Civilian Auxiliaries to Back Police

There are worries that volunteer auxiliary groups that are being formed to help Kyrgyz police ahead of the November 2 opposition rally could be used to crush the protest if it turns violent. The volunteer squads are being set up because residents of the capital Bishkek fear for their property and want to help ensure security in the city.



On November 2, the opposition Movement for Reforms will hold an open-ended rally, where the main demand will be for the resignation of Kyrgyzstan’s president and prime minister. The opposition is resolved to keep going until its demands are met, and appears to have made thorough preparations to camp out on Bishkek’s main square and bring thousands of supporters onto the streets.



Last-minute talks between President Kurmanbek Bakiev and his opponents on October 31 resulted in two concessions, the first of which being that the head of state will submit a draft constitution to parliament as early as November 2, proposing a parliamentary rather than presidential system and removing his own right to dissolve the legislature. Second, Bakiev pledged to drop his veto over a media law which could see the state TV and radio station transformed into a public-service broadcaster.



Despite these compromises, the opposition was left unsatisfied and the rally will go ahead as planned.



The volunteer units are being set up on the instructions of Bishkek police chief Moldomusa Kongantiev, who issued the order on October 23 after receiving a plea to do so by a residents’ action group. The remit of these units is to maintain public order and residents’ security.



The head of an association of veterans of the Soviet Union’s 1979-89 Afghan war, Nurlan Torobekov, told NBCentralAsia that his organisation has been active in setting up volunteer units, which he said were recruiting young people as well as ex-combatants. The veterans’ association held its own rally in Bishkek on October 31.



According to Rashid Tagaev, a former chief of police in Bishkek, the uniformed police force may call on the auxiliaries for help if it lacks the manpower to keep order across the city and in surrounding areas.



Political commentators suggest that both government and opposition have an interest in ensuring the protest passes off peacefully. The opposition will have its own volunteers to keep order, and will also use private security companies, while the authorities have 6,500 police on heightened alert.



However, some human rights activists are concerned that the civilian patrols the police are setting up could be used in a confrontation with demonstrators.



“If the volunteers are ordered to take up arms, they might do so - in contrast to the police, who are unlikely to open fire on civilians because of what happened at Aksy,” said human rights activist Aziza Abdrasulova, recalling the political storm that followed the shooting of demonstrators by police in 2002. “They recognise that ultimately they will get the blame, so they have really understood that they must not move against the people, still less so with weapons.”



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