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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
KYRGYZSTAN: Southerners unhappy about more than flawed polls
OSH, 24 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - When asked why they wanted their president to go, people in Osh whom IRIN spoke to on Thursday responded that unfair elections were not the main reason. Most gave deepening poverty and unemployment, especially in the south, as the key reasons why they were prepared to risk everything on the streets in order to bring President Askar Akayev's regime down.
"Kyrgyz people by tradition are very respectful towards authorities, but even their patience has run out. We've been waiting for Akayev to do something for 15 years. Ok, he is a good scientist, but he is not a good leader and good manager. He is not able to feed his nation," Akmataly, a resident of the nearby city of Jalal-Abad, now also under opposition control, told IRIN.
A widow and mother of five from Toktogul, in central Kyrgyzstan, said: "We do not have money, we do not know how to raise our kids. Of course, if I am not sure I'll have a piece of bread every day I will rise against Akayev."
The most active protesters in Osh over the past few days hail from the poorest parts of the city. A group of residents invited IRIN in to visit their crumbling apartments and see their living conditions to illustrate why they were not satisfied with city authorities appointed by Akayev.
Many of the women protesting, and now in charge of the city, are from about 80 families who live on the outskirts of Osh without any kind of official registration. Many of them are former workers in a cotton-processing factory, which has downsized considerably since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The city's administration had ordered the families to leave the ruined houses they currently occupy. People are blaming Askar Akayev and his administration for their misery: "We do not have our own place. Now, we are eight people living in the basement of this building without gas, water, toilets or even glass windows. We are asking the authorities not to throw us back on the streets."
Another resident of the building, Kurman, said people could not wait for improvements any longer: "We are all as one against Akayev. What has he done for us in those 15 years? The cattle on farms have better living conditions."
Claims by some analysts that the current situation in Osh could provoke ethnic tensions among Kyrgyz and Uzbeks - who make up about a third of the population in the south - are not evident at present.
A group of Uzbeks protesting on the main square together with Kyrgyz neighbours, said that Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations were not under any threat: "We all want the same thing, that Askar Akayev steps down, this situation has united us, not divided us," one man from the group said while sipping hot tea from a vendor.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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