Kyrgyzstan: Bakiev to Face Charges
As the interim government in Kyrgyzstan stripped Kurmanbek Bakiev of his presidential immunity, IWPR asked politicians and experts whether the country’s new leaders had enough legitimacy to do so.
Kyrgyzstan: Bakiev to Face Charges
As the interim government in Kyrgyzstan stripped Kurmanbek Bakiev of his presidential immunity, IWPR asked politicians and experts whether the country’s new leaders had enough legitimacy to do so.
Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has said Bakev no longer enjoys immunity. She said he had exceeded his powers by ordering security forces to fire on demonstrators during the early April unrest, and he would have to face trial for that.
Interviewed by IWPR, politics-watcher Tabyldy Akerov. Social Democratic Party youth leader Nurlan Sazykov and historian Chyngyz Amantur-Uulu were in agreement that the new administration was legitimate – or that the old one was so discredited that it no longer deserved to exist.
In addition, there have been so many changes to the constitution in recent years, and so many questions surrounding the institutions of state under Bakiev, that public confidence in Kyrgyz democracy has been badly undermined.
As a result, said Amantur-Uulu, the new leadership may well be the only truly legitimate authority the country has, even if its status is yet to be enshrined in law.
Akerov said that the authorities appeared to be refusing to grant Bakiev any guarantee he will be safe from prosecution, even though such a pledge might ease his exit.
But Amantur-Uulu said impeachment or other options were never going to work. “It was clear from the outset that Bakiev wasn’t going to surrender power, so the only alternative left was to declare him an outlaw and try him like a criminal,” he said.
Sazykov said that from a purely legalistic angle, “there’s no law on revolutions”.
“But if the people themselves declare the old administration illegitimate and support the new one, the latter can be fully considered legitimate,” he added.
The audio programme, in Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
