New Ambassador Hails Birth of Democracy in Kyrgyzstan by Larry Luxner It’s been a busy month for Zamira Sydykova. On July 10, the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan held free and fair elections for the first time since independence in 1990. The next day at a White House ceremony, the 44-year-old Sydykova presented her credentials to President Bush as Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to the United States. The very next day, the new ambassador granted her first interview to a U.S. publication, The Washington Diplomat. “It took us 15 years to get to where we are right now, with freedom of speech and a free press,” Sydykova said through her translator and economic attaché, Sarina Abdysheva. “The presence of human rights organizations gave us an opportunity to fight against the dictatorship.” Being interviewed was a new experience for Sydykova, who—as one of Kyrgyzstan’s best-known journalists—is more used to asking questions than answering them. That pesky habit landed her in prison during the regime of post-Soviet autocrat Askar Akayev, who fled the country in late March after street revolts in Bishkek, the capital. Since then, Kyrgyzstan has been ruled by the acting president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who won 88 percent of the votes in the July 10 election. That compares to only 3 pe rcent for the second-place finisher and 9 percent for the other four candidates combined—although Sydykova, democracy activists and foreign monitors agree that the balloting was fair. “For the first time in the history of our country, the presidential elections were transparent and clear,” she said. “Kyrgyzstan might be one of the few examples, if not the only example, of a democracy in Central Asia. I’m not afraid to say that.” A European-based election observer just back from Kyrgyzstan told The Diplomat that the balloting was “reasonably free and fair”—and “a whole lot better” than parliamentary elections in March. “There was a real sense of pride, and election workers were absolutely thrilled to show us around,” said the observer, who asked not to be identified. “We spent most of election day driving around polling stations 45 minutes from Bishkek. People were out there voting. There were a few problems but nothing that suggested widespread fraud.” Roughly the size of Minnesota and just as cold in the winter, mountainous Kyrgyzstan has 5.5 million inhabitants and is one of the poorest and least-visited of the 15 former Soviet republics. Until recently, its only ruler had been Akayev. First elected in 1990, Akayev was returned to office in 1995 and again in 2000 in balloting that observers widely said were tainted by fraud. Earlier this year, the Kyrgyz people finally got tired of Akayev’s dictatorial rule and forced him out of office in a single day—March 24. That compares to the mass demonstrations in Georgia and Ukraine that went on for weeks before those countries’ authoritarian regimes were toppled. “The force that brought Georgia to revolution began prior to their parliamentary elections. That was the main reason for their uprising,” said Sydykova. “In our case, the movement against the old regime began after the unfair parliamentary elections in February. All six districts in Kyrgyzstan participated in the revolution, during which Akayev was left alone with a few supporters and family members who stayed in the official residence.” Next Page