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May
10, 2001
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But the image of Mr. Akayev and his tiny country
have been tarnished in recent months. Political rivals have been jailed,
opposition newspapers and independent television stations have been intimidated
and silenced and, most damaging, international observers condemned Mr. Akayev's
re-election last October as a sham.
The former university professor says he is
determined to restore the prestige that he acknowledges he and his country have
lost. Regaining the attention and respect of foreign leaders and international
lenders is essential for any hope of prosperity in this nation, which lacks the
energy resources of its neighbors.
"We admit that we made mistakes and we are
fully committed to correct them and stay on the track of democracy," Mr.
Akayev said in a 90-minute interview at his residence in an orchard-filled park
on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital.
Mr. Akayev then outlined what he knows foreign
lenders would like to hear. His top priority, he said, is a new national plan
for micro-credit loans to alleviate the extreme poverty that grips much of the
country. He described the importance of the ombudsman post being created to
monitor human rights. And he promised to work with opposition politicians and
independent journalists.
"As Victor Hugo said, the real mistake is
the one that cannot be corrected," said Mr. Akayev, 56, sounding more like
a penitent than the autocrat his critics say he has become after nearly a
decade in office as Kyrgyzstan's first president after its independence.
"I'm glad to hear that he acknowledges the
mistakes because they are obvious and bad," said Christoph Schuepp,
country director of Internews, an American-based foundation that promotes press
freedom. "But the media is still under enormous pressure."
A Western diplomat gave Mr. Akayev credit for
some positive steps, like authorizing elections of local officials and adopting
a progressive needle-exchange program to combat drug-related diseases. But he
said each step forward seems to be matched by at least one step back.
One of Mr. Akayev's earliest supporters, Feliks
Kulov, is serving a seven-year prison sentence on charges supporters say were
trumped up to keep him from opposing Mr. Akayev in last year's presidential
race.
Mr. Kulov was acquitted last August by a military
court of charges he abused his office while he was vice president, but an
appeals court found him guilty of the same charges and sentenced him to prison.
After the presidential election, Mr. Akayev
appointed a former Communist Party boss known for his hard- line attitude as
his new chief of staff.
Mr. Akayev knows democracy is one of the few
products Kyrgyzstan has to market, particularly if he wants to keep
international aid flowing and tourists arriving to trek in the rugged Tien Shan
and Pamir Mountains, whose soaring peaksare called the Roof of the World.
Kyrgyzstan's only other major resource is the
network of rivers and dams that regulate the flow of water essential to the
farmlands and cotton fields of the Ferghana Valley and the production of
electricity.
The limited resources have left the country with
an anemic economy. Per capita income is about $300 a year, less than $1 a day,
and declining.
The poverty and outbreaks of violence by Islamic
insurgents in southern Kyrgyzstan during the past two summers have raised
tensions, particularly in southern Kyrgyzstan where ethnic Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and
Tajiks live in sometimes uneasy proximity.
President Islam Karimov of neighboring Uzbekistan
has responded to the Islamic radicals with mass arrests, something Mr. Akayev
has avoided so far. The way to counter the appeal of the militants, he said, is
by alleviating poverty.
"In some cases these people live in extreme
poverty and for that reason the ideas of the Islamic fundamentalists are
appealing to them," he said. "Only economic well being and education
will help us in defeating extremism."
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