Cutting off the Kyrgyzstanis

When things got ugly at the Myanmar Times last November, a few of my colleagues jumped ship and found work at an opposition newspaper in vowel-challenged Kyrgyzstan. There, we reasoned, they'd be dealing with the kind of self-censorship that comes with knowing that printing the wrong thing will get your legs broken (the Indonesian system), but they'd be free of the systematic government-sponsored censorship dictators prefer. Well, we were wrong. In Bishkek (that's the capital; also, Kyrgyz for "churn of mare's milk") the Kyrgyz government stands accused of cutting off the power supply to a major printing press the week before elections. (Subtle, guys!) Radio broadcasts were also disrupted, prompting Kyrgyz protests. Parliamentary elections went ahead yesterday, and results are still coming in. President Askar Akayev's term is up this year, but if he gets enough of his supporters into power, he'll likely try to change the constitution and grant himself a longer stay. If he gracefully exits, he'll be the first post-Soviet Central Asian president to leave without being forced.