.
Mindful of the events in Kyrgyzstan, where thousands of demonstrators
stormed the government building to depose Akayev on March 24, its
neighbors have cooled their relations with the country and instituted
a crackdown on internal opposition groups.
In the Uzbek city of Andijan in May, police fired on protestors killing
several hundred people according to rights groups, while Kazakhstan has
put forward draconian proposals to restrict the activities of
non-governmental organizations and religious groups.
Both Russia and China publicly backed Uzbekistan's authoritarian leader
Islam Karimov after Andijan amid widespread Western condemnation of the
events as a massacre.
Tashkent has hinted it could impose sanctions on Kyrgyzstan if Bishkek
refuses to extradite hundreds of refugees who fled events in Andijan
back to Uzbekistan, which considers them to be Muslim extremists.
But the United Nations has warned that Kyrgyzstan may not receive
development aid if it deports the refugees back to a country where
torture is said by rights groups to be endemic.
"We've been pushed into a complicated situation," Kyrgyzstan's acting
foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva said last week.
