double triple top secret location for referendum in kstan
Random Notes: I can’t say much about anything, really. Where I am or where I will be for the voting which may turn violent here. So I’m posting this which I wrote before I got to the place I can’t talk about.
June 14th, 2010
A few days ago, ethnic violence began in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. What I am told began as I fight at a casino has turned into a humanitarian disaster. The clash is between ethnically Uzbek, Kyrgyz nationals and ethnically Kyrgyz, Kyrgyz nationals. It seems that the Uzbeks, the minority, are being attacked and forced to flee into neighboring Uzbekistan. Today I heard many numbers but it looks like at least 110 and 75,000 who have attempted to flee (although the number is surely already more than that and still growing).
Why are there Uzbeks living in Kyrgyzstan when Uzbekistan is right across the border? The answer is long and complicated. What is simple is this: people are being killed in large numbers because of their ethnicity.
Tonight I sat down to dinner with my family. My dad spent the whole night yelling at the t.v. “Of course you would! You’re an idiot!” “Donkey’s have bigger brains then you!” “Your mother must have beat you hard, fool!” It’s ok, I laughed too.
When he wasn’t yelling at the box we discussed the mess engulfing Kyrgyzstan. My host dad is embarrassed and frustrated. People fight because they are unhappy, they are unhappy because their government does not represent them. Worse, it steals from them. We have no leaders who care about our people”.
April’s revolution, still unresolved, has proved difficult for Kyrgyzstan and its parliament to justify. On the 27th Kyrgyzstan will hold a referendum to vote on numerous changes in the constitution. I’m not sure if that will be possible now.
The truth is that this most recent outbreak of unrest and violence is just another symptom of a bigger problem- Kyrgyzstan has turned into yet another failed state in the region. Of course, the one ray of light the April coup provided was a hope for change and improvement. But now that will have to wait as Osh and Jalalabad city burn to the ground.
Needless to say this has been difficult to live through. Also, surreal. While people are being forced into exile in the south of the country I sit up in the mountains of my site and it couldn’t be more peaceful and same ol’. It’s business as usual up in the regions of Naryn and Issyk-Kol. Except for the fact that I’m grounded to site, which means I can’t really go anywhere.
April 15th, 2010
More bad news today. Al-Jazeera is reporting cases of rape in the south. The refugee situation is getting worse and Uzbekistan has closed its border. Uzbeks waiting to be let in are dying of exhaustion and hunger while dysentery is spreading among the population of exiles. Russia has sent aid but not enough and the US, to the best of my knowledge has done little to nothing to mitigate what is now being called a humanitarian catastrophe. Maybe this would change if George Clooney got on board or gap ran a hip new t-shirt campaign (“can I get that ‘AIDS in Africa Sucks’ T-shirt in a V-neck?”).
On the way to work a young man approached me on a bicycle and began yelling random English phrases at me. “Have a nice day! Nice to meet you!”, etc. I told him I speak Kyrgyz and he told me his English was better than my Kyrgyz. I told him it wasn’t and this apparently made him very mad. “We all know,” he told me. “We all know you are agents.” This is relatively common around here- being told we are spies. I told him he was wrong, that I was invited here by the school I work at. He told me I was wrong. I told him if I was a spy then I’m a terrible spy. I told him if I was a spy then I wouldn’t be in Kyrgyzstan. It didn’t matter to him. He kept telling me I was a spy. Ever the tactful diplomat I told him he was an idiot and to leave me alone.
Then he said, “We all think that people who come here from other countries to live are wrong in the head. You are all crazy or else you would be back at home”. This is a sneaking suspicion I’ve had since arriving. I mean, because if you think about it, it is very hard to grasp. Maybe he’s right. Maybe it is a bit crazy. At the time though, without the benefit of reflection, it just pissed me off and I told him he was a mother beaten donkey and to leave me alone again. He got off two punches to my chest before an Imam (we were in the street outside of a mosque) stepped in and told the boy to go home. The imam had been listening to the whole thing and apologized profusely for the boy. From across the street the guy yelled something about beating me up again before peddling off on his rickety little bike.
When I ask people here what they think of all this they either avoid the question because they seem embarrassed by it all of they say something like “It’s bad”. And that’s only when I ask. Otherwise its business as usual and this is the hardest part about this situation personally. PC has put everyone on standfast. We are not to leave our sites. So I’m stuck out here in the mountains, once again, while the country self-destructs.
June 27
Waiting…
