The aftermath of the Aksy events in Kyrgyzstan has called for discussion because of their ambiguous interpretation by the two poles of the political system of the country. Two citizen’s gatherings were scheduled within a three-day period in the middle of April. The idea to initiate a Kurultai (People\'s Congress) was announced right after six people were shot and dozens injured on March 17-18 in the Aksy district of the Jalal-Abad region., and included the presentation of the findings of the independent commission on the investigation of the bloodshed. The Kurultai was organized by the opposition parties and human rights organizations. A second initiative, the ‘People\'s forum’ was announced a week before it began by The People\'s Assembly of Kyrgyzstan, representing members of Kyrgyzstan\'s numerous nationalities and the Association of Non-Profit Organizations, an organization that only appears when there is a need for an alternative to the opposition, as happened in October 2000, when Presidential elections took place and this organization trained observers for the elections in order to replace the observers of Coalition of NGOs, which was prohibited from monitoring because of its foreign funding.

1,000 delegates from different groups including government officials, NGOs and media took part in the forum. It took place in the Philarmonia building, since it could host such a large number of people. Most of the opposition leaders ignored the forum, stating that it was a government alternative to the Kurultai. The participants of the forum discussed the situation in the country, and blamed certain opposition-minded individuals for destabilizing the situation in Kyrgyzstan. According to Radio Free Liberty Kyrgyz Service, when Klara Ajibekova, communist politician, attempted to allege responsibility of the government for the bloodshed, her microphone was turned off. The main achievement of the forum was a declaration of peace and concord and call for uniting in order to preserve peace in the country. It did not differ from the documents adopted at numerous other roundtables and forums, for example, it said \"we demand justice from the courts\" without specific details of how to achieve that. The declaration mainly presented a list of things to be improved without recommendations on how to solve any problems. President Akaev received a delegation of the forum the very next day after it took place and promised to punish all the people responsible for the bloodshed.

Organizers of the Kurultai were not certain where it would take place until late at night on the day before the actual event because the two biggest halls in Bishkek – Philarmonia and the Palace of Sport - refused to allow them use their space. Thus, the 800 participants ended up in the History Museum, in which there were seats available for only one-third of the delegates. Dozens of people were standing in the gangways and it was impossible to access the hall after the kurultai started. There were delegates from Aksy region - witnesses of the bloodshed and relatives of the murdered and injured, people from the Talas region that is still in tension because of the court hearings on opposition politician Feliks Kulov. Unlike the forum, Kurultai hosted mostly ordinary citizens. The event started with a prayer for the people who died in Aksy, and hundreds of people kneeled as the mullah prayed. Then a documentary film was shown about the human rights violations in Kyrgyzstan, starting from the elections of 2000 when protesters were beaten, opposition politicians jailed ,and mass media restricted. The sequence of events was presented in such a way that the Aksy bloodshed seemed a logical outcome of the government ignorance of the people\'s protests. The second part of the film included shots from the Aksy events with militia shooting at the people, and humiliating elderly people and women. The audience was shocked, as the film seemed to portray a war. Many cried especially after one witness on the screen stated that militia was beating the corpses of the killed men and pouring vodka into their mouths to prove that they were drunk and started the fight themselves. Numerous speeches followed by main opposition figures, representatives of the independent mass media, human rights activists, and witnesses of the events. People did not want to leave, and the discussions continued until late at night. The findings of the independent commission were shocking, revealing facts of hours of torture of eighteen-year-old demonstrators, of miscarriages caused by militia beating women, and of people breaking TV sets not to hear the lies of the state-owned TV channel from the screen. There were calls for actions from both the audience and the speakers. The Kurultai adopted a series of demands as a concluding document. These included demands for the resignation of President Akaev and Prime Minister Bakiev, the prosecution of those directly responsible for Aksy events, the closure of court cases against Kulov and Beknazarov, the restoration of the closed down independent newspapers \"Res Publica\" and \"Moya Stolitsa\", and finally calls were made for free and fair elections for the Presidency and the Parliament in the fall of 2002. It was claimed that unless the government agreed to this by April 27^th, protests will start again not only in Aksy but throughout Kyrgyzstan.

The Kurultai was covered in the mass media as another opposition meeting of individuals who suffer from megalomania, while the Forum was praised for its peaceful dialogue and involving prominent scientists, writers and politicians. There was no response from the government. April 27^th passed with a meeting for mourning about the dead in Aksy and more speeches by government officials. The list of those blamed for the tragedy includes more institutions now, as President Akaev acknowledged. First, the events were claimed to be organized and provoked by the opposition, then the local government was presented as the scapegoat, now Akaev started to condemn militia which caused a meeting of protest by mothers of militiamen who demand justice and affirm that their sons received an order and should not be punished for following it because it is their duty.

Anna Kirey

Copyright 2001 The Analyst. All rights reserved