[If all these movements came to power, would that count as the cunning of history or the pandora's box of intervention?]
[Also, does anyone know much about these oppositions? The dictators I know are dictators. But I don't know much about the opposition.]
Financial Times; Jun 26, 2002
ASIA-PACIFIC: Dissent grows in central Asia
By David Stern in Tashkent
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous, ex-Soviet state of 4m, could be on the brink of civil war, the new prime minister, Nikolai Tanayev, told a government meeting this week.
Mr Tanayev's comments follow mass demonstrations in the south of the country last week, where thousands demanded the release of opposition leader Azimbek Beknazarov, who has been jailed on what supporters say are trumped-up charges.
This follows demonstrations in March where police opened fire on protesters, killing five. President Askar Akayev, in response to the demonstrators' demands, sacked his entire government, but the disturbances have not abated.
The unrest in Kyrgyzstan is mirrored across the region, where longstanding tensions have erupted between authoritarian governments and opposition forces.
In Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev is grappling with a newly formed opposition movement, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, headed by former top government officials. In Turkmenistan, speculation is growing that forces within the government are gathering strength to depose the eccentric dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.
The opposition movements seemed to gain strength at the time that the US announced it would be basing troops in central Asia and working closely with the governments there.
"What we think is happening is that the US presence has emboldened the opposition. This in turn in authoritarian countries could create more conflict. These countries remember are dominated by old Soviet apparatchiki," said a western official.