Posted on 03/27/2005 5:25:10 PM PST by jb6
WASHINGTON (AFP) - After basking in the democratic glow of people power movements in Georgia and Ukraine, the United States appears to have been caught flatfooted by the turmoil in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan.
AFP Photo
If critics accuse Washington of orchestrating the wave of protests that swept the country, US officials say they have been scrambling to keep up with developments since the hasty departure of President Askar Akayev.
"That is certainly not something we would have encouraged or necessarily foreseen, or upon which we based our planning," said a senior State Department official who asked not to be named.
"All our planning was based on government institutions working. And they didn't. The institutions collapsed to a degree that Akayev felt he had to leave. You deal with that reality."
The Americans have shown a willingess to work with the interim government installed in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. But they have yet to withdraw formal recognition from Akayev, who is vowing to reclaim power.
And despite repeated US and international calls for an end to violence, the impoverished former Soviet republic was rocked by two days of massive looting that left up to six people dead.
US officials acknowledged there was always the danger of events slipping out of control. "It's such a fluid and unusual situation," said one. "We're going to have to take it day by day, hour by hour."
The United States, in the context of promoting democracy, has been pushing for political reforms in Kyrgyzstan for years through groups such as the largely US government-funded National Democratic Institute.
But the crisis that swelled last week out of a row over disputed parliamentary elections illustrated the unpredictable course that events could take once the the democratic genie is let out of the bottle.
The United States has significant strategic interests in Kyrgyzstan, including a major air base outside Bishkek that has served as a key launchpad for military operations in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
The Americans are vying for influence with the Russians, who also have a military base and considerable influence in the mountainous country of five million people that is fertile ground for Islamic extremists.
Akayev, who ruled Kyrgyzstan for 15 years, was an early favorite of Washington as a champion of democratic reforms, even if he was considered to have become more autocratic and corrupt in later years.
Unlike the vocal US support for the opposition in Georgia's "rose revolution" in November 2003 and Ukraine's "orange revolution" a year later, Washington was more circumspect in dealing with the turmoil in Kyrgyzstan.
Early last week, US officials condemned what they called "mob action" by anti-government protesters. They questioned the extent of the alleged electoral fraud in the March 13 legislative polls and praised Akayev for promising to investigate.
But the Americans had to bend to the changing situation. As deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters Friday, "US policy is to work with the institutions and realities on the ground."
Whether the US administration came out ahead with the accession to power of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a trained electrical engineer and centrist opposition leader, remained to be seen.
Bakiyev, who plans to run in a new presidential election set for June 26, made it clear he had no intention of cutting loose from Moscow. "Our relations with Russia are going to develop more and more," he said Saturday.
But US officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), insist that Kyrgyzstan is another example of a global march towards democracy even if it is still a work in progress.
"It would be too much to ask today that the full outline of how events in Kyrgyzstan are going to move forward would actually be observable right now," Rice said Thursday.
"The fact is this is a process that's just beginning. We know where we want to go ... and we'll work with all the parties involved to try to lead it there."
Of for chrissakes .... we are not the policemen of the entire world ... if a mini-coupe in Camroon appears we can't be there either.
bump
This is nothing to compare with what will happen when the whole area between Eastern Europe and Pacific gets destabilized by the international democracts. They did it once when they forced tsar to abdicate and allowed Bolsheviks to return to Russia to play the game of democracy. Fasten your seatbelts - it is going to be a bumpy ride.
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