- (October 1999)
Kyrgyzstan: a model for the ex soviet republics.
The breakup of the Soviet Union has certainly not been a model for the
rest of the world: most of those republics are now dictatorships, some of
them (Russia, Ukraine) are nominally democratic but with astonishing
levels of corruption, and they all share the same economic collapse.
By far the most peaceful has been Kyrgyzstan, a tiny republic in Central
Asia run by the physicist Askar Akayev. They have their share of ethnic
trouble (half of the country is populated by ethnic Uzebks and Tajiks).
Unfortunately nearby Tajikistan is being overrun by militias made of
former communist soldiers, drug smugglers, Afghanistan veterans and
Islamic fundamentalists.
|