Kyrgyzstan New leader pragmatic politician, diplomat

The woman now leading the interim government in Kyrgyzstan after bloody unrest has a reputation as a pragmatic, skilled diplomat. The question is whether opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva can hold onto power and put her volatile country, once considered the most progressive in Central Asia, on a path to stability and prosperity.Otunbayeva, 59, has impressive credentials. She successfully has navigated political environments as varied as the labyrinth of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union in the 1980s, as foreign minister of newly independent Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s and as an opposition political leader in her turbulent native country in the current decade.Otunbayeva claimed power Thursday, declaring the Kyrgyz parliament was dissolved and that she would head the government until elections were held. She urged the current president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to resign.
"She is someone who is viewed as a hope. She inspired the confidence of people more than others," said Didier Chauvet, a specialist in Central Asia and lecturer at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris. "Her return is a hope"She also has modern political savvy, communicating with her followers by Twitter in both Kyrgyz and Russian.Otunbayeva, however, faces huge challenges, including holding the opposition coalition together, preventing Bakiyev from returning to power, a dire economic crisis as well as treading between both the United States and Russia, both of which have military bases in her country."She is a smart person and she understands the situation," said Leonid Bondarets, who has been affiliated with the Sweden-based Central Asia and the Caucasus think tank, "But the opposition primarily criticized the government and concretely did not propose anything themselves."Otunbayeva, a native of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, has deep roots both in local and national politics.She studied at the philosophy department at the prestigious Moscow State University during the standstill years of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s, before embarking on a career as a Communist Party official in her native Kyrgyzstan.Wider horizons beckoned, and Otunbayeva took up diplomacy, serving as the Kremlin's chief delegate to UNESCO in Paris and then ambassador to Malaysia.The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union opened new opportunities when Kyrgyzstan, like all of the 15 Soviet republics, became independent. Otunbayeva quickly rose to influential positions, serving as her country's foreign minister and later as Kyrgz ambassador to the United States and Britain.Politics, however, called again. She returned home only to plunge into the political turmoil there. She became one of the leaders of the 2005 Tulip Revolution that swept then-President Askar Akayev, a former physicist and once the most promising leader in Central Asia, from power and brought Bakiyev in.Well-known in Kyrgzystan and abroad, Otunbayeva has earned a reputation as a solid diplomat who stayed free of the corruption that has tainted too many Kyrgyz politicians."Otunbayeva is a respected politician for the whole nation, her hands are clean and reputation immaculate," said Daniil Kislov, political analyst and chief editor of the Ferghana.ru online daily that was banned in Kyrgyzstan under Bakiyev. "She has enough talent and wisdom to be a president.""The primary task is to get a system of power that will function up and running," said Bondarets.
That will be a tough road.
As in 2005, order has collapsed in Kyrgyzstan both in the capital and the volatile south amid a severe economic crisis in which prices of gas, electricity and heating have soared in recent months."People are mad. People are angry," said Evan Feigenbaum, senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia."The question is: Do we get a government that can restore and maintain order but also set the country on a path to democratic governance?" he asked.In addition to restoring stability and providing hope for an improved economy, Otunbayeva will need to use all of her diplomatic skills to navigate between Washington, which wants to make sure it can keep its U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, which wants the United States out of Central Asia."The victory of the opposition shows that Russia has decided to have a dominant influence in Central Asia," Chauvet said. "She is closer to Moscow," he added. Russia has not gone as far as recognizing Otunbayeva, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been critical of Bakiyev and he spoke with Otunbayeva on the phone Thursday.Bakiyev's abysmal record could give Otunbayeva some time to cement her forces.Kislov of Ferghana.ru said that the formerly fractured Kyrgyz opposition joined their forces in recent months as they tried to counter Bakiyev's policies, and this unity might save the coalition from disbanding in the nearest future. That view, however, is not universal."I would expect a lot of pushing and pulling in the opposition. I don't think this thing is over," said Feigenbaum. "I think we're at the beginning of this story.

Pakistan 18th Amendment approved by majority vote

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's national assembly on Thursday unanimously approved reforms stripping President Asif Ali Zardari of key powers in a move to bolster parliamentary democracy weakened by military rule.The historic 18th amendment, which rolls back four decades of infringements by military rulers on Pakistan's 1973 constitution, is expected to sail through the upper house of parliament as early as next week and then pass into law.The package reverses sweeping powers amassed by former military dictators Pervez Musharraf and Zia ul Haq and could ease political instability in the country.All 292 lawmakers present at Thursday's session in the 342-member national assembly voted to approve the 102-clause bill, by filing into a separate lobby attached to the debating chamber. No one voted against.A jubilant Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared that parliamentary democracy was now being restored as MPs slammed fists on desks in celebration after shouting “hang Musharraf, hang” when his 1999 coup was declared illegal.“The impossible has been made possible by the house today,” Gilani told lawmakers in a speech that paused briefly for Namaz break.“We have been saying we will go to the Westminster-style parliamentary system... Today we removed the anomalies. We are giving you a parliamentary form of government with balance of power between president and prime minister.”Chaudhry Nisar Ali, member of Pakistan Muslim League-N party and opposition leader in the national assembly hailed the “win-win situation”.“Mr Prime Minister, the house has given you vast powers. The nation has put its fate in your hands. Mr Prime Minister, please move forward to resolve the problems of the people. We will support all your steps in this regard,” he said.“We should make a solemn pledge that in the future no politician will support military dictatorship in Pakistan. The country will be run under its constitution and no interference will be acceptable.”The NA session was delayed for over an hour due to poor attendance of participating MNAs whose presence was necessary for the voting on the 18th Amendment bill.

NWFP govt to talk to people of Hazara over renaming row

PESHAWAR: Following opposition from the people of Hazara over NWFP's renaming, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti on Thursday said the government will talk to the people of district to resolve the issue.Speaking to journalists, Hoti said the people of Hazara have the liberty to protest.With regards to the recent attack targeting the US consulate Peshawar, Hoti said the terrorists wanted to create a hostage situation by taking over the building.However, the crisis was averted due to the effective security mechanism, he added.Hoti said the closure of UN offices in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa seems unnecessary as the entire country is gripped by militancy.He said the three-month calm does not mean the militants have been completely eliminated.

Pakistan's President stripped of power of assembly dissolution

The power to dissolve the assemblies has been taken back from President of the State and the governors, as National Assembly is giving section-wise approval of the Constitutional Reforms Bill, Geo News reported Thursday.The first of all, the 17th Amendment was abolished with consensus. Also, the name of the NWFP was changed to Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw. Now, the House adopted the amendment regarding the annulment of the power of the President and governors regarding the dissolution of the assemblies.
The NA session, presided over by Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza, began proceedings with the Section-2 of the Bill, which was adopted with 258 votes of support; while, no one opposed it.The members of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) tabled two amendments on the Section-3 of the Reforms Bill relating the name of the NWFP; the House jettisoned the PML-Q’s amendments with majority.Section-3 was approved with 264 votes; however, the members of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) did not take part in the voting.Also, the Section-4 of the Bill has been adopted with consensus to amend the Article-6 of the Constitution relating the suspension of the Constitution and its subsequent validation by the court.Also, the Section-5 of the Bill has been adopted with consensus to amend the Article-10 of the Constitution.The Section-17 also has been unanimously adopted to amend the Article-58 of the Constitution; under this, the President of the State and the governors have been divested of the power to dissolve the assemblies. This power has now been delegated to the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers and the President and the governors would act on their advice in this connection.Besides, Section-19 was approved to amend Article-61 of the Constitution and Section-18 was approved regarding setting aside at least four seats for women.Section-20 was approved to amend Article-62 relating the eligibility of the Parliamentarians and Section-21, 22 were approved for the amendment in Article-63 regarding the ineligibility of the public office.

How Kyrgyzstan affects U.S. AND RUSSIA?

NEWSWEEK.COM
The day of snowballing riots and violence that culminated in President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's fleeing his capital Wednesday evening is the worst nightmare of every despot in Central Asia and beyond. A government that thought it had secured itself against opposition by increasingly brutal police methods suddenly found a people rising in anger, besieging ministries, beating up the interior minister and finally forcing the president to scuttle to a private jet.It was a grim mirror image of 2005's Tulip Revolution that brought Bakiyev to power when a broad coalition of antigovernment forces ousted former president Askar Akayev, and with similar swiftness. International commentators back then were quick to lump Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution along with the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia and the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Indeed the popular anger at old, corrupt Communist elites was similar in all cases. But in truth the Kyrgyz "color revolution" brought to power not pro-Western democrats but a group of former apparatchiks who quickly became as hated as the ousted Akayev regime.

The Bakiyev family "ran the country like a criminal syndicate," says Professor Alexander Cooley of Columbia University. Worst of all, for the people of Kyrgyzstan and the region, Bakiyev and his allies soon began cracking down on opposition activism, on international observers such as the International Crisis Group, and on the U.S. presence in his country by threatening to expel American troops from the Manas airbase, a key staging post for NATO operations in Afghanistan.

But the swift collapse of the government isn't just a nightmare for the nervous rulers of the region; it's a serious cause for concern for both Central Asia's big neighbors, Russia and China, as well as for Western countries trying to fight wars against an Afghan insurgency as well as wider wars on terrorism and drugs. What Kyrgyzstan tells us is that the rulers of the oil-rich Central Asian nations are in fact far less stable than they pretend. Until the Tulip Revolution, four of the five former Soviet republics that make up the region were still run by the Communist-era strongmen—who controlled an estimated 35 percent of the world's natural-gas supplies. Two remain in power, Kazakhstan's 70-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbekistan's 72-year-old Islam Karimov. Both have been criticized for human-rights abuses, and the likelihood is that they will crack down even harder in response to the events in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek.

Bakiyev's ouster may make the West think again about its support for corrupt and unpopular regimes in the region. "Over the last few years, the West and the EU have posited a tradeoff between stability and governance," Cooley says. But Wednesday's events in Bishkek show "that's a false trade-off." In other words, repression and corruption weaken, rather than strengthen, regimes—and when they collapse, people remember who supported the hated despot. By that token, Russia, surprisingly enough, comes off looking better than the U.S. Moscow has been strongly critical of the Bakiyev regime for at least a year, ever since Bakiyev took a $300 million tranche of Kremlin aid money that came with the categorical (if secret) proviso that the Kyrgyz must kick the U.S. out of the Manas airbase in return. Instead, Bakiyev took the Russian money, doubled down on the Americans for more rent, and, in the process, made a sworn enemy of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"Neither Russia nor your humble servant have any links to the events in Kyrgyzstan," Putin told reporters, and he's probably telling the truth, since the limits of Russia's soft power in Kyrgyzstan were shown up by Moscow's failure to squeeze the Americans out of Manas. Still, Putin was unable to resist the temptation to twist the knife in the fallen president. "When Bakiyev came to power a few years ago he severely criticized his predecessor for nepotism—and now I have the impression that Bakiyev stepped on the same rake."

But though Russia has been the most prominent international critic of the Bakiyevs, Moscow's opportunities for leveraging that into soft and hard power are limited. U.S. rent on the Manas base, which was hiked last July from $17.1 million a year to $60 million, plus an additional $117 million for economic development, upgrading the airport, and fighting drug trafficking in the country, makes up a significant chunk of the nation's income. And it's unlikely that the incoming opposition leaders, who include former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva and veteran activist Temir Sariyev, will take an anti-U.S. stance. Indeed the U.S. Embassy criticized the imprisonment of Sariyev and his supporters over the last year, and the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz service remains the most trusted source of news for most Kyrgyz people, despite repeated government attempts to jam it.

The immediate cause of the latest protests couldn't have been more local—a protest at a rise in electricity tariffs, imposed by national utility companies controlled by the president's family. But their message is universal. In March, Bakiyev told a national congress that democracy based on elections and individual human rights would "no longer be suitable" for Kyrgyzstan and proposed a sham "consultative democracy" instead. Ordinary Kyrgyz obviously felt that less democracy would mean more corruption and came out on the streets to protest. Hopefully, the next government will learn the lesson that Bakiyev did not—and perhaps make Kyrgyzstan the first country in Central Asia to be both democratic and stable. Washington has both idealistic and very practical reasons to help make it so.

Obama, Russian president sign arms treaty

(CNN) -- President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a major nuclear arms control agreement that reduces the nuclear stockpiles of both nations.The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty -- known by its acronym, START-- builds on a previous agreement that expired in December.The two presidents signed documents and exchanged a firm handshake.
Obama has called the treaty "the most comprehensive arms control agreement in nearly two decades" and said it would cut the nuclear weapons of the United States and Russia by about a third.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he hopes Congress will ratify the treaty with a large bipartisan majority, as it has with previous arms control treaties."We are hopeful that reducing the threat of nuclear weapons remains a priority for both parties," Gibbs said.
The full treaty and its protocols will be posted online at some point Thursday, Gibbs said. Brian McKeon, a senior adviser to the White House's National Security Council and deputy national security adviser to the vice president, will lead the administration's ratification effort, Gibbs said.
Administration officials will begin briefing members of the Senate on Thursday on the particulars of the treaty.Gibbs said Obama was also briefed on the situation in Kyrgyzstan, where the opposition claimed control of government Wednesday after deadly protests across the country.
Obama will have dinner with heads of government from 11 countries -- Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.The highlight of the two-day trip is the new treaty with Russia, which is another step in nuclear arms relations between the former Cold War adversaries. Its signing comes two days after the Obama administration announced a new U.S. nuclear weapons policy and four days before Obama convenes a summit of 47 nations on nuclear security issues."It significantly reduces missiles and launchers," Obama said of the new treaty, which lasts for 10 years. "It puts in place a strong and effective verification regime. And it maintains the flexibility that we need to protect and advance our national security, and to guarantee our unwavering commitment to the security of our allies."
Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation a major priority of his presidency, prompting criticism from conservatives who fear the president will weaken the U.S. nuclear deterrent against possible attack.
"We believe that preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation should begin by directly confronting the two leading proliferators and supporters of terrorism, Iran and North Korea," according to a statement issued Tuesday by Arizona's two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl.
"The Obama administration's policies, thus far, have failed to do that and this failure has sent exactly the wrong message to other would-be proliferators and supporters of terrorism."According to information released by the White House, the new treaty limits both nations to "significantly fewer strategic arms within seven years" of its signing. One of the limits: 1,550 warheads."Warheads on deployed ICBMs [Intercontinental ballistic missiles] and deployed SLBMs [submarine-launched ballistic missiles] count toward this limit and each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead toward this limit," the White House said.
There also are limits on launchers.
The treaty also lays out a "verification regime" that includes on-site inspections, data exchanges and notifications, the White House said.
"The treaty does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs or current or planned United States long-range conventional strike capabilities," according to the White House.
Obama said the agreement is part of an effort to "reset" the U.S. relationship with Russia."With this agreement, the United States and Russia -- the two largest nuclear powers in the world -- also send a clear signal that we intend to lead," the president said. "By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities."
Negotiators have been working since April 2009 to wrap up the "follow-on" to the 1991 START agreement. Talks were difficult, with disagreements over verification, including on-site inspection of missiles that carry nuclear warheads.
A U.S. official with knowledge of the talks earlier said that negotiators had found "innovative" ways to verify what each side has. Verification will be a top issue politically because the U.S. Senate and the Russian parliament will each have to ratify any agreement.Russian officials at one point objected to the Obama administration's plans to build a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe. Specifically, they were angered by news leaks from Romania that it had agreed to allow missile interceptors to be installed in that country.
The issue, according to arms control experts, was resolved by including nonbinding language in the START treaty's preamble stating that there is a relationship between offensive and defensive weapons; however, the treaty itself deals only with limits on offensive weapons systems.
This resolution could help placate U.S. critics who want no link in the treaty between offensive and defensive weapons, arguing that it might be used to try to limit a U.S. missile-defense plan.
The new treaty would be the first pact related to arms control since the end of the Cold War, experts have said, setting the stage for further arms reductions that will tackle thorny issues such as what to do with nondeployed warheads that are kept in storage, tactical nuclear weapons and further cuts in missiles and launch vehicles.
Some of those issues are expected to come up at the nuclear security summit in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.

Obama, Russian president sign arms treaty

(CNN) -- President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a major nuclear arms control agreement that reduces the nuclear stockpiles of both nations.The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty -- known by its acronym, START-- builds on a previous agreement that expired in December.The two presidents signed documents and exchanged a firm handshake.
Obama has called the treaty "the most comprehensive arms control agreement in nearly two decades" and said it would cut the nuclear weapons of the United States and Russia by about a third.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he hopes Congress will ratify the treaty with a large bipartisan majority, as it has with previous arms control treaties."We are hopeful that reducing the threat of nuclear weapons remains a priority for both parties," Gibbs said.
The full treaty and its protocols will be posted online at some point Thursday, Gibbs said. Brian McKeon, a senior adviser to the White House's National Security Council and deputy national security adviser to the vice president, will lead the administration's ratification effort, Gibbs said.
Administration officials will begin briefing members of the Senate on Thursday on the particulars of the treaty.Gibbs said Obama was also briefed on the situation in Kyrgyzstan, where the opposition claimed control of government Wednesday after deadly protests across the country.
Obama will have dinner with heads of government from 11 countries -- Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.The highlight of the two-day trip is the new treaty with Russia, which is another step in nuclear arms relations between the former Cold War adversaries. Its signing comes two days after the Obama administration announced a new U.S. nuclear weapons policy and four days before Obama convenes a summit of 47 nations on nuclear security issues."It significantly reduces missiles and launchers," Obama said of the new treaty, which lasts for 10 years. "It puts in place a strong and effective verification regime. And it maintains the flexibility that we need to protect and advance our national security, and to guarantee our unwavering commitment to the security of our allies."
Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation a major priority of his presidency, prompting criticism from conservatives who fear the president will weaken the U.S. nuclear deterrent against possible attack.
"We believe that preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation should begin by directly confronting the two leading proliferators and supporters of terrorism, Iran and North Korea," according to a statement issued Tuesday by Arizona's two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl.
"The Obama administration's policies, thus far, have failed to do that and this failure has sent exactly the wrong message to other would-be proliferators and supporters of terrorism."According to information released by the White House, the new treaty limits both nations to "significantly fewer strategic arms within seven years" of its signing. One of the limits: 1,550 warheads."Warheads on deployed ICBMs [Intercontinental ballistic missiles] and deployed SLBMs [submarine-launched ballistic missiles] count toward this limit and each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead toward this limit," the White House said.
There also are limits on launchers.
The treaty also lays out a "verification regime" that includes on-site inspections, data exchanges and notifications, the White House said.
"The treaty does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs or current or planned United States long-range conventional strike capabilities," according to the White House.
Obama said the agreement is part of an effort to "reset" the U.S. relationship with Russia."With this agreement, the United States and Russia -- the two largest nuclear powers in the world -- also send a clear signal that we intend to lead," the president said. "By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities."
Negotiators have been working since April 2009 to wrap up the "follow-on" to the 1991 START agreement. Talks were difficult, with disagreements over verification, including on-site inspection of missiles that carry nuclear warheads.
A U.S. official with knowledge of the talks earlier said that negotiators had found "innovative" ways to verify what each side has. Verification will be a top issue politically because the U.S. Senate and the Russian parliament will each have to ratify any agreement.Russian officials at one point objected to the Obama administration's plans to build a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe. Specifically, they were angered by news leaks from Romania that it had agreed to allow missile interceptors to be installed in that country.
The issue, according to arms control experts, was resolved by including nonbinding language in the START treaty's preamble stating that there is a relationship between offensive and defensive weapons; however, the treaty itself deals only with limits on offensive weapons systems.
This resolution could help placate U.S. critics who want no link in the treaty between offensive and defensive weapons, arguing that it might be used to try to limit a U.S. missile-defense plan.
The new treaty would be the first pact related to arms control since the end of the Cold War, experts have said, setting the stage for further arms reductions that will tackle thorny issues such as what to do with nondeployed warheads that are kept in storage, tactical nuclear weapons and further cuts in missiles and launch vehicles.
Some of those issues are expected to come up at the nuclear security summit in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.

China assures Pak to back its demand for civil nuke deal with US

China has assured Pakistan that it would support the latter during the forthcoming nuclear summit in Washington on all issues, including Islamabad's long standing demand for a civil-nuclear deal with the US.According to sources privy to a special meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security, which was presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Beijing has assured of all help during Gilani's upcoming US visit.Sources said that Pakistan's Ambassador to China, Masood Khan, who participated in preliminary deliberations on the nuclear summit in Washington, briefed the committee on the objectives of the summit and Pakistan's preparations for it.A statement issued after the meeting quoted Gilani, as saying that Islamabad is aware about its responsibilities as a nuclear state."Pakistan had taken effective steps for nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation through 'extensive legislative and a regulatory and administrative framework'," The Daily Times quoted Gilani, as saying.Gilani, who is also the chairman of Pakistan's National Command Authority (NCA), said the objectives of nuclear non-proliferation, safety and security could only be served and promoted through a 'non-discriminatory paradigm' for international cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Bombing attempts on Peshawar schools

An attempt was made to blow up three government schools within an hour in Peshawar, Thursday.The police said that the first blast occurred in the Mehla Haiderzai area of Thana Bhana Mari where a bomb was planted in the main gate of the government girls high school. The bomb went off and completely destroyed the front part of the building.The second blast occurred in a government school in Reigi, and the third one occurred at Safed Dhairi Government Boys Middle School.The police has filed an FIR and has started the investigation.

US-Afghan relations sink further as Hamid Karzai accused of drug abuse

Guardian-Former UN diplomat Peter Galbraith questions Afghan premier's mental stability.The war of words between the former deputy head of the UN mission to Afghanistan and the country's president escalated last night when Peter Galbraith suggested that Hamid Karzai's "mental stability" was in question and that he has a substance abuse problem.Galbraith, the US diplomat who worked for the UN in Kabul until last year, made his remarks live on US television. His comments come as the White House considers withdrawing an invitation for Karzai to meet Barack Obama in Washington next month.Galbraith, the former UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, was responding to allegations first made by Karzai last Thursday that the international community and Galbraith in particular had been responsible for "massive fraud" during last year's disastrous presidential election."He's prone to tirades, he can be very emotional, act impulsively," Galbraith said on MSNBC television. "In fact some of the palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan's most profitable exports."Then asked whether he was saying Karzai had a substance abuse problem, Galbraith said there were "reports to that effect"."This continued tirade raises questions about his mental stability and frankly this has been of concern to diplomats in Kabul."Siamak Hirawi, a presidential spokesman, rejected Galbraith's claims and said the palace condemned the US diplomat's remarks."What Mr Galbraith said is far away from the principle of diplomacy and it simply confirms what President Karzai was saying about [Galbraith's] involvement in corruption."A White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, has said the US will consider cancelling Karzai's invitation to meet Obama in Washington on 12 May in the light of any "further remarks" the Afghan president makes.The foreign secretary, David Miliband, has intervened in the row, saying that "malign suggestions" the UK was involved in interfering with the elections were "completely without foundation".Karzai's claims that foreigners were responsible for "very widespread fraud" during the election were first made shortly after Barack Obama made a fleeting visit to Kabul last week.The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, tried to defuse the row during a phone call with Karzai on Friday, but he went on to repeat his claims to Afghan MPs and rhetorically threatened to "join the Taliban" if foreigners continued to interfere in the country's affairs.
On Sunday, during a trip to Kandahar, he told the BBC that he stood by his allegations despite the furore they had created.There is some evidence that by sticking up for Afghan sovereignty he has gained some kudos among ordinary Afghans, but many MPs and members of the country's establishment have been horrified to see him jeopardise the critical Afghan-US relationship.The controversy has emboldened his enemies to bring to public attention two issues that hitherto had been confined to the Kabul diplomatic rumour mill: Karzai's mental health and his alleged use of drugs.Last week Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition leader who polled second in last year's election, said Karzai's behaviour recently had been "erratic" and that "as a former colleague and doctor I think this is beyond a normal attitude".
In a move seen by some as a tactic to calm the row with his key allies, the Afghan government has announced that the much criticised head and deputy head of the country's election commission has stepped down and will not oversee September's parliamentary vote. The retirement of Azizullah Ludin and Daoud Ali Najafi had been a key condition of the international community, which had threatened to withhold funding for the next election.One western diplomat said the announcement had been long expected. "The question now is who Karzai appoints to replace them and whether it is a constructive or spiteful appointment. Will he simply pick another Ludin or will he find someone who is impartial?"

Kyrgyzstan Opposition Says Rule Will Last 6 Months

New York Times
MOSCOW — After a day of bloody protests against the repressive rule of the president of Kyrgyzstan, which forced him to flee the capital of Bishkek, an opposition leader said on Thursday that a transitional government had taken over, dissolved parliament and would remain in power for six months.

The unrest which erupted on Wednesday seemed to pose a potential threat to a critical American air base supporting the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan. But Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister who has emerged as head of a coalition of opposition groups, was quoted on Thursday as saying the supply line would not be immediately affected.

“Its status quo will remain in place,” Reuters quoted her as saying at a news conference in the Parliament building. But she warned: “We still have some questions on it. Give us time and we will listen to all the sides and solve everything.”

Opposition politicians, speaking on state television after it was seized by protesters Wednesday, said they had taken control of the government after a day of violent clashes that left more than 40 people dead and more than 400 wounded. Some news reports on Thursday put the death toll at more than 60.

The Associated Press and Russian news reports quoted her as saying an interim government would rule for six months.

“You can call this revolution. You can call this a people’s revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy,” she said. The unrest threatened to have regional consequences and neighboring Uzbekistan closed its border with Kyrgyzstan, Reuters reported.

On Wednesday, riot police officers fired into angry crowds of demonstrators who gathered around government buildings to rally against what they termed the government’s brutality and corruption, as well as a recent decision to increase utility rates sharply. Witnesses said that the police seemed to panic, and that there was no sign of supervision. In several cases, demonstrators wrested their weapons away from them.

By early Thursday morning, opposition officials occupied many government buildings in Bishkek, and were demanding that the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, sign a formal letter of resignation. Mr. Bakiyev has issued no public remarks since the protests began. An official at the Bishkek airport said Mr. Bakiyev was flying to Osh, a major city in the southern part of the country.

Ms. Otunbayeva was quoted in news reports as saying Mr. Bakiyev had fled to the south of the country and was seeking to marshal support among his followers there.

There was no immediate public response from Mr. Bakiyev to an apparent offer by Ms. Otunbayeva to negotiate his formal departure from power.

A coalition of opposition parties said Wednesday that Ms. Otunbayeva would head the transition government.. “Power is now in the hands of the people’s government,” she said in a televised address on Wednesday evening.

Those same opposition leaders were angered last spring when Obama administration officials courted Mr. Bakiyev — who they admitted was an autocrat — in an ultimately successful attempt to retain rights to the military base, Manas, used to supply troops in Afghanistan. President Obama even sent him a letter of praise.

Russia had offered Mr. Bakiyev a sizable amount in new aid, which the United States interpreted as an effort to persuade him to close the base in order to limit the American military presence in Russia’s sphere of influence. After vowing to evict the Americans last year, Mr. Bakiyev reversed course once the administration agreed to pay much higher rent for the base.

An American official said late on Wednesday that flights into the base at Manas had been suspended. Lt. Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for United States Central Command, said late on Wednesday that some troops and equipment scheduled to transit from Manas to Afghanistan were likely to be delayed because of the government upheaval and that the military was preparing to use other routes.

The American attitude toward Mr. Bakiyev ruffled opposition politicians in Kyrgyzstan, who said it was shameful for the United States to stand for democratic values in the developing world while maintaining an alliance with him.

The Kyrgyz president’s son, Maksim, had been scheduled to be in Washington on Thursday for talks with administration officials. The opposition views the younger Mr. Bakiyev as a vicious henchman for his father, and was infuriated that he was granted an audience. The State Department said late on Wednesday that it had canceled the meetings.

Opposition leaders have been divided in recent weeks over whether they would continue to allow the American military base to remain, but it seems clear that they harbor bitterness toward the United States. And neighboring Russia, which has long resented the base, has been currying favor with the opposition.

“The political behavior of the United States has created a situation where the new authorities may want to look more to Russia than to the United States, and it will strengthen their political will to rebuff the United States,” said Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition leader who fled Kyrgyzstan last August in fear for his life.

Mr. Beshimov was one of numerous opposition politicians and journalists who in recent years have been threatened, beaten and even killed. Kyrgyzstan, with five million people in the mountains of Central Asia, is one of the poorest countries of the former Soviet Union, and has long been troubled by political conflict and corruption. Mr. Bakiyev himself took power in 2005 after the Tulip Revolution, one of a series of so-called color revolutions that seemed to offer hope of more democracy in former Soviet republics. Since then, the Kyrgyz human rights situation has deteriorated. Mr. Bakiyev easily won another term as president last year, but independent monitors said the election was tainted by extensive fraud.

Tensions in Kyrgyzstan have been brewing for months, and seemed to be touched off in the provincial city of Talas on Tuesday by protests over soaring utility rates. Then on Wednesday, thousands of people began massing in Bishkek, where they were met by heavily armed riot police officers. Dmitri Kabak, director of a local human rights group in Bishkek, said in a telephone interview that he was monitoring the protest when riot police officers started shooting. “When people started marching toward the presidential office, snipers on the roof of the office started to open fire, with live bullets,” Mr. Kabak said. “I saw several people who were killed right there on the square.”

Dinara Saginbayeva, a Kyrgyz health official, said in a telephone interview that the death toll could rise, and that more than 350 people had been wounded in Bishkek alone. Opposition leaders said as many as 100 people may have died.

While the fighting was raging, security forces still loyal to the president arrested several prominent opposition leaders, including Omurbek Tekebayev, a former speaker of Parliament, and Almazbek Atambayev, a former prime minister and presidential candidate. They were later released after the government’s resistance appeared to wither.

While opposition leaders have promised to pursue a less authoritarian course, Central Asia has not proved fertile ground for democracy. Mr. Bakiyev himself took office declaring that he would respect political freedoms.

Whatever happens domestically, a new government will have decide how to balance the interests of the United States and Russia, which both have military bases in Kyrgyzstan and want to maintain a presence in the region. Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asia project director for International Crisis Group, a research organization, said Russia had stoked anti-American sentiment in Kyrgyzstan in recent months, often over the issue of the base.

Nevertheless, Mr. Quinn-Judge said he suspected that opposition politicians would in the end decide to permit the base, though not before giving the United States a hard time. “My gut feeling is that it can be smoothed over,” he said. “But they have got to move fast to reach out to the opposition, and do it with a certain degree of humility.”

NA approves Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw as new name for NWFP

National Assembly approved to rename the NWFP as Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw with majority of votes.The members of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) suggested to the House the amendments in Section-3 of the Bill relating the name of the NWFP. However, Chairman Constitutional Reforms Committee of the Parliament Mian Raza Rabbani baulked at the proposals.The name of Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw was adopted with 264 votes of support. At least 20 votes were against the new proposed name.

IDPs from tribal areas

Not only has the theatre of war against the militants in the northwest expanded in recent times, it has also extracted a heavy price in the process by displacing people from various affected areas on a very large scale. The fact must be kept in mind and both state and civil society should come to the aid of the IDPs. According to one relief agency, it has registered over 1.3 million IDPs from the tribal areas. The exodus from Orakzai Agency alone amounts to over 75,000 tribesmen at even conservative estimates. Parts of the agency have reportedly turned into ghost towns where starving children search for food. Unsurprisingly, the battle against militancy has led to mass migration, with people seeking refuge in Kohat and Hangu districts and Khyber Agency. The exodus was a predictable consequence of the operation against the militants, but little evidence is available of the state having made efforts to mitigate the IDPs' suffering. The sole relief camp in the area is in Hangu district, accommodating less than 4,000 people. There is no room for the hundreds of people streaming into the area everyday. Apparently, no relief camp exists in Kohat district, where over 22,000 IDPs have registered themselves with the social welfare department.

This is an unacceptable situation. The IDPs are caught in a war that is not of their making and they have a right to receive the state's protection. Tackling the militants must of course continue with full force — after all, just on Wednesday militants blew up five schools and a basic health unit in the Utmankhel area of Orakzai Agency. But the fallout on ordinary citizens must be mitigated as far as possible. The conflict must speedily be brought to a successful closure. Meanwhile, efforts are needed towards setting up relief camps.