Akayev may soon sign a law that appears to grant impunity to police officers who may have fired on fleeing civilians in the Ak-Sui riots. Parliament passed the law, which grants amnesty to all the March riot's participants, on June 28 as a way of avoiding civil war. But many human rights activists and residents in the south are furious over provisions in the law that grant impunity to police officers and other officials. State media reported on July 24 that investigations into officers' conduct are continuing and that some protestors- all of whom support dissident parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov- are refusing to cooperate with investigators. But some local observers suggest that Parliament designed the law to protect some high-ranking officials who are personally responsible for the crisis. They also argue that, rather than averting civil war, the law will degrade Kyrgyz society by absolving criminals who had received sentences before the riots.
Ramazan Dyryldaev, who heads the Kygyz Commission on Human Rights, issued a statement on July 24 declaring the government imbalanced. He quoted a May 24 speech by Akayev in which the president urged authorities to avoid acting as if opposition members "serve a different nation" and hinted strongly that peace would not obtain until Akayev steps aside. One week earlier, some 17,000 people gathered in the village of Boz-piek to dedicate a monument in memory of the six people killed in Ak-Sui. Meeting participants demanded the annullment of the amnesty law and urged the government to hold perpetrators of the tragic events accountable. Dyryldaev described such moves as "the real price of equilibrium" and implied that Akayev would not own up to it.
The law, which passed the upper chamber of Parliament five days after the lower house approved it, has failed to quell social tensions. While it absolves all individuals involved in the Ak-Sui events and subsequent public protests, including the blocking of the main highway in Jalalabad, the law also contemplates releasing people imprisoned for a wide range of other crimes. If the president signs the law, women and juveniles who were sentenced up to seven years for first offenses will go free, as will men and women who are close to the retirement age. Prisoners with less than a year left to serve, with tuberculosis, and with their financial crimes recompensed will also go free. Kyrgyz justice has long faced accusations of being arbitrary, and Beknazarov's jailing prompted the Ak-Sui protests. [For background, see the Eurasia Insight archives.] Still, the amnesty measure does not seem to satisfy the public that the government acknowledges the legitimacy of dissent.
Perhaps because the law works through amnesty rather than setting up measures to protect free speech, heated debates and protests erupted as parliamentarians began discussing it in early June. About 5,000 people took part in a meeting in Kerben on June 29 to protest the law. Human Rights Movement of Kyrgyzstan Chairman Tursunbek Akunov told RFE/RL that day that Beknazarov's loyalists were prepared to demand the dissolution of Parliament and had started to plan a march to Bishkek in September. Aziza Abdrasulova of the Guild of Prisoners of Conscience told local media outlets that relatives of the people killed in Ak-Sui wanted to take actions against policemen who opened fire.
Parliament passed provisions protecting police while Jalalabad police were staging a rally protesting low wages. This rally, the first of its kind in Kyrgyzstan's 11-year history, began on 27 June and attracted about 1,500 police officers from all over the region, according to the oppositionist weekly Delo N. Among other things, the protesters demanded the adoption of the amnesty law granting immunity to all police officers who entered the fray in Ak-Sui. The rally ended on July 1 after parliament adopted the amnesty law and the deputy minister of internal affairs, Rasul Raimberdiyev, promised to consider the officers' demands within a month, according to local media reports.
But the rally left the government in a painful position. Parliament appeared to bow to a police force that many residents mistrust, with no guarantee that these concessions will placate officers for long. "The Kyrgyz police[system] is in big crisis now," said Akilbek, a Bishkek merchant. "Because the government doesn't pay their miserable salaries for months and still expects them to enforce the law, many [police] officers extort money from ordinary people, harass citizens, foreigners and even shoot at their own people." While Akayev introduced law-enforcement reform measures in April, it is unclear how the government will structure and implement such reform. Some observers say the administration pressured the legislature to adopt the amnesty law as a way of showing deference to the police.
But the law's repercussions may reach higher levels. "The amnesty law was much needed to protect several high-ranking officials whose names were mentioned in the [May 18] report of the State Commission [on Investigation of Aksy events led by Nikolai Tanaev]," said a government official who requested anonymity. "Among them were senior police officials and cabinet members." The report linked the bloodshed to Beknazarov's detention and advised the government to punish several local, provincial and national officials, including prosecutors in Kerben and Jalalabad. Commision head Tanaev became prime minister in a June shake-up. Despite his report, oppositionist MPs and human rights activists blame Akayev and several of his former cabinet members for allowing violence between police and protesters.
So rather than negotiate on the amnesty law, some prominent dissidents are threatening to bring Akayev before a higher authority. "Sooner or later, we will take Akayev and all his [clique] to the [International Criminal] Court for crimes against the people of Kyrgyzstan," former Erkindek party chairman and two-time political prisoner Topchubek Turgunaliev told a June 26 press conference. Such talk shows how the amnesty law has stirred human rights and civil society leaders. Observers say that Turgunaliev and Beknazarov are leading their supporters into a sharp conflict with more moderate civil-society leaders. Some parliament opposition members have reportedly supported the amnesty law as a tool for the reconciliation of Kyrgyz society. Turgunaliev and oppositionist journalists have criticized this group in recent statements.
So while the amnesty law seems to have divided the opposition and quieted the police, the government is unlikely to rest easy. According to some local analysts, further public protests and demonstrations are likely in the next several weeks, and Ak-Sui residents are reportedly still planning to march on Bishkek in September. Some observers worry that the law will aggravate more political tension and even violence as potent officials escape judgement. Others worry about the release of imprisoned criminals. " Given that there are no rehabilitation structures for [amnestied criminals] and scarce economic opportunities, it is very likely that crime rates will skyrocket in the next few months," says Khusanboy Solived of Osh. Whatever quiet the amnesty law brings cannot necessarily last outlast citizens' concerns about the March violence.
Alisher Khamidov is currently Muskie
Fellowship sponsored Intern at the NEH Summer Institute on
Eurasian Civilizations at Harvard University.
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