Peace Leader is shot. Criminal Politician threatens Head of Electoral Commission. US Secretary of State proclaims Kyrgyzstan a “stable country”

On the day of the visit of the US Secretary of State Richard Boucher, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil, Edil Baisalov, was shot in the head, thankfully not fatally. This is the organization I mentioned in a previous post that were protesting peacefully to try and restore law and order to the country. Clearly some people were not too impressed with that idea. Not sure who that might be…

At the same time, I read this report about the notorious Ryspek Akmatbayev. Now, I’m not sure that all its facts can be proven and it does seem to be largely hearsay and rumour, but it’s not encouraging when The Man Who Would Be An Elected Representative is threatening the head of the Electoral Commission and apparently has some “killer material” to blackmail and threaten Kyrgyzstan’s major politicians. Isn’t it nice to know that Kyrgyz democracy is being played out in such a civilized and equitable manner?

So, it’s good to see the US Secretary of State expressing such confidence in the political process, though maybe more in hope than on anything that’s actually happening in the country. Oh, and because they have an airbase here and are worried about the Russian influence in the region, and because it’s the only base they have in Central Asia after being kicked out of Uzbekistan…