Politician's Murder Shakes Kyrgyzstan

The murder of a member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has set nerves further on edge in an already febrile political atmosphere as the country heads for a presidential election this July.

Sanjarbek Kadyraliev, 32, was killed outside his home on April 14. According to Kyrgyzstan’s interior ministry, an unidentified lone gunman shot him once in the back of the head.

Kadyraliev was a member of the governing Ak Jol party, which has a massive majority in parliament and has close ties with President Kurmanbek Bakiev.

His murder comes a month after the political establishment was shaken by the death of leading politician Medet Sadyrkulov in a car accident.

The assassination is the first time an MP has been murdered since 2005, when there were three in a row in the months that followed the largely peaceful revolution of March that year, which brought the current president Kurmanbek Bakiev to power.

Police investigators say they are mainly focusing on the MP’s public life as a politician, but are not ruling out the possibility that the murder had something to do with his business activities, or that it was simply a criminal act.

Interior ministry spokesman Bakyt Seyitov told IWPR that political and business leads were being followed up simply because the dead man had been an MP and before that a businessman. He said he wanted to make it clear that while police were looking at the possibility the underworld was involved in the murder, there was no implication that Kadyraliev had himself had criminal connections.

Kadyraliev’s fellow party members have expressed regret at his death.

Ulukbek Ormonov, who heads Ak Jol’s parliamentary group, praised his late colleague for being a “very promising young MP”.

Ormonov urged the media to refrain from reporting negative things about Kadyraliev’s past until his funeral was over.

Kubanychbek Isabekov, another Ak Jol legislators, described his late colleague as a “sociable” and “harmless” character who enjoyed sport.

Commentators outside the party suggest the late MP was more of a businessman than a politician.

Political scientist Toktogul Kakchekeev notes that Kadyraliev was not a particularly high-profile MP, and he doubts a connection can be made with the forthcoming presidential election, in which Bakiev is standing for a second term.

Nor do the analysts interviewed by IWPR draw parallels with the car crash that killed Sadyrkulov a month ago. Police have said his death was an accident, and reject claims from some opposition leaders that it was a political assassination. (See Kyrgyz Politician’s Death Widens Opposition-Government Gulf, RCA No. 570, 16-Mar-09.)

Sadyrkulov had been President Bakiev’s chief of staff until he resigned in January, after which he is believed to have put out feelers to the opposition.

Investigators have made little progress in the case of another politician, Ruslan Shabatoev, a parliamentarian from the opposition Social Democrats, who disappeared without trace at the end of September.

Prior to that, the last major assaults on parliamentarians occurred in the summer and autumn of 2005, starting with the shooting in broad daylight of Jyrgalbek Surabaldiev in June, the killing of Bayaman Erkinbaev, the MP previously involved in a clash with Kadyraliev supporters, and the death of Tynychbek Akmatbaev during a visit to a prison in October. (See Pro-Akaev Politician Gunned Down in Kyrgyzstan; Politician’s Murder Rocks Kyrgyzstan; and Prison Riot Sparks Political Row in Kyrgyzstan, on the Surabaldiev, Erkinbaev and Akmatbaev murders, respectively.)

Following the death of Kadyraliev, just as after the three killings in 2005, Kyrgyzstan has been swirling with talk of the linkages between organised crime and the world of politics, which many people believe proliferated after the March revolution and led to an increase in violence.

“The criminal world and [political] power go hand in hand, and that is regarded as being in the order of things,” said Tashbolot Baltabaev, a leading member of the opposition party Ata Meken. “So the shootouts and contract killings will continue.”

Political analyst Zholbors Zhorobekov cautions against making over-hasty judgements on this specific case.

“The moment something unpleasant happens in Kyrgyzstan…. The opposition are pleased since they get a chance to criticise the authorities,” he said. “The same thing is happening with Kadyraliev’s death. Some politicians immediately began making capital out of the idea that the authorities are connected with the criminal world, or that Kadyraliev himself comes from that world.”

Zhorobekov called on such government critics to show restraint and avoid “scoring political points on the back of a tragedy”.

The Kyrgyzstan parliament has summoned the security services to report on progress on the Kadyraliev murder on April 17.

Anara Yusupova and Ayday Tokonova are pseudonyms used by reporters in Kyrgyzstan.