By Zoya Pylenko (7/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: A recent International Crisis Group Report termed the March events in Kyrgyzstan as “less a revolution than a process of state collapse”. And this situation of lawlessness and anarchy creates perfect conditions for people to illegally seize property. The most advertised of such incidents was the capture of a coalmine in Kara-Keche, in the Naryn region of central Kyrgyzstan, by workers of the enterprise.

By Stephen Blank (7/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: In Pakistan’s case, President Pervez Musharraf has said, “We are short of energy. We want gas immediately. Our industry is suffering; investment coming to Pakistan is suffering, so Pakistan’s interest is to get gas fast.

By Fredrik M. Sjoberg (7/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: On Sunday July 10, Kyrgyzstan elected Kurmanbek Bakiev as its new president with the astonishing figure of 89 percent in an election that was a considerably improvement over the February parliamentary elections, according to the OSCE. This was considered by many as the final act in the “Tulip Revolution” that started with the fraudulent elections in February and led to the ousting of longtime president Akaev. The most basic dividing line in Kyrgyz politics is the north-south divide, the south being politically marginalized since Soviet times and more traditional and characterized by a large Uzbek minority.