SHARIA UNDER DEMOCRACY

After the pogroms, many in Kyrgyzstan will prefer radical Islam to liberal values

The Kyrgyz referendum took place. 90% of those who came to the polling stations voted for the new constitution. Nobody understood its essence, and in fact they voted for something much less abstract. Everyone I spoke to that day repeated the same thing: if the country votes yes, then the provisional government will become legitimate and prevent further pogroms. If “against”, then it will dissolve itself and there will be chaos.

People voted not to be killed anymore. And many people asked me: “Will the referendum help?” I doubt. The massacre in the south of the country happened because the government is not able to manage its own security forces.

When supporters of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev began seizing regional administrations in the country's south in May, local police refused to restore order. Then Bishkek turned to the leaders of the Uzbek community for help. And they helped by doing what the police did not do. Order was put in place, but the situation separated the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks on opposite sides of the barricades.

And in June, when the Kyrgyz began to burn the Uzbek quarters, the police again did not comply with the order from Bishkek to stop the riots. On the contrary, she helped the pogromists. Should we now expect that some captain of the police department will start leafing through the constitution, looking for an answer to the question: is it possible to kill people because they have a different nationality?

The Provisional Government blames everything on "mercenaries". According to him, they were hired by Bakiyev's closest relatives with the assistance of the Taliban and the Uzbek Islamist underground. In Osh, I was shown a video of a conversation with one of these "mercenaries" ( see the video on our website ). The young guy says that he was paid just over $100 for participating in the rapes and about $40 for arson.

-Who paid?

—Mayor.

Will the mayor ask the president's permission after the referendum?

When foreign journalists openly say that they do not believe in the version of Islamists being involved in the pogroms, the Kyrgyz are terribly offended. Of course, it is not easy to admit that the citizens of the country, even without any provocateurs, had a keen desire to kill each other.

I don't believe in Islamist mercenaries either. But I believe that now, after the pogroms, radical Islam will become a fixed idea for many Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. Why? Because they have to live together further.

In Central Asia, people are nostalgic for the Soviet regime, which pushed the ethnic issue into the background. What modern ideology says that there are no Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, and all people are brothers, if they are ideologically close? Radical Wahhabi Islam. Only the site of the joint Kyrgyz-Uzbek jamaat, and not the constitutional power in Bishkek, really allows peoples who have recently slaughtered and raped each other to reconcile.

Radical Islam will now be especially attractive to young Uzbeks who have lost relatives and friends in the massacre. Nearly all traditional Uzbek leaders are now on the run, pursued by the Kyrgyz authorities. Underground Islamist groups have a great chance to take advantage of this vacuum.

In the Uzbek neighborhoods, they are now happy to talk about the so-called Batken events, when a group of militants came to Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan. The Kyrgyz army could not do anything with them, and the problem had to be solved with the help of Uzbek aviation.

“I don't read namaz, but if they came again, I would join them,” a young and educated Uzbek told me. A completely secular guy would have joined them, because the militants are against the same mono-ethnic Kyrgyz army and police, which condoned the pogroms, if they did not directly participate in them. Previously, bearded strangers could not count on the support of the local population, but now they can.

Kyrgyz Chekists are also interested in Islamization. When we were in Osh, one of them offered us girls for the night. If a terrorist threat arises in Kyrgyzstan, the Chekists will no longer need to pimp. In the face of such a threat, money from developed countries will flow into the country to fight terror. Both Russia and America will help. From outcasts, the Kyrgyz security officers will turn into people who are needed by everyone, who have the right to everything. It's like a pass to an elite club.

The new constitution creates the first "parliamentary multi-party democracy" in Central Asia. But everyone knows that the parties are just groupings that have developed around leaders squabbling among themselves. Five years ago, together with Bakiyev, they overthrew President Askar Akayev. In April, they also overthrew Bakiyev himself. Tomorrow will be the next one. In such an environment, the idea of ​​a "Kyrgyz Taliban" may seem more attractive to many than a tough Asian with a democratic face.