Anger at Stalled Aksy Investigation

President Kurmanbek Bakiev has reopened an investigation into the 2002 violence in which six demonstrators were killed in the Aksy region of southern Kyrgyzstan, but NBCentralAsia observers say the gesture is too little too late and people have already lost faith in the authorities.



On March 17, President Kurmanbek Bakiev attended a commemoration ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, in which six people were killed by security forces when a demonstration in the southern district turned violent.



In 2002, some 10,000 protesters gathered in and around the village of Bospiek to demand the release of Azimbek Beknazarov, a member of parliament accused of abuse of power. New laws had been introduced restricting people’s right to gather in large numbers and when the protest gained momentum, police opened fire on the crowd, killing five on the spot. One other person later died in hospital.



President Bakiev, who was prime minister at the time, was forced to resign soon afterwards.



During the commemorations, Bakiev said he had been pushing for the investigation to be completed ever since he became president in 2005, and would now oversee the criminal investigation personally.



Despite Bakiev’s promise of a fair investigation, leaders in the civil sector remain sceptical. The affair has been dragged out for so long that public confidence in the Kyrgyz leadership has been undermined, they say.



Omurbek Tekebaev, leader of the Ata-Meken party, told NBCentralAsia, “If the president really wanted to go to Aksy, he could have checked for himself how the investigation is going and whether those responsible have been are punished. That hasn’t happened, so he has given hasty instructions to conduct further criminal investigations.”



Political scientist Toktogul Kakchekeev believes that the lack of transparency of the judicial system, and its subservience to political interests, has meant that in five years, it has been impossible to convict all those responsible for the Aksy shootings.



“It will be possible to investigate the Aksy events impartially and openly only when we have an independent judicial system, which is not corrupt and which is staffed with professional judges and prosecutors,” he said.



Deputy Temir Sariev argued that it is the system of government itself that is preventing an effective investigation.



“Until the system of government changes, the current authorities are replaced and systemic reforms are carried out, the relatives of those killed in that tragic event will have to wait many long years for the courts to make a fair decision,” Sariev told NBCentralAsia.



On March 19, Bakiev sacked Kambaraly Kongantiev, the prosecutor-general whose resignation the relatives of those killed in Aksy have long been calling for.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)