It's difficult to pin the blame for all the world's ills on the CIA, Zionists or even Goldman Sachs. Although I do admit to searching for clues by reading the secret documents recovered from the captured US Embassy in Teheran in 1979. (The documents were published in book form in Pakistan.)
Despite poring through the many 'secret' memos, I was unable to find evidence of a grand conspiracy originating either in Tel Aviv or Langley, Virginia.
Like all nation states the strategic objectives of the US are pretty well known. In fact, they are even contained in a report published annually by the US Department of Defense!
A traditional Kyrgyz storyteller relating his tales
Unlike me, the residents of Kyrgyzstan will be harder to convince that US intentions are 'pure' and there is no hidden agenda.
From being one of the many republics in the former Soviet Empire, Kyrgyzstan obtained its independence in October 1991.
Oddly, the Kyrgyz ruling elite, like the other 'tans,' was not very happy about its new found freedom. Independence required the political elite to renew its legitimacy as a ruler of the impoverished nation, the poorest of all the Central Asian states.
Being part of the Soviet Union meant Moscow paid all the bills and the Communist Party ensured that control remained firmly in the hands of Moscow. As long as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in Moscow was kept happy, the Kyrgyz elite exercised complete control over the 'autonomous republic.'
Kyrgyzstan is a small nation with a population of just over five million. Seventy percent are ethnic Kyrgyz with Uzbeks (15%) and Russians (9%) bringing up the rear. The country is strategically located and houses a US base used to resupply American troops fighting in Afghanistan.
And here's where the story gets murky.
The national flag of Kyrgyzstan
Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, himself the product of the 2005 Tulip Revolution, tried to play the fine line between the two competing regional powers, Russia and the US. He allowed the establishment of the US base as an alternate route to supplying materiel to Afghanistan. He was even bringing China into the picture by connecting the Kyrgyz electricity grid to China's.
The rub lies in the manner in which the Bakiev clan went about reorganizing the country's economy.
In October 2009, a Presidential Decree appointed Bakiyev's 32 year old son, Maxim Bakiyev, as the head of Central Agency on Development, Investments and Innovations (CADII). The CADII was responsible for "structural reorganization of the country's economy, support for business, attracting foreign investment, and most importantly, preparation of the country's budget and national economic programs."
In other words, without pleasing Maxim Bakiyev nothing moves in Kyrgyzstan.
Enter the US military and its strategic objectives. It needs fuel to operate its regular flights from its Kyrgyz airbase. So, according to the Wall Street Journal, the US secured fuel supplies by entering into a contract with a company owned by Maxim Bakiyev.
Multiply these contracts a hundred times over and it is not hard to see why the Kyrgyz population may be fed up with nepotism. Nor is it difficult to see why the US may be closely associated with propping up the former regime.
The coincidences pile up when it is reported that Maxim Bakiyev is on his way to Washington for an 'official' visit at just about the time the recent civil unrest reaches a crescendo.
Not surprisingly, the new Kyrgyz administration has opened criminal cases against the President's son. Undoubtedly, the cases will not resolved in court but through negotiations between Kyrgyzstan, the US and possibly Russia.
The Great Game is being played not only in Afghanistan but in all Central Asia.
The game may have started centuries ago but the final move appears nowhere in sight. Surely, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and his Kazakh, Tajik and Turkmen counterparts must be watching events in Bishkek as closely as in their own countries.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment