DISPATCHES | R.B. MORENO

The View from a Little House

2012-02-02T23:06:00.002-06:00

January 16, 2012 -- Snowfall at dusk obscures the shores of a silver lake outside a little town called De Smet, South Dakota. Nearby, a sign points 275 miles east to Laura and Mary Ingalls' birthplace in the big woods of Wisconsin; 12 miles southwest to Laura's golden years at the Brewster School; and 2.5 miles north to her first four years on Almanzo Wilder's claim.

Photo of the Day

2012-01-18T19:27:00.000-06:00

January 18, 2012 -- A farewell message from a suburb outside Pierre, South Dakota, which is still recovering from its worst Missouri River flooding since 1952. Down the block, Lewis and Clark first came upon the Sioux Nation in 1804. Temperatures in the state capital are dipping below 0°F tonight.

The View from Highway 81

2012-01-17T00:06:00.000-06:00

January 16, 2012 -- The view from U.S. Route 81 and the road to the Ingalls Homestead, a particularly storied quarter-section, like the one pictured above, outside De Smet, South Dakota.

Still Feeling Festive?

2012-01-11T14:30:00.000-06:00

Join RBM and friends for a reading on February 29 at the Festival of Language, an off-site event of the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Chicago. Also on the roster: Janée J. Baugher, Jamison Christopher Lee, Ewa Chrusciel, Jordan Cox, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Ryan Clark, Pankaj Challa, Michelle Weber Cusack, David Stevenson, Marilyn Carr, Leslie Raine Carman, Jane L Carman, Kirstin Hotelling Zona, Evan Nave, Meg Tuite, Janice Lee, Debra Di Blasi, Dan Libman, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Kirk Nesset, Cortez Cruz, John Domini, Alan Lin, Lance Olsen, Dina Elenbogen, David Hamilton, Holms Troelstrup, Kass Fleisher, Daniel Nester, Anna March, Lasantha Rodrigo, Kate Dusenbery, Robert Vaughan, Cris Mazza, Andy Farnsworth, David Hamilton, Jeff Grieneisen, Steve Halle, Elizabeth Hatmaker, Davis Schneiderman, Quintus Havis, Gabriel Gudding, Deborah Henry, Erika Wurth, Anna Joy Springer, Michael Mejia, Steve Tomasula, Tom C. Hunley and Lidia Yuknavitch. There's more information at AWPWriter.org.

The View from Ape Cave

2011-12-29T23:13:00.003-06:00

December 28, 2011 -- The view from Washington's Ape Cave, a 2.4-mile basalt tube created from molten lava that also helped to form nearby Mount St. Helens.

Photo of the Day

2011-12-29T22:31:00.000-06:00

December 26, 2011 -- The view from Portland Japanese Garden's karesansui (literally, "dry landscape").

Photo of the Day

2011-12-01T23:33:00.000-06:00

November 27, 2011 -- The light changes on Highway 81 outside South Branch, Nebraska.

Photo of the Day

2011-12-01T23:24:00.000-06:00

November, 23, 2011 -- The light changes on the 1600 block of Wazee Street in Denver.

The View from Danforth Chapel

2011-10-29T22:36:00.006-05:00

October 29, 2011 -- The University of South Dakota's biennial John R. Milton Writers' Conference has just concluded with a generous reading from Mark Spragg (above, in a coat), whose work as a ranch hand in Wyoming began at age 11 and paid $30 a month, plus three squares a day. That boyhood, and an education from the likes of Robert Roripaugh (in denim), now a professor emeritus and a former Wyoming poet laureate, has inspired three novels, a memoir, and a feature film.

Earlier conference highlights included readings from David Marshall Chan (in black) and six other featured authors. RBM moderated two panels and on Friday read from a manuscript, Zen and the Art of Conquest, at USD's Danforth Chapel (also pictured above).

The View from Dakota Hall

2011-10-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

September 30, 2011 -- RBM (reluctantly!) leaves one journal's nonfiction staff for another as a double issue of South Dakota Review departs the Great Plains for a mailbox near you. On the front cover: Sacro Wi (Sundancer, 1967) by Oscar Howe, whose artwork is on display at SouthDakotaReview.com and in a permanent collection of the University of South Dakota. On the back cover: 30 poets, 7 authors of fiction, and 2 essayists, Dionisia Morales ("Blue Means Water") and Yelizaveta Renfro ("Song of the Redwood Tree").

Speaking of the Bigger Stuff

2011-09-17T22:35:00.000-05:00

via "Remembering Osh"

RBM's essay "I'd Like to Talk About the Bigger Stuff," which won Phoebe's inaugural nonfiction contest and appeared in print earlier this year, is now available online. Another excerpt:

To the west, through the helicopter’s tea-colored portals, I can see Uzbekistan; the cotton fields and cherry trees of the Fergana Valley; and a long, maniacal border severing one village from the next. I imagine, for a moment, an engorged Stalin, dragging a fountain pen down a wide gray map. Skirting his line, as though his hand ignored the topography, march row after row of mountaintops. They look cold and lifeless from on high. They divide Bishkek from the farmlands and become impassable in winter. Reminding the Russified Kyrgyz, who prefer white rice, of those hotheaded Uzbeks, who prefer red. But that’s enough imperial history.

To read this and more from Phoebe 40.2, as well as other debut nonfiction, visit PhoebeJournal.com.

What Happened Yesterday in Baghdad

2011-09-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

via WLAJournal.com

RBM's essay "What Happened Yesterday in Baghdad," which debuted last fall at the U.S. Air Force Academy's War, Literature, and the Arts conference, is soon to be out in print. An excerpt:

Once, when I was young and intent on becoming a Texas cattleman who also apprehended bandits, my parents commissioned a sepia portrait at the county fair. For about $25, families could select frontier costumes and stand inside a saloon as flashbulbs illuminated the scene. My mother, pictured wearing ostrich feathers and a broach, refused to distribute the photo the following Christmas on account of liquor bottles visible in the background. But the original has hung for years in our hallway. The visage of the boy at her side is somehow indelible: my pudgy, adolescent jowls expressionless beneath a top hat, one small hand gripping a cane, the other pocketing a revolver. I hadn’t examined it closely until recently. Then, late one August night, I saw what looked like the same boy online, in another portrait titled Great Times Together.

To read this essay in full and others from Teri Carter, Leila Levinson, and Joseph Bathanti, as well as fiction and poetry, browse WLA 23 at WLAJournal.com.

The View from Wall Drug

2011-09-15T14:52:00.000-05:00

August 15, 2011 -- Toys, taxidermy, and a Trappist chapel for customers at Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. The placard at the chapel's entrance celebrates “the priests and ministers who have served on the wall of the Badlands since 1909.”

The View from Vermillion

2011-09-10T18:40:00.000-05:00

Above: a sampling of South Dakota's state barbecuing championship, which offers $10,000 in prize money to connoisseurs of ribs, chicken, pork, and beef brisket from as far as Florida.

The View from Lummi Island

2011-09-03T20:39:00.000-05:00

Above: Washington's Mount Baker and the 93-foot ferry Whatcom Chief as seen from low tide on Lummi Island.

Photo of the Day

2011-08-29T02:04:00.000-05:00

August 15, 2011 -- Boy meets old world at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

The View from Harney Peak

2011-08-29T01:48:00.000-05:00

Above: pictures from an August trek up South Dakota's Harney Peak and other Black Hills.

The View from Highway 18

2011-08-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

August 14, 2011 -- Westbound motorcyclists follow U.S. Route 18 and points north after converging in Sturgis, South Dakota. Attendance was slightly down amidst the recession but as in years past, the 2011 rally turned violent.

The View from Grapevine

2011-07-23T01:32:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Above: Thursday's sunset over Dallas, Texas, where temperatures are climbing into triple digits this week. The 2011 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference heats up in nearby Grapevine on Saturday and Sunday with lectures from long-form journalist Ted Conover and The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten.

Tonight's opening remarks at the DFW Hilton, below, came from essayist Diane Ackerman who contends that she would rewrite every book she's authored, given the chance. "It's hard to stop working," Ackerman explained.

I asked her about the recent wave of memoir criticism in editorial circles, which she rejected. (See this dispatch for more background.) Ackerman said she happily borrows techniques from fiction and enjoys testing boundaries, but can't consider one genre exclusive of another.

Then how, someone else followed up, do we avoid tiresome memoirs?

"I'm a firm believer in being as specific and detailed as possible," was Ackerman's reply. "Just that alone will create something universal. Having it be interesting enough? There's the rub."

Remarks from Paul Theroux at the same venue a couple of years ago finished with this advice, which has been hard to ignore: "Leave home, tell the truth, you'll be all right."

Ready for the rest of the Mayborn lineup, over the years? It's become something of a nonfiction grocery list: Mary Karr, Mark Bowden, and Gary Smith; Ira Glass and Alma Guillermoprieto; N. Scott Momaday, Bob Shacochis, and Candice Millard; Mary Roach, Allison Hedge Coke, and Joyce Carol Oates; Hampton Sides, Melissa Fay Greene, and Gay Talese; and Susan Orlean and Norman Pearlstine, among others.

Photo of the Day

2011-07-16T20:44:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

July 15, 2011 -- A dip with Plum and other Alaska natives in the Cache La Poudre River's Seaman Reservoir. Do you swim with dogs? It gets strange in this dispatch and "I'd Like to Talk About the Bigger Stuff."

Photo of the Day

2011-07-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

July 3, 2011 -- Independence Day approaches at the Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado.

The View from Yantaló

2011-07-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

"Agustin" (via Ana Moreno)

By R.B. Moreno

Every so often -- more often, in the age of the social network -- someone working in a foreign place sends me a tale just as fishy as it is fascinating. You know these gems. They involve a village and a wilderness. They're carried on the lips of backpackers and aid workers. But rarely are these stories accompanied by a sharp photo, and rarer still is the chance to share them on tape or in lively prose. (There are exceptions here, here, and here.)

Enter "Journal #5," an e-mail that arrived over the weekend from Ana Moreno, my sister and a Paraguay RPCV now studying rural medicine. An extension program of the University of Washington has placed Ana in a remote corner of San Martín this summer. It's newly-governed Peru's gateway to the Amazon and a region known, among other things, for orchids in varieties that probably outnumber your friends (online and otherwise). But that's enough prologue. Here with Ana's permission is "Journal #5." And our storyteller -- but of course -- a fisherman:

Today my 89 year-old landlord, Agustin, told me that he once caught a mermaid. He was fishing in a river not too far from Yantaló and his net pulled up a woman, gringa from the waist up and shiny scales from the waist down. He told me that mermaids communicate by whistling, kind of like dolphins, so she just looked at him and he let her go. “It’s too bad there aren’t any mermaids in this region anymore,” he said. “It must be because of all the people and pollution in the environment. They must have gone somewhere else.” He was completely serious. We were sitting around the table after lunch, and Agustin’s granddaughter was there too. She is one of the most educated people I’ve met here, currently in her last year of dental school in Tarapoto and home for a few days of vacation. She wasn’t smiling either -- this tale of the mermaid was completely true to her. I asked what other Amazonian creatures are disappearing, and the stories began:

It turns out there is also something called a chujachaki, which Agustin describes as a sort of dwarf that looks like a short man with big ears and only four toes. They live in virgin jungles, and their job is to protect the forest. In fact, one day a long time ago when Agustin’s cousin was 8 years old, she was kidnapped by one of the chujachaki and carried deep into the woods. The town organized a search party, which found her the next day unconscious in the top of a tree. She didn’t wake up for seven days. When she finally came to, she was traumatized to the point that she was left with mental health issues for the rest of her life. At the time this happened there was a Spanish priest living in Moyobamba, and he was called to perform an exorcism on the girl. He told them she was taken by this devilish animal because the family was Evangelical hadn’t baptized any of their 12 children. Wanting protection, they became devout Catholics and the two youngest siblings still work as nuns to this day.

Then there are the bujeos colorados, a dolphin-like creature that turns into the form of a man and can steal women away, never to be seen by their families again. There is also a type of fairy that looks like a little man only a few inches tall, that lives among the banana trees and takes care of the crops. The yacuruna is a water ghost, which used to be seen under the bridge in Yantaló when the full moon was out. They protected the river, and appeared in order to scare away any fisherman who came near. Nowadays these beings are seen only rarely, but Agustin remembers when they were a part of everyday life.

Every culture has its myths and legends that are passed down through the generations, but what is striking to me is the absolute certainty with which these stories were related to me. Between Agustin, his granddaughter, and the other people around the table there was someone who claimed to have personally seen each of the beings they spoke of. I found myself becoming convinced as well. Who is to say that the old-timers weren’t actually witness to jungle animals that have since disappeared with the arrival of modernity and the region’s subsequent ecological destruction? And where is the line between fact and fiction in a place where scientific investigation is a recent arrival, and oral histories have always served as the only form of record keeping? If anyone would know what was here before, it is those that lived in such close communion with the jungle and whose lives depended on nature’s will. I’d like to think that maybe there actually is some magic left in the world that science still hasn't touched.

For more on Ana's life overseas, see this profile and our 2008 road trip through Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.

A Review of Byliner.com

2011-06-30T18:25:00.000-05:00

"Mars" (via Brevity)

A guest review by RBM of debut nonfiction at Byliner.com, "Three Cups of Veritas," appears today on Brevity's nonfiction blog thanks to editor (and co-godfather) Dinty W. Moore. An excerpt:

“In the face of violence and intimidation, Afghans are fighting and dying for their country, establishing local police forces, opening markets and schools, creating new opportunities for women and girls, and trying to turn the page on decades of war,” the president is saying confidently. But the modesty of his blue tie conveys less optimism.

“The way I’ve always understood Greg” (Mortenson), one embittered anthropologist tells [Jon] Krakauer in the closing pages of Three Cups of Deceit, “is that he’s a symptom of Afghanistan. Things are so bad that everybody’s desperate for even one good-news story. And Greg is it. Everything else might be completely fucked up over there, but here’s this guy who’s persuaded the world that he’s making a difference and doing things right.”

Meanwhile, on Oshima Island, some 100 miles from Fukushima, Grandma Fumiko, almost 80 and the matriarch of the Murakami family, has already awoken to a ruined house. She is perhaps looking out to sea and recalling the curious American in a spotted raincoat who recently remarked that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it seemed particularly sad that her countrymen should again be fearing an invisible fallout. (The old woman clutched at a bamboo stick to escape the magnitude 9.0 mayhem of March 11; “I saw the wave: lots of bubbles, so it was white. It was low.”)

“The Murakami family’s is the last tsunami story I will tell,” writes William T. Vollmann, almost apologetically, halfway through Into the Forbidden Zone.

For another favorite Brevity post that's garnered just a few more comments, see our update to RBM's "In an Age of Great Nonfiction Writing, Too Much Nonfiction Writing?" And for Brevity's current issue, a tribute to tornado-ravaged Tuscaloosa, visit CreativeNonfiction.org.

Update (July 1, 2011) -- "Three Cups of Veritas" has been cross-posted with additional links to the editor's blog at Colorado State University's Center for Literary Publishing, where RBM has periodically worked on Colorado Review nonfiction. Check out this blog's "publishing" tag for his other CLP posts.

Remembering Osh (Updated)

2011-06-19T21:55:00.000-05:00

Volunteers reach the safety of a helicopter in Osh (via "Exit Osh")

Another former Peace Corps volunteer recently based in southern Kyrgyzstan has contributed some thoughtful commentary in response to "Remembering Osh," last weekend's dispatch on the first anniversary of the Central Asian province's interthnic riots.

Along with several of RBM's colleagues whose service ended as a result of the fighting, Peter Andrew Clark went to work -- almost immediately and for months afterward -- on behalf of a Western aid organization operating on the ground in Kyrgyzstan. Clark signed up to coordinate temporary housing in Osh. He now lives in New York and writes, in part:

In June of 2010, the world was reminded of a simple, general reality: Kyrgyz and Uzbek people do not like each other. These woes arise from even more widespread malaise and grief -- both sides feel victimized. Rumors have always spread about economic suppression. Kyrgyz blame Uzbeks; Uzbeks blame Kyrgyz. Kyrgyz villagers blame the rich Uzbek businessmen in Osh city for dishonest business practices. Uzbek businessmen blame the rural, uneducated Kyrgyz farmers for spreading mendacious propaganda thereby ensuring more discord. Unfortunately, these vicious rumors have rooted themselves in the culture to the point where many observers now simply see it as racism.

And on the edges of this problem are most international organizations. There have been international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in Kyrgyzstan since the fall of the Soviet Union. Some have advised economically. Some have tried to better the dietary habits in rural areas. Some have even worked in the South of the country to prevent ethnic disputes and conflicts. But none of these organizations have integrated quite like Peace Corps. Unique among them all, Peace Corps volunteers, however callow they may seem, work with idealism and hope. The volunteers learn the Kyrgyz language, and oftentimes the Uzbek language, and live with families. The volunteers learn the names of shop owners and shake the hands of every little boy in their village. And unlike most of the other INGOs that function out of the two largest cities of Bishkek and Osh, Peace Corps is inside of the conflicts, often in a very tangible way. And it is from these grassroots efforts that Peace Corps sets itself apart from all other organizations, and it is this freedom to inspire change from the disenfranchised and downtrodden that should rally more support for Peace Corps volunteers.

One of the many criticisms of Peace Corps have been its manipulative bureaucracy (easily traceable to Washington) and the horde of neophytes it brings into the world of international aid. Many reasonable critics have also denounced it as a political arm of the State Department and a vehicle for American interests abroad. One cannot deny the organization's potential for these insidious doings just as it cannot deny the organizations potential for peaceful, cheap and productive change. Ironically, Peace Corps does not handle conflict well. It was not designed to. Peace Corps volunteers seek protracted engagement, dreaming of generational changes, not immediate ones.

So in June of 2010, when conflict erupted in South of Kyrgyzstan, Peace Corps came out and INGOs went in. INGOs offer aid equitably; they document their activities for the world to see; they have plenty of money; and they respect the governments and people for whom they serve. Their efficacy, though, is based entirely on the willingness of the populations to embrace their programs. When providing food and shelter to monoethnic, non-conflict communities, aid provides relief. In a post-conflict situation where the aggravators still live in close proximity to the victims, relief to the victim provides further enmity for the aggravators. INGOs are stopgap solutions, not lasting ones ...

... Peace Corps reaches populations that other organizations would consider statistically irrelevant. INGOs spend a large amount of time writing reports and justifying their actions because their projects need ... maximum impact at all times in order to secure more funding. Peace Corps does not have this issue. In some cases, it will take generations of volunteers before results are produced. And ethnic divide is a waiting game that may require nothing more than perpetual involvement -- no one can really say for sure. And most Peace Corps volunteers work directly with the children that can influence the next generation, subtly asking them to question their role in the world.

The ethnic conflict that so many of these INGOs hope to prevent will take many years of intervention (the expected deployment for many of the large INGOs is one to two years). This violence will probably repeat ten years from now, and maybe ten years after that; but eventually, the children of these children might have peace longer -- maybe fifteen years -- and maybe if a little more time passes, they will start to forget the animosities that caused violence in the first place.

One year later, not much has changed in Kyrgyzstan, but only a fool would have expected otherwise. As many media outlets profess the democratic power of the new government, the country is still plagued by corruption and intolerance. There are dangers still, but there will always be dangers until the collective conscience of Kyrgyzstan reviles racism and all other social ills. This does not mean that the international community should sit on the edges until things get better; this is a call for help.

As with many problems, the answer to how the international community should be involved in Kyrgyzstan is multi-faceted. Should INGOs provide aid? [O]f course. Should Peace Corps keep doing grassroots work? [C]ertainly. Should donors keep sending money into the country, even if it is not always best spent? [Y]es. All of the forces above would benefit from drastic changes to their policies; but in the meantime, they should continue working. Disengagement is the easiest thing to recommend, especially in political and social climates that prefer isolationism and self-determination. But self-determination is not a morally defensible position when people are poor, homeless, and suffering. Different people can solve different problems, and there are enough problems to go around.

RBM: Thanks for writing, Peter. Putting aside the question of INGOs (I agree with most of your analysis there), perhaps our main difference resides in our views of Washington, which I consider Kyrgyzstan's most capable ally in terms of socioeconomic development. Departments of state are indeed -- almost by definition -- manipulative, and in their worst moments, insidious. But next to China, the U.S. is also the Kyrgyz ally with the deepest pockets and best interests at play (other neighboring states and Europe do compete, not always in the latter regard).

Secondly, the power of an individual volunteer is an amazing thing to witness, but in my experience a marooned and ill-equipped volunteer can't go very far toward achieving the kind of literacy and business-related advances that could stop another Osh 2010. And the death of that well-meaning but hastily trained volunteer in the same violence might well end U.S. assistance for political reasons, as we've seen in Somalia, Uzbekistan, and now Yemen, to cite just a few examples. That's basically why I've come to feel, in researching this story, that the Peace Corps as presently configured is the wrong vehicle for empowering communities in southern Kyrgyzstan (the North is perhaps a different story).

Let me be clear: I'm not advocating disengagement. And you're right in that [three fellow volunteers referenced offline, whom I won't name] did become praiseworthy agents of change. But while the deaths of a couple of Kyrgyzstanis acting as American proxies can be quietly dismissed, as I've tried to document here, I shudder to think what the killing of one American last June (much less a group of 10) would have meant for U.S.-Kyrgyzstan relations. Not to mention the Peace Corps worldwide. That said, and as my June 11 post suggests, this doesn't mean that the State Department and its most celebrated agency (I view them as one animal) can't themselves change to adapt to the needs of the country.

Given their fluency and interpersonal skills, and despite your well-founded qualms about economic assistance, I believe [our colleagues] could have been still more effective as volunteers. More effective, that is, if they had been provided the means to buy a dozen Beeline wireless modems for a local nonprofit interested in offering micro loans to farmers, for example. I'm pulling that scenario out of a hat but what I mean to say is that I want to see American aid workers in places like Osh better trained, better resourced and better connected. In two words, if I were speaking to the State Department directly: Think better.

Our aid workers should also be better protected from mayhem by our own military, which could have taken the lead in last June's evacuation. Case in point: a simple GPS unit issued to volunteers might do away with the daily "whereabouts" mess -- a status reporting system based on intermittent mobile service and hand-drawn maps -- that did little to keep the 10 Americans in question away from the epicenter of Osh's chaos.

I realize these priorities could upend the image of a volunteer living a subsistence life alongside her fellow villagers, which does have positive cross-cultural benefits. But again, I don't think that model is realistic in this age and in that province.

Postscript (July 6, 2011) -- Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan has released a rousing slideshow on behalf of its volunteers, who I'm told combed through some 9,000 digital photos looking for just 20 that help "tell the story of what we do here." The photos will tour the provinces as posters with captions in three languages over the next several months.

Remembering Osh

2011-06-11T18:57:00.000-05:00

Evacuation day: June 12, 2010

By R.B. Moreno

As Central Asia watchers the world over have been noting -- see the Associated Press, the BBC, and EurasiaNet, for example -- this weekend marks the first anniversary of a street war that pitted ethnic Kyrgyz (backed by officially unidentified forces supported in turn, perhaps, by a foreign party) against ethnic Uzbeks. The riots left many hundreds of residents of southern Kyrgyzstan dead or wounded.

The AP estimates that almost three-quarters of those killed were Uzbeks -- a minority population that fled en masse from the province of Osh to the Uzbekistan border amidst the violence, only to see several children trampled to death in the panic.

Another group that got the hell out town last June: the U.S. Peace Corps. As I wrote one year ago via NPR.org, I was among 10 American aid workers evacuated from Osh by way of hired cars, a maddeningly uncoordinated military convoy, and an Mi-8, the camouflaged gunship pictured above (the same photo has been previously published).

Two boys take cover from gunfire below my apartment window in Osh

It's hard to find words appropriate for this kind of anniversary. In reading other commemorations, what seems generally true is that an uneasy peace has settled on Osh. The fires that ravaged whole neighborhoods have been extinguished. The dead have been buried -- sometimes, again, en masse. Students have returned to scorched schoolyards. And farmers and shopkeepers have slowly reoccupied the city's vast, once-bustling bazaar.

But with the spring thaw, the foundation of trust that had finally begun to solidify two decades after 1990, the year that saw Osh's last interethnic slaughter, has dissolved.

"Many Uzbeks seem glumly resigned, focusing on rebuilding their homes and trying not to get drawn into arguments over who was to blame for the violence," observes the AP. "Speaking in her partly reconstructed house in one of the worst-hit Uzbek neighborhoods, 57-year old Mokhidil Ganyzhanova says things have quieted down. But she despairs at how little she feels the government is doing to restore people's livelihoods."

Meanwhile, and with irony fit for a Russian tragedy, "deputies are bogged down in heated debates over who [bears] responsibility -- Uzbek 'separatists,' Islamists, loyalists to former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev," reports EurasiaNet's Alisher Khamidov. In Bishkek, "few seem willing to look at the complexities of ethnic relations in southern Kyrgyzstan."

Those complexities were on full display last June as I waved goodbye to Ms. Jashyrova, my host, a woman about Ms. Ganyzhanova's age, and ducked into one of the cars the State Department hired to get its personnel to a safe house.

An English teacher with twinkling eyes and an indomitable telephone, Ms. Jashyrova (I'm using a pseudonym) had over the previous 24 hours received word of a Kyrgyz nephew dying in the fighting, and more chillingly, a mob of ethnic Uzbeks attacking a number of Kyrgyz girls at a dormitory. (That rumor was later proven false; instead, a fight between dueling gangs at a casino likely sparked the 2010 riots.)

"Why did they go out?" Ms. Jashyrova demanded of the rioters. "Teachers, farmers: we just want to work. Who suffers? Ordinary people!"

I've corresponded infrequently with Ms. Jashyrova over the past year. In the fall, a shipment of undisturbed books and papers arrived to my apartment in Colorado, having been turned over to the Peace Corps by the same woman who insisted on cataloging her every purchase at Osh's bazaar on my behalf (e.g. "2 kg potato; 0.5 kg tomato; 1 kg cucumber; 1 cabbage; 3 bunches of herbs; 2 types of noodles; 1 kg rice").

In her last letter, Ms. Jashyrova writes of moving to her family's village in the countryside -- not only to help with the harvest but to avoid further unrest, I imagine -- and of the brickwork shower that her husband has built in the cherry orchard.

"We tried hard to make its walls high taking into consideration your height," she explains, adding "we all hope that you will come one day."

I do intend to return to Osh one day. In the meantime, I've been searching for answers to the region's perennial violence. And I've been contemplating the role of the Peace Corps, as presently configured, in that environment. More concretely, this involves interviewing former Kyrgyzstan volunteers, writing essays, and researching a nonfiction manuscript about the months I spent there. (It's currently titled Zen and the Art of Conquest and based in part on Robert Pirsig's travelogue of a similar name.)

In sum, I'm asking questions about the value of young, inexperienced volunteers in an enchanting but volatile country -- one that's deposed three autocrats in two decades and trafficked countless tons of Afghan heroin to Russia and Europe. Neighboring Uzbekistan's Peace Corps program ended in 2005 under similarly violent circumstances (even as a pilot program in Mexico, a drug transit territory often compared to Kyrgyzstan, was launching).

In drafting this manuscript, apart from the bloodletting, which seems uncharacteristic of Kyrgyzstanis like Ms. Jashyrova, there's something very particular I have trouble reconciling. I'm just as perturbed, that is, by the deaths of two hired drivers that I described in "Exit Osh." By what twist of fate did American aid workers deserve to escape unharmed, I asked in that post, while others perished in the evacuation? I'm still not sure.

Secretary Rice addresses Colorado State University on April 19, 2011

I tried to put a similar query to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in April, at a public lecture here in Fort Collins, Colo., that has in past years hosted the likes of Madeleine Albright, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Greg Mortenson. But Colorado State University, whose unique Master's International partnership sent me to Kyrgyzstan and whose professor emeritus Maurice Albertson helped found the Peace Corps, declined to put the question to the secretary.

The university invited questions via social networks

A staff member at the university's Department of Public Relations "does remember your question," one official told me in an e-mail, "and although it was a good question, it was determined there were others that had a more direct connection to Dr. Rice." More importantly, does Colorado State have a position on the role of Peace Corps volunteers serving in volatile countries such as Kyrgyzstan, I wanted to know? As to that question, "the university does not have an official position," the e-mail concludes, suggesting I contact Washington for comment.

Washington, by some accounts, wasn't pleased when "Exit Osh" was posted on June 15. Other, more politicized narratives about our evacuation were causing the most angst at the State Department and the Pentagon that Tuesday, but as my dual role as a volunteer and a journalist wouldn't conclude until July, I faced something of a dilemma. News outlets reading the post -- such as NPR, CNN, and the BBC -- wanted interviews; the Peace Corps, by contrast, suddenly told every volunteer in Kyrgyzstan to go dark. And going dark, our supervisors explained in a meeting at the NATO base outside Bishkek where we had relocated, meant pulling offline anything we had written about Osh.

Of course, as the Arab Spring demonstrates, that kind of blackout isn't feasible given today's Internet. I followed orders, as did other volunteers, but "Exit Osh" had already been republished by NPR, which sent a correspondent to southern Kyrgyzstan in the days following the riots, and I wasn't inclined to ask the network to take down its own post. (Full disclosure: I worked as a producer for NPR between 2004 and 2008.) Two weeks later, when I arrived home by way of Beijing and Seattle, I republished my own accounts of my experience in Osh.

It's easy to shower criticism on the Peace Corps, considering the circumstances I've described. But I'm trying in Zen and the Art of Conquest to avoid that gesture, because worldwide and in Central Asia, the agency gets it right more often that it gets it wrong. My colleague Jia Tolentino made that clear in a recent New York Times op-ed, and my Facebook friends' pictures of kids playing baseball in snowy Naryn Province, taking standardized tests in Talas, and learning to swim in Lake Issyk Kul tell an even better story.

Still -- and this isn't easy to say -- given Kyrgyzstan's geopolitics, the hired men killed last year, and the two carloads of panicked, mostly greenhorn Americans nearly gunned down amidst my evacuation, I'm not sure today's Peace Corps is right for Kyrgyzstan. It certainly doesn't belong in provinces like Osh and Jalal-Abad, where the agency will no doubt attempt to return in the coming years.

So what is American development work in Central Asia supposed to look like, skeptics will ask?

Although Rice's April lecture didn't address Kyrgyzstan, she did point toward policy options in this arena worth considering. In response to a question about military contractors, for example, the secretary praised the efforts of the U.S. military's Provincial Reconstruction Teams as well as the prospect of a "national civilian corps" whose expertise might help rebuild fragile states.

I'm heartened, too, by the poise and potential exhibited by veteran volunteers like Fritz and Ginger Morrison and Ted Trautman, now a journalist who returned to Osh this spring to assess conditions there. The challenge, assuming proper backing in Washington, would be to channel the expertise of this cohort into unarmed but more nimble, better trained, and highly equipped development teams that might have avoided the kind of debacle I witnessed last June.

Finding funding for such a venture shouldn't be difficult. The U.S. spent $20 million on last year's parliamentary contests in Kyrygyzstan. "In the run-up to the presidential elections that are going to take place this fall, we’re likely to do something very similar to support the actual process of the elections and the mechanics of democracy," newly installed Ambassador Pamela Spratlen told public radio last week. That ought to be a story the State Department won't want to darken.

Postscript (June 19, 2011) -- Another former Peace Corps volunteer recently based in southern Kyrgyzstan has contributed comments on "Remembering Osh." My response, in part: "I realize these priorities could upend the image of a volunteer living a subsistence life alongside her fellow villagers, which does have positive cross-cultural benefits. But again, I don't think that model is realistic in this age and in that province."

The View from Vermillion

2011-06-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Above: pictures from RBM's next destination, Vermillion, S.D., where floodwaters aren't expected to crest for another week.

Photo of the Day

2011-06-09T00:32:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

My hometown of Ridgefield, Washington, doesn't get much in the way of strange weather, but the storm passing over Fort Collins, Colorado, just now is producing the biggest hail I've ever seen out west -- about the size of strawberries. Big enough to let neighbors give a midnight wave to one another from their doorsteps, anyway.

The View from Interstate 29

2011-06-07T18:38:00.000-05:00

Above: pictures from a sweltering, South Dakota-bound road trip along the Missouri River, which forms the Nebraska-Iowa state line. Record snowpack and heavy rains throughout the river's watershed will likely threaten communities in seven states until mid-August, the New York Times reports today.

The flooding hasn't dampened spirits at Omaha's Florence Mill, behind OJ's Mexican diner, where tomato starts compete with a dozen recipes for homemade pie, including strawberry-raspberry-blueberry-blackberry-rhubarb-filled "Farmer's Basket." A nearby placard explains that the Mill allowed Utah-bound Mormons to weather Nebraska's winters in the late 1840s.

The View from Greyrock

2011-06-04T22:44:00.000-05:00

Above: the swollen Cache La Poudre River, damage from mountain pine beetles in Roosevelt National Forest, and other pictures from a weekend ascent of Greyrock Mountain. For a panoramic view from Greyrock's 7,536-foot summit, check out the video below.

Photo of the Day

2011-06-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Above: the view from my apartment window in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Saturday.

Nonfiction pop quiz! What species of bird is pictured? The first reader to identify this ground feeder and link to a photo gets (what else?) a fabulous tweet.

The View from the Starliner

2011-05-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

Above: RBM's sister Elizabeth chats with family via Ridgefield, Washington's Starliner Food Mart about her development work in Uganda and a recent trip to Southern Sudan.

Photo of the Day

2011-05-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

◦

May 20, 2011 -- The balance of power on the Moreno family farm in Ridgefield, Washington.

I'd Like to Talk About the Bigger Stuff

2011-04-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

via Phoebe

An essay by RBM that questions relationships among Coloradoans, the Kyrgyz, and our animals has won Phoebe's inaugural nonfiction contest, judged by author (and screenwriter) Shauna Cross. The essay will appear in the George Mason University journal's fall issue (volume 40). An excerpt:

Dinner and a bowl of kumis, or fermented mare’s milk, prompts another tale, this one about the melting of the snows. “I was born in the mountains,” says Salmorbek, his whiskers flaring around the words. From here in Kant, the Tian Shan range looms impossibly high, stretching all the way to China and 10,000 feet above the Rockies. Somewhere up there, in celebration of the equinox, points Salmorbek, through the kitchen window, men mount horses and compete in a sort of airborne wrestling match. Instead of a ball, they fight for a dead sheep. “I too rode a horse,” he adds with pride. “But I was better at riding a tank.”

That night, locked among the carpets, I find “Reviving the Kyrgyz Horse” in the guidebook Kyrgyz Republic. “For centuries, the horse was vital to nomadic life,” reads the entry. I swallow hard at what comes next. The author quotes a French historian dismayed by a Soviet plan to civilize the Kyrgyz: “‘The shepherds were in tears,’ says Jacqueline Ripart. Some of the horses went into giant Soviet stud farms but most were killed for their meat.’”

For Phoebe's current nonfiction and other genres, visit the journal's blog, which for a limited time is offering an entire issue as a free download. You can also follow Phoebe on Twitter and Facebook.

via Phoebe

Update -- "I'd Like to Talk" is now available at PhoebeJournal.com along with contest results and artwork for Phoebe volume 40.2. Congratulations to fellow winners and HMs Aja Gabel and Dwight Holing (fiction), Mark Wagenaar and Grace Curtis (poetry), and Jessica McCaughey (nonfiction).

RBM Joins USD

2011-04-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Earlier this week I accepted an invitation to join the University of South Dakota English Department's PhD program, where I look forward to studying creative writing, publishing nonfiction, and teaching composition, among other courses. From USD.edu, a thumbnail sketch of the degree:

The Ph.D. program is built around the English Department's seminar offerings in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and in creative writing, and is supplemented by independent study courses ... Within these specializations, you'll construct your own plan of study to reflect your interests.

The Department also offers a list of FAQs about its PhD and a news blog. USD's literary associations include South Dakota Review, edited by Brian Bedard and Lee Ann Roripaugh, the Dakota Writing Project, and the Vermillion Literary Project, which is hosting a reading next week.

USD's vermillion and white (via Wikipedia)

USD is the state's oldest university and its 216-acre campus in Vermillion currently serves about 10,000 students. Ten governors have graduated from USD along with William "Doc" Farber, Tom Brokaw, Al Neuharth, Ernest G. Bormann, and embattled Greg Mortenson, among other alumni.

Vermillion was founded on the banks of the Missouri River shortly before the Civil War but was largely destroyed in an 1881 flood. The reconstructed seat of Clay County now sits on higher ground whose earliest admirers included the Lakota ("Red Stream," they called the area), Pacific-bound Lewis and Clark, and in 1843, John James Audubon.

April in Vermillion looks cold and wet, a boon for checkered farmland visible from Google Earth. And somewhat more tranquil than the forecast for RBM's last departure from Colorado.

via Google

Communication Can Save Lives

2011-04-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

via Janice Mount for the Coloradoan

A guest column by RBM about the Crystal Fire, which has destroyed homes near Colorado State University, raised questions about air and water quality in the region, and made national news, but received no mention in the university's communications with students, appears today in the Coloradoan. An excerpt:

The Crystal Fire has reminded me, an instructor at CSU, of an embarrassing, even dangerous breakdown in communication. I live on campus, and like my neighbors, I woke up about 5 a.m. on Sunday thinking my building might be on fire. Nope. But the smell of burning wood was palpable, if not overwhelming. So I went online.

"Safety Information: Report of Possible Peeping Tom." This March 30 e-mail, about yet another man leering at women on campus, is still the last advisory I've received from CSU's "Public Safety Team." Thinking I must be missing some mention of the fire, I left my inbox for ColoState.edu. "Teeing Up for Golf's Greatest Tournament," read the news at the university's homepage, about former CSU golfer Martin Laird.

What gives, CSU Public Safety Team? I don't like telling people how to do their job, but I'm also bothered by something I've learned from watching the past decade's string of terrorist plots and natural disasters. It's that robust communication can save lives, reassure parents and prevent similar mayhem. That's where I feel CSU staff missed the mark on Sunday.

This isn't to say that apprehending peeping toms isn't important, or that the Crystal Fire has put CSU students in danger. That's beside the point. What I am saying is that CSU can better utilize the tools at its disposal to inform the campus community, in real-time, about the status of emergencies that affect us all.

Look for the full text of RBM's column on page A6 of today's paper and at Coloradoan.com.

The View from Copper Mountain

2011-03-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

Above: a clear day for dog training and suntanning atop Colorado's Copper Mountain, where the T-Rex Grill offers lunch at 10,500 feet.

Exposure Time

2011-03-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

An essay by RBM involving travels along Colorado's Horsetooth (pictured above), through Cartagena de Indias, and above Osh, Kyrygzstan (below), appears on Matter Daily newsstands this month.

Matter Daily/Matterhorn is a publication of Wolverine Farm and Matter Bookstore. An excerpt from "Exposure Time":

Sulayman rises from an old city on the Silk Road and an arid expanse of farmland, and looks something like Horsetooth. Still, its five hills are made of quartz and lime, not sandstone, and I feel conspicuous in my shorts and trainers. This a place of pilgrimage, where colored prayers dangle from bushes and women in veils slide down a certain rock said to impart fertility.

Get on with it. What’s a foreigner doing in a cemetery?

The sun has nearly set but I want to find a running trail I can trust -- and get a look at the summit. I don’t know how to get there, but the path that snakes around some military barracks, on the west side, seems less taken. I work myself higher and higher along switchbacks, feeling my heartbeat climb into familiar territory. Burs rake at my legs as I lose the path, but the exertion is exquisite (and hard to find on the campus where I teach). I pass boulders covered in Kyrgyz and Russian graffiti, some with blue numerals that signal older markings -- hunters and the hunted, most predating the Qur'an. Finally, the path enters a draw and shoots straight up, toward a plateau where the sky seems brightest.

RBM's last dispatch from Osh can be found elsewhere on this blog and over at NPR.org.

An Interview with Peggy Shinner

2011-03-03T18:00:00.000-06:00


Nathan Leopold, ca. 1924 (via Wikipedia)

RBM's final post this week for Colorado State's Center for Literary Publishing engages Colorado Review contributor Peggy Shinner in a conversation about her fall/winter 2010 essay "Leopold and Shinner." The essay centers on a letter her mother received from Nathan Leopold, one of two University of Chicago students convicted in what newspapers called the “Trial of the Century” in 1924. An excerpt from the interview:

RM: “The letter was an artifact,” you tell us, “like her wallet, wristwatch, key chain, social security card, also put away in a drawer -- a memento of my mother.” What compelled you, 29 years after her death, to examine it anew?

PS: I’ve had this letter for a long time, and from the very beginning was intrigued, puzzled, and moved by it. I’ve attached a certain amount of longing to it, my own longing. What did it mean? Who was the woman on the receiving end? The questions, the same questions, don’t stop coming. I tried writing about it before, but to no avail. I had nothing to push against the letter, no context or resistance or countervailing force. It wasn’t until I started searching for her letter, and immersed myself in the other letters, that something began to shift, that I could sense a gathering of momentum within myself, and simultaneously that I could go beyond myself, in fact needed to go beyond myself, to investigate the place or places where this personal history intersected the history of the larger world, which was very important for this essay. That’s the boundary I find interesting -- where personal concerns nudge or collide against the larger polis.

For the rest of the interview, an excerpt from Shinner's essay, and RBM's earlier posts, visit the CLP Editor's Blog.

New Offering from NewPages

2011-02-24T13:46:00.000-06:00

Today's post by RBM over at Colorado State's Center for Literary Publishing examines a new source of information about contests and calls for submission. An excerpt:

Ambitious storytellers, like the graduate students who keep our English Department’s printing lab busy at night, can soon have all kinds of literary magazines and blogs crowding their computer monitors. And when we read, after browsing Khimaira’s website, that our 30-page, Tolstoy-inspired novelette isn’t eligible for the journal’s 2011 Fantastiki Fiction Contest, whose guidelines call for a story of fewer than 5,000 words set in Ancient Greece, we may feel led astray.

NewPages.com's LitPak can help writers avoid getting lost. Find this post and another by RBM at the CLP Editor's Blog.

In an Age of Great Nonfiction Writing, Too Much Nonfiction Writing?

2011-02-23T20:01:00.000-06:00


via Colorado State University

Over the next two weeks RBM will be blogging for Colorado State University's Center for Literary Publishing, where he serves as a Colorado Review editorial assistant. His first post considers a debate about memoirs that's been brewing this month. An excerpt:

to read the New York Times Book Review as of late is to get the impression that the age of nonfiction, like that of Rome or America, has overstepped its bounds. The literary world, according to Times editor Neil Genzlinger, has been inundated by “a sea of people you’ve never heard of, writing uninterestingly about the unexceptional, apparently not realizing how commonplace their little wrinkle is or how many other people have already written about it.” Genzlinger’s guide for “would-be memoirists,” which conveys the kind of hollow feeling I get from reading sex advice columns, comes in four parts

To read this post and an upcoming interview with one of the Review's nonfiction contributors, visit the CLP Editor's Blog.

Update: Creative Nonfiction has flagged RBM's "Too Much Nonfiction Writing?" in its March newsletter along with a similar post worth reading, Brevity's "Listening to One Another: A Defense of the Memoir Genre."

The View from Pocatello

2011-02-06T00:29:00.000-06:00

Above: Idaho State University's Benny the Bengal and pan con lechon from a Cuban grill helping to refashion an old stop on the Oregon Trail.

Negotiating the Personal/Academic Divide

2011-02-05T23:20:00.000-06:00

Ganges Composition

RBM presented "Negotiating the Personal/Academic Divide: A Bibliographic Essay" at today's Intermountain Graduate Conference in Pocatello, Idaho. This year's interdisciplinary gathering on "Challenging Boundaries, Seeking Intersections" was co-hosted by Idaho State University and Utah State University.

At left: "Ganges Composition," a map of composition pedagogies RBM developed in support of the essay, based on satellite imagery of temperatures in Mars' Ganges Chasma.

The View from Emerald Lake

2011-01-07T23:32:00.000-06:00

Above: visitors prefer snowshoes and wings at Rocky Mountain National Park's 10,080-foot Emerald Lake, which sits just below Hallett Peak.

The View from Castle Valley

2010-08-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

Above: Utah's high desert, where Mormon colonizer Brigham Young and his followers sought pastures for their cattle in the 1870s, despite warnings from Indian tribes. Rainfall is so rare, its arrival seems to bring miracles.

The View from Route 292

2010-08-07T21:20:00.000-05:00

Above: Nevada's Route 292 runs just three miles south from a desolate Oregon border.

The View from Crooked River

2010-08-07T01:32:00.000-05:00

Above: Oregon's Crooked River Highway follows its namesake along a watershed that supports river otter, redband trout, golden eagles, prairie falcons, and pronghorn antelope, among other wildlife. Farther south, a weathered oasis in the town of Brothers seems transplanted from another century.

The View from Olympic Peninsula

2010-08-03T01:57:00.000-05:00

Above: views from the peninsula's Dungeness Spit, where Indian paintbrush blooms alongside dandelions, and a ferry ride to the Emerald City.

Kyrgyzstan in Murals

2010-07-12T21:39:00.001-05:00

Above: military insignia left by past visitors and a series of newly-painted murals adorn a dining facility at yet another undisclosed location in northern Kyrgyzstan. RBM and other Peace Corps volunteers spent time here after being evacuated from the city of Osh in June. (Note: some photos have been blurred.)

The Hair in Your Texas Garlic Toast

2010-07-08T23:24:00.000-05:00

An essay by RBM about whether American groceries and garden supplies should contain human hair appears in the current issue of The Normal School. The story won third prize among research and reporting-based essays at the 2009 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, Texas. It also appears in the 2010 volume of the conference's journal, Ten Spurs. Here's an excerpt from "The Hair in Your Texas Garlic Toast":

"DOUGH CONDITIONERS" reads the fine print on a bright blue box of Texas Garlic Toast. It’s made by Great Value, or GV ("When Quality Counts"). Wal-Mart, the product's distributor, describes GV as the country’s largest food brand in both sales and volume, and in March, 2009 announced an expansion. "At a time when families need to make every penny count," explained a company press release, new GV product lines, including thin-crust pizza, would provide Americans "with affordable, high-quality grocery and household consumable options comparable to national brands." (The Hartman Group, a marketing research firm, has called GV a "likely to purchase" label that outperforms other generic brands marketed by Wal-Mart as well as Kroger, Target, Albertsons, and Safeway.)

One night ... my roommate grabbed GV's Texas Garlic Toast from the scores of vertical freezers that line Wal-Mart SuperCenter no. 2729. Minutes ago I heated a few slices in the microwave near my desk and began to eat lunch. And just now, the moist, salted crust has reminded me, with a twinge, that this is exactly the kind of bread long sought by commercial bakers. Peering closely at the ingredients listed under dough conditioners, just before sugar but after yeast, I spot a familiar term: "L-CYSTEINE." Later, in the Encyclopedia of Food and Color Additives (1997), I find an American manufacturing association’s designation for L-Cysteine, based on U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines: "status GRAS," or, generally recognized as safe.

To read free essays from TNS' spring issue by David Shields and Bob Shacochis, or (what else?) subscribe, visit the magazine's blog. For another excerpt from RBM's essay, check out this post.

Update (June 10, 2011) -- Journalist Scott Carney has just authored a 272-page investigation of the global human tissue trade, The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers. Here's an excerpt from NPR's write-up:

In his book, Carney also delves into the marketplace for human hair, known as "black gold."

"It is amazingly valuable," he says. "The market is about $900 million around the world, and about 40 percent of [that] hair is sold for human extensions."

Many of those transactions take place at the Sri Tirumala Temple in southern India, where people give their hair to the god Vishnu as an act of humility.

"I went there about two years ago and had my head shaved with probably about 1,000 other people," Carney says. "These women came, swept up the hair and threw it into these giant steel vats. [The hair] eventually gets combed and sorted and sold at an auction, and shipped out to the international market."

Hair collected in a single cut from a person's head, known as "remy," is used all over the world for hair extensions. But the shorter hair, often shorn from men, serves a very different purpose.

"Most of the hair that gets shorn is from men," Carney says. "That gets sold to chemical companies and gets reduced to an amino acid called L-cystine, which is used as a leavening agent in baking goods."

War, Literature, and the Arts

2010-07-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

"What Happened Yesterday in Baghdad," an essay by RBM about understanding the Iraq War through voice-overs and conversations with Iraqi students, will appear in a forthcoming issue of War, Literature, and the Arts. More about WLA, a journal of the U.S. Air Force Academy:

From time immemorial, war and art have reflected one another, and it is this intersection of war and art that WLA seeks to illuminate. If it seems to fall to the historian to make distinctions among wars, each war’s larger means and ends, the trajectory for the artist, regardless of culture or time, seems to fall towards an individual’s disillusionment, the means and ends of war played out in the personal. For the individual soldier, the sweeping facts of history are accurately written not in the omniscient, third-person plural, but in the singular first. We live in a culture that values the individual. Our works of art about war mirror this welcome bias.

Update -- The 2010 WLA Conference runs September 16-18 in Colorado Springs and will feature a reading by RBM of "What Happened." From the conference's online schedule:

Thursday, 16 September

Session 2: 0950-1045

WAR COMMENTARY PANEL: Greg Dandeles (“The War in Peace: The Armed Forces of Liberia Loses a Soldier”), Leila Levinson ("Cracking Open the Silence: What War Bequeaths to our Children"), Raul Moreno (“What Happened”)

Moderator: Byron Calhoun

Lecture Room 3

Other conference presentations include Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Benjamin Busch (The Wire, Generation Kill), Dexter Filkins (The Forever War), and Brian Turner (Here, Bullet). To attend, e-mail RBM or visit the conference's registration page by August 15.

Relief for Osh

2010-07-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Slideshow: Relief for Osh

Above: U.S. Peace Corps workers, tourists, journalists, security guards, and other volunteers at Manas International Airport load a Russian cargo plane with relief supplies bound for Osh, Kyrgyzstan, on June 19. In the hold, thanks to local and international donations: flour, rice, potatoes, sugar, cooking oil, and dishware.

Kyrgyzstan Analysis Roundup (Updated)

2010-07-01T18:23:00.003-05:00

From Foreign Policy, on June 14, "Trouble Down South: Why did Kyrgyzstan suddenly erupt into violence?" An excerpt:

The Uzbek minority is largely excluded from Kyrgyzstan's political system, though they dominate the country's merchant class. Disputes over water and land use between the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz are common in the south. The Soviet Union spent decades trying unsuccessfully to suppress ethnic nationalism in the area and in 1990, when the Soviet military was unable to put a stop to a three-month-long inter-ethnic battle between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Osh that resulted in hundreds of deaths, it was taken as a sign of Moscow's diminished power over its regions.

From the Telegraph, on June 17, "Kyrgyzstan: Death, dictators and the Soviet legacy." An excerpt:

It would be wrong to characterise the violence in Kyrgyzstan as politically motivated. Ancient ethnic tensions and stereotypes have come to the fore, and poverty is the root cause. But at the same time it is broadly true that the Uzbeks of the south generally support Otunbayeva, while their southern Kyrgyz attackers do not. Bakiyev supporters have played some role in stirring up the violence.

From the Times, on June 18, "Diplomatic Memo: Value to Big Powers May Not Save Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

Now, Kyrgyzstan needs help building a stable government that knits together the north and the south. Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, suggested that NATO should be working with the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to develop a mechanism for collective action. The next time a Central Asian country is wobbling at the edge of a precipice, he said, someone must be prepared to accept responsibility.

From the Post, on June 21, "Both sides in Kyrgyzstan fault government for failing to prevent violence." An excerpt:

At the front of the crowd was Kadyrzhan Batyrov, a prominent Uzbek politician, businessman and university chief who argued that Bakiyev's ouster meant Uzbeks would finally get the political rights they deserved. After recapturing the building, the throng marched to the Bakiyev family compound in Jalal-Abad and burned it down.

Witnesses said Kyrgyz and Uzbeks stood side by side in the crowd. But Bakiyev's supporters framed the conflict in ethnic terms and painted Batyrov as a radical Uzbek nationalist, tapping into fears among local Kyrgyz that Uzbeks might gain too much power and attempt to secede.

From The Economist, on June 24, "Kyrgyzstan's humanitarian crisis: Sad homecoming." An excerpt:

[Ethnic-Uzbek] women are now trickling back to their husbands, fathers, and brothers, who stayed behind to protect their homes—or what is left of them. Many houses were burned down, sometimes with their residents still in them. Now they have to go back and attempt to pick up their lives again, side-by-side with their ethnic-Kyrgyz persecutors.

From The Nation, on June 25, "Kyrgyzstan on the Brink." An excerpt:

Unaddressed stereotypes have allowed tensions between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks to fester ever since the only previously reported conflict between the two groups, in 1990. These typecasts were a breeding ground for the surge of rumors—spread by Internet chat rooms, text messages and word of mouth—that helped provoke the attacks: “Uzbek men raped a group of Kyrgyz girls”; “young men brawled over a restaurant bill”; “Uzbeks, in their efforts to declare autonomy, had armed themselves.”

But frictions between the two groups aren’t the result of some ancient ethnic hatred. They have waxed and waned for only a generation, as local elites, manipulating economic grievances, vie for control of resources. In recent times, that has meant Afghan heroin. In place of a functioning state, southern Kyrgyzstan has become a network of trafficking routes controlled by narco-barons and their extended families.

From the Times, on June 26, "After Kyrgyz Unrest, a Question Lingers: Why?" An excerpt:

Last week the head of the country’s national security agency issued a statement saying that the younger son of Mr. Bakiyev, Maksim Bakiyev, had hired Islamic radicals from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group with ties to the Taliban, to infiltrate Uzbek neighborhoods and stoke conflict. The statement said the Islamic radicals fired rifles at civilians and then hid, only to reappear in other areas.

Reinforcing the message of external instigation, on Thursday an airplane flew over Bishkek dropping leaflets warning that “provocateurs” could foment ethnic violence in the capital, too, though the streets remained calm.

From RFE/RL, on June 30, "How Strong Is Kyrgyzstan's New Constitution?" An excerpt:

The challenge for Kyrgyzstan now will be to go far beyond simply writing a new constitution to developing the whole body of institutions and public expectations which assure a constitution is upheld and guides a society.

As Kyrgyzstan took its first step this week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave it a dubious send-off. He told reporters at the G20 summit in Toronto that he did "not really understand how a parliamentary republic would look and work in Kyrgyzstan."

Medvedev asked, "Will this not lead to a chain of eternal problems -- to reshuffles in parliament, to the rise to power of this or that political group, to authority being passed constantly from one hand to another, and, finally will this not help those with extremist views to power?"

Put another way, the same question would be: Are not parliamentary systems, though a proven success in democratic countries, doomed to failure in the post-Soviet space?

Update (July 7, 2010) -- From the Times, on July 2, "Uzbeks Accused of Inciting Violence in Kyrgyzstan." Two excerpts:

The arrests are based on a section of the Kyrgyz criminal code that bans inciting ethnic hatred, after the ethnic Uzbek leaders accused the police and army of instigating and in some cases participating in the original violence ... Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek and the director of a human rights group in the town of Bazar-Kurgan, was arrested on this charge, according to his lawyer, Nurbek Toktokunov, who said Mr. Askarov had bruises on his back suggesting he had been tortured in custody.

From RFE/RL, on July 2, "Kyrgyzstan: Anatomy Of A Conflict." An excerpt:

The latest round of fighting in Osh began in the predawn hours of June 10-11, when two youth gangs -- one Kyrgyz and one Uzbek -- were gambling in a local casino. Each accused the other of cheating and a scuffle broke out. The fighting spilled out onto the street as reinforcements on both sides -- alerted by text messages -- joined the brawl. Rumors quickly spread -- which were later debunked in a Human Rights Watch report -- that an Uzbek mob raped as many as 12 Kyrgyz girls and killed three at a nearby dormitory. The false reports stoked Kyrgyz anger as mobs took to the streets to exact revenge.

From NPR, on July 4, "Trust, And Answers, Elusive In Post-Riot Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

As a journalist covering a conflict, I'm supposed to offer more than stories of suffering. I'm supposed to get answers, and the truth. In Kyrgyzstan so far, that's been painfully impossible.

From EurasiaNet, on July 6, "In Osh, Easier to Dig Up Corpses Than Truth." Two excerpts:

Armed young men guarded that Cheremushki street corner, stopping and searching cars. They were a jumpy mix of military conscripts and police ... My colleague and I pleaded with them to give us access: “Officials [i.e. you] keep telling us [Western journalists] to report both sides of the story. Here is an opportunity. Please let us past.” Each recklessly gripped his Kalashnikov – “please stop pointing that at my belly” – and dithered, scared of his seniors, uncertain of his own place in the hazy chain of command.

Eventually, we flagged down a senior officer. He explained that Kyrgyz police had died in the conflict, too, and let us through.

And from RFE/RL, on July 7, "Rising Nationalism Threatens Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

Almazbek Atambaev doesn't want people to talk about that. In his sprawling office in parliament, the interim government's dapper deputy prime minister -- a top candidate to lead the country as a possible future prime minister -- criticizes Western journalists for reporting about the overwhelming number of Uzbek deaths.

"We won't allow divisions in our society," he replies when asked to clarify the figures.

Exit Osh (Updated)

2010-06-15T02:40:00.013-05:00

Volunteers reach the safety of a helicopter in Osh

By R.B. Moreno

I came to Central Asia to teach English, live among local people, and tell their stories. So this life in a compound near Bishkek that offers Gatorade and cable TV feels a bit unnerving. For the second time in as many months, I find myself behind barbed wire, along with other U.S. Peace Corps volunteers evacuated from provinces rocked by what newspapers have called ethnic cleansing. Our exit from Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s jewel of the South, says something about what is happening there.

Over two days, ten aid workers gathered in safe houses on both sides of the conflict. When our food ran low, neighbors smuggled us bread and tea and refused to be compensated. But others sent rocks through our windows and demanded bribes. And all the while, bands of young, ethnic Kyrgyz, enraged by rumors of students having been raped, terrorized the streets around us. They ransacked Uzbek apartments. They torched markets and restaurants. They burned vehicles, piled them into barricades, and shot at those trying to escape the city. By night, gunfire and screaming mixed with thunderclaps.

At last two hired cars arrived to get us to an airfield. The drivers wore bandanas; one carried a hatchet, another a hunting rifle. But there was confusion about where to rendezvous with another convoy. And so for 20 long minutes we sat exposed on burning Lenin Street. Smoke and sirens hung in the air. Rioters sped past carrying metal pipes, even a bow and arrow. Most of our cell phones didn’t work. Every time I shifted my legs, the volunteer pinned beneath me became asphyxiated. Another suggested running headlong toward a city park.

Presently, a dark sedan cruised by, pulled a U-turn, and came back for another look. Inside were three masked men and a Kalashnikov. This is what the trigger man wanted to know: Were there Uzbeks behind our tinted glass? “If any of you are Uzbeks we will kill you all,” he cried. No, no, just Americans, said the man with the hatchet. Show me, said the trigger man. And so my door was yanked open, and the trigger man raised his gun. For a moment we locked eyes – his glittering, angry, undecided. “No Uzbeks!” I repeated in Kyrgyz, my voice catching. Then the sedan's engine roared, and they were gone.

Minutes later we boarded a bus and began to roll slowly, behind a tank, through neighborhoods whose destruction we had only glimpsed earlier. Some passengers gasped at the shells of nightclubs, warehouses, and other landmarks now reduced to ashes. But other foreign nationals sitting alongside us – from Denmark and France, among other places – looked ecstatic. As if by magic, we were quitting what had become, overnight, a godforsaken place.

It wasn’t over yet. At the entrance to the airfield, another face-off, this time with scores of men agitating for weapons and furious about our convoy. Shouted questions filled the air. Who’s aboard the bus? Are they taking pictures? Rocks and sticks began to pelt our windows.

“Just smile at them,” said one woman. Instead, we cowered on the floor. And then the unthinkable happened: guns snatched from nervous troops huddled aboard the tank.

This is it, I thought to myself. What will a bullet feel like?

“I love you,” said another woman next to me, to her friend. Both began to cry.

A long volley rang out. But we could feel no pain. By some miracle these were warning shots, aimed at the clouds. Again an engine roared. And we were through.

As two helicopters lifted us skyward and circled Sulayman Mountain, a barren rock ringed by a cemetery that juts skyward from the middle of Osh, the scene became apocalyptic. Towers of black smoke marked Uzbek neighborhoods engulfed in flames. Much of the Cheremushki district appeared to have vanished. Some buildings glowed orange; others collapsed as we passed over head. Pushing north, with the sun setting, Osh became a terrible blur on the horizon.

It’s been three days since our evacuation, and for some, a creeping sense of guilt has begun to build. It comes in the form of a question no counselor can satisfactorily answer: By what twist of fate did we deserve to escape such carnage, while others perished? Two of the drivers who ferried us between safe houses, I'm told, were shot or beaten to death. Some 100,000 refugees have streamed west to safety in Uzbekistan, only to have the border shut and some of their children trampled in a stampede.

Calls to friends in Osh tell of still more suffering: empty food stalls at the bazaar; snipers picking off Uzbeks from atop Sulayman Mountain; a mother seven months pregnant dying of thirst on a rooftop; a Pakistani student, mistaken for an Uzbek, shot and beaten to death in the street. Although the official death toll stands at 138, locals tell of hundreds already buried and more bodies yet to recover.

“I wish I could have pushed some magic button that would have saved everyone,” one volunteer told me yesterday. “I can take no pride in having been evacuated.”

Postscript (July 1, 2010) -- After being removed temporarily at the request of the U.S. Peace Corps, this post has been republished. Excerpts are also available at NPR's blog.

Osh News Roundup (Updated)

2010-06-13T08:10:00.008-05:00

From the Times, "Kyrgyz Rioting Spreads in Apparent Ethnic Violence." The story is currently leading Google News. An excerpt:

The official death toll from four days of clashes neared 100 people, though the unrest seemed so widespread that the figure is likely to go far higher. Reports from the region said bands of ethnic Kyrgyz were seeking out Uzbeks, setting fire to their homes and killing them.

Thousands of Uzbeks have fled to the nearby border with Uzbekistan, and the authorities were said to have lost control of Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city.

On Saturday, the fragile Kyrgyz provisional government asked neighboring Russia to send in peacekeeping troops, but Russia, which has a small military base in the north and has been a political patron of this former Soviet republic, said only that it would consider the request.

From the BBC, "Deadly ethnic unrest escalates in southern Kyrgyzstan." Excerpts:

Witnesses speak of armed Kyrgyz men shooting ethnic Uzbeks and setting property alight.

Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have been fleeing the city of Osh, where a BBC correspondent reports hearing gunfire ... Kyrgyzstan's interim government extended a state of emergency to cover the entire southern Jalalabad region, as ethnic clashes spread there from neighbouring Osh.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in April and now lives in Belarus, has denied accusations from the government that he is involved in the unrest.

Without international assistance there are fears the interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan will struggle to contain the conflict.

Finally, from CNN, "Armed ethnic clashes rage in Kyrgyzstan." This story cites the highest death toll yet. An excerpt:

Armed groups are fighting each other for control of the main hospital in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, Russia Today reported, as ethnic clashes continue in the strategically important central Asian country.

At least 80 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured since Thursday, Kyrgyz and Russian news agencies reported, citing health ministry officials.

According to one report, the numbers were much higher. Local officials in Osh, the city worst affected by the violence, said at least 500 ethnic Uzbeks had been killed, according to Ferghana.ru, an independent news agency. CNN has not independently confirmed the number of dead.

Update (10:45 AM, June 14, 2010) -- From Xinhua, "Russia sends troopers to Kyrgyzstan to protect Russian facilities: Interfax." An excerpt:

A battalion of Russian troopers have been sent to Kyrgyzstan to protect the Russian facilities in the Kant military base, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.

Three Ilyushin Il-76 military cargo aircraft, carrying humanitarian aids and the paratroopers from the 31st landing brigade of the Russian Air-Borne Force, have landed at the Russian air base on Sunday afternoon, a military source told Interfax.

"The task of the battalion is to guard Russian military facilities and guarantee the security of Russian servicemen and their families," the source said.

The battalion was transferred to Kant air base due to the aggravation of the situation in south Kyrgyzstan, he added.

The paratroopers were armed with regular small arms and ammunition, and took the necessary food supplies, the source noted.

And from the WSJ, "Kyrgyzstan Violence Threatens Region." An excerpt:

Ethnic violence flared out of control in this strategically important Central Asian country on Sunday, threatening to destabilize what has been a conduit for troops and supplies for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan's government, for the first time since the country declared independence in 1991, appealed to Russia for help in restoring order. The Kremlin responded by saying it was sending 300 paratroopers—but only to protect its own military base near Bishkek, far from the fighting in the country's south. Russia otherwise appears wary of being drawn into the Kyrgyz conflict.

Kyrgyzstan's own security forces have failed to contain a rising tide of ethnic violence in the south, where more than 100 people have been killed since fighting began Thursday night, according to the country's health ministry. The officials say the death toll could be considerably higher, as the current count includes only the dead at hospitals and morgues.

Around 75,000 people have now fled fighting into neighboring Uzbekistan, Russia's official news agency said, citing the Uzbek government.

Ethnic clashes — mainly of Kyrgyz attacking Uzbek minorities — spread Sunday through Kyrgyzstan's second-largest province, Jalal-Abad, government officials said. Crowds were setting fire to Uzbek homes and businesses, according to local news reports.

The ferocity of the fighting heightens fears of wider havoc in Central Asia, whose hitherto peaceful former Soviet republics have been a base for resupply of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. The State Department Sunday called for a quick restoration of peace and order, and endorsed efforts by the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to find a solution.

Postscript (July 1, 2010) -- After being removed temporarily at the request of the U.S. Peace Corps, this post has been republished. According to Kyrgyzstan's president, the death toll from the violence in Osh likely exceeded 2,000. Please see current updates elsewhere on this blog.

Osh Riots, Day Two (Updated)

2010-06-12T02:11:00.015-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

It's early afternoon and I've moved to a safe house in another part of Osh where a number of American aid workers have gathered. The drive here, in a word, was harrowing: gangs of men with clubs guarding road blocks fashioned from felled trees and torched cars; others trying to forcibly enter apartment complexes. It's unclear who is in charge of the city, but cannon fire can be heard from our vantage as well as helicopters patrolling overhead. An evacuation plan is being developed; I'll update with more as I can.

Update (2:00 AM, June 13, 2010) -- With help from local security forces and a commendable coordination effort from headquarters staff, our group has evacuated from Osh. We are safe now in a compound near Bishkek, but our thoughts remain with our Kyrgyz and Uzbek colleagues in the South. Tonight these families cope with interethnic violence that at last count had claimed close to 80 lives and wounded nearly 1,000 (see updates below).

Inside our safe house, a barrier is erected to expel rocks and firebombs

As we made our way to a helicopter today our convoy was met repeatedly with vigilantes brandishing everything from bows and arrows to Kalashnikovs. Later, aerial views of neighborhoods in flames and a skyline blackened with smoke suggested the death toll will rise much higher.

Postscript (July 1, 2010) -- After being removed temporarily at the request of the U.S. Peace Corps, this post has been republished.

The View from Osh

2010-06-11T08:33:00.013-05:00

Out my window, a farmer pauses to listen to a firefight

By R.B. Moreno

It's been nearly a day since predawn text messages brought news that renewed fighting had broken out on Osh streets and in surrounding villages. The unrest quickly spread to neighborhoods including mine, whose location can't be named here for security reasons. Wire services report as many as 37 people killed and over 500 wounded, many from bullet wounds; already this is half the number who died in Bishkek in April. Local TV channels have aired pictures of students being evacuated from dormitories on buses, as well as interviews with officials from Kyrgyzstan's Health and Interior ministries, some of whom stated that the city is now back under control. That does not appear to be the case, at least locally.

As I write this post the popping and booming of gunfire and cannons can be heard through an open window, along with the rattle of Chinese firecrackers lit by teenagers looking to add to the mayhem. Few cars have taken to the streets today; those that do motor past at high speeds. Gas lines have been cut. Along one avenue a steady stream of pedestrians, mostly young men, could be seen moving downtown. Columns of smoke later rose from that direction, then dissipated. Shouts from mobs occasionally waft skyward. Still, for some Osh residents, including the neighbor pictured above, life carries on.

For another man close to the family I am staying with, life has ended. The jangle of a telephone, just minutes ago, brought word that a 27-year-old nephew of my host, whom I'll call Ms. Jashyrova, has died in the fighting. This news shook a woman whose stately features and ebony hair rarely lose composure. "I told my sister, keep your children at home!" she protested, raising her hands toward our dining room ceiling. I met this nephew's mother recently at a reunion that had both sisters chatting in whispers for hours on end. The victim's father passed away years ago, just before his birth, and so the son's Kyrgz name carried that fact. As the youngest child, he would have been expected to care for his mother, who now must lean on aging Ms. Jashyrova and other siblings. (At one time they numbered 15.)

As tonight's curfew descends and combat helicopters orbit the city, the reasons for this family's loss remain obscured. Wire reports mention a brawl breaking out Thursday evening on Osh's main thoroughfare and a number of damaged properties owned by ethnic Uzbeks. (Other property owners have also suffered losses.) But Ms. Jashyrova prefers to think today's events were coordinated by Uzbek enclaves themselves. Then again, maybe it was a reminder from God. Kyrgyzstan's people, she points out, were also rocked by an earthquake Thursday.

"Why did they go out?" she demands of the rioters, and again of the ceiling. "Teachers, farmers: we just want to work. Who suffers? Ordinary people!"

Postscript (July 1, 2010) -- After being removed temporarily at the request of the U.S. Peace Corps, this post has been republished.

Kyrgyzstan News Roundup (Updated)

2010-06-10T17:02:00.023-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

A series of gun battles have begun overnight here in Osh. I can hear periodic reports of different calibers, including automatic weaponry, coming from southern and western parts of the city. But the trilling of grasshoppers and a nearby lightening storm are making the clashes hard to distinguish from Mother Nature.

In other news, a moderate earthquake centered hundreds of miles to the southeast shook my apartment for a long minute Thursday morning. More now from the wires, which have not yet picked up the fighting.

From CNN, "Earthquake hits border region of China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan." Its report:

A moderate earthquake rattled far-western China on Thursday, near its border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The magnitude 5.6 quake hit southern Xinjiang province and was centered about 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, west-northwest of Kashi.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The Xinjiang region is seismically active. In March 2008, a powerful 7.2 magnitude quake hit a remote area of the region, followed by a series of moderate to light quakes.

And from UPI, "Bishkek disbands political police force." An excerpt:

The provisional Interior Ministry will no long monitor opposition groups in Kyrgyzstan, interim leaders said Thursday from Bishkek.

A statement from acting Interior Minister Bolot Sher said provisional leaders signed a measure to disband a political police force, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.

"From now on, the interior ministry will not monitor oppositional sentiment in connection with the analysis of the social-political situation," the statement said.

Bishkek had established an interior police force to monitor religious extremism and terrorist ideology in the country. RIA Novosti said the force was busy keeping tabs on "untrustworthy" politicians and opposition groups, however.

Update (11:15 AM, June 11, 2010) -- From the AP, "Twelve killed in new wave of unrest in Kyrgyzstan." Excerpts:

Witnesses in Osh, the country's second-largest city, reported hearing sustained gunfire late Thursday. Local media also reported that gangs of young men armed with sticks and stones smashed shop windows and set cars alight in the center.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Bailinova said 12 people have been killed and more than 120 injured. Many of the injured were being treated for gunshot wounds, she said.

Interim authorities swiftly declared a state of emergency in the city and dispatched armored vehicles and troops to the city in a bid to pacify the situation.

But local residents said shooting continued into the morning and helicopters were flying low overhead. Several buildings across the city were on fire ... It is unclear what caused the latest round of unrest, but local Kyrgyz media have reported that a brawl broke out late Thursday evening on the city's main thoroughfare.

One Osh resident told The Associated Press that he heard a 10-minute-long burst of gunfire shortly past midnight. Local media said they received reports of firing throughout the night.

Osh, which lies on the fringes of the volatile Ferghana Valley, has a large Uzbek minority and a history of ethnic violence. There seemed to be no clear evidence that the violence was provoked by ethnic tensions, however.

Russian news agency Interfax reported that seven armored personnel vehicles carrying soldiers drove into the center early Friday.

The interim government has declared a state of emergency in Osh and surrounding districts that will remain in effect until June 20. A curfew has been imposed from 8 p.m to 6 a.m.

In an emotional televised address Friday, interim President Roza Otunbayeva called for a return to calm.

"I would like to appeal in particular to the women of Kyrgyzstan. Dear sisters, find the right words for your sons, husbands and brothers. In the current situation, it is unacceptable to indulge in feelings of revenge and anger," she said.

From RFE/RL, "12 Reported Dead In Kyrgyz Clashes." An excerpt:

The deaths were reported as the country's interim authorities declared a state of emergency in the city of Osh and sent in troops and armored vehicles to quell violence reportedly involving rival groups of youths.

A Health Ministry spokesman is quoted as saying 12 people have been killed and 126 hospitalized with injuries.

Reports say 1,000 or more people were involved in the violence, with groups of youths reported fighting, smashing windows, looting shops and setting fires to cars. Some reports have linked the violence to ethnic conflicts between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the region.

The interim government announced that the state of emergency was in force for Osh and three neighboring districts -- Karassu, Arava and Uzgen -- and would last until at least June 20.

Authorities have also imposed a nighttime curfew in the region.

Update (4:00 PM, June 11, 2010) -- From the BBC, "Deadly clashes in Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Osh." Excerpts:

At least 17 people have been killed in clashes in Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city of Osh, health ministry officials say.

At least 200 people were also injured when hundreds of youths fought in the streets of the southern city.

Officials say a state of emergency has been declared and armoured vehicles have been sent to the city.

The interim government has been struggling to restore order after a violent uprising in April.

Since then, there have been fears of an upsurge in violence between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the south.

Osh is home to a large ethnic Uzbek community, and is the power-base of the ousted president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

According to local reports, fighting broke out between rival gangs and developed into gun battles.

Reports from Osh said that a number of buildings, including cafes, a local TV channel and a theatre were ablaze ... It is not clear who is behind the violence.

It appears that the majority of the properties belonged to ethnic Uzbeks.

Firefighters tried to put out the fires, but angry youths reportedly threw rocks to prevent them doing their job.

Residents say the shooting continued into Friday morning and that helicopters were flying low overhead.

However, an Interior Ministry spokesman said the shooting had stopped and that the city was now under the control of the security forces.

Update (9:00 PM, June 11, 2010) -- From AFP, "Ethnic clashes in south Kyrgyzstan leave 37 dead." Its report:

Thirty-seven people have been killed and more than 500 wounded during ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, a health ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday.

"Thirty-seven people have now died," as a result of the ongoing violence in the southern city of Osh, a health ministry spokesman said.

Kyrgyzstan's provisional government led by Roza Otunbayeva has struggled to impose order on the volatile Central Asian state since seizing control during riots that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier this year.

Witnesses said brawls had broken out between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups in Osh, once the stronghold of Bakiyev.

Update (2:00 AM, June 13, 2010) -- From AFP, "Kyrgyzstan government authorises deadly force to stem unrest." An excerpt:

The decision was taken "in connection with the ongoing clashes of ethnic groups with the use of lethal weapons, and an increasing number of victims among the civilian population," the government said in a statement.

Lethal force will now be authorised in order to repel attacks against police and the military, stop the destruction of government and private property and to protect civilians, the decree said.

The clashes have left 77 dead and almost 1,000 wounded.

From the AP, "Russia won't immediately send troops to Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

The Kremlin says it won't immediately send Russian troops to Kyrgyzstan, which has asked Moscow for military assistance to help quell ethnic violence.

But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said Saturday that Russia would offer humanitarian assistance and help evacuate those wounded in rampages that swept Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city of Osh.

CP: US urges ethnic inclusiveness in Kyrgyzstan as busy political season looms

2010-06-09T09:10:00.001-05:00

By The Canadian Press (CP)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan is calling for sensitivity over ethnic issues as the turbulent Central Asian nation gears up for a key referendum and parliamentary elections.

The embassy said Wednesday that the representation of minorities in Kyrgyz political life was crucial to stability in the country.

Southern Kyrgyzstan was rocked last month by clashes pitting ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities against one another.

Authorities have played down the ethnic angle, claiming the disturbances were orchestrated by forces loyal to deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Ethnic Kyrgyz account for 70 per cent of the country's five million people, while Uzbeks make up 15 per cent.

A referendum is planned for June 27 to approve a new constitution, ahead of October's parliamentary vote.

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Spring Harvest

2010-06-08T12:34:00.005-05:00

Above: rows of cherries and other produce planted in a backyard north of Osh, Kyrgyzstan, supplement one family's income.

AP: Top Kyrgyz government official resigns

2010-06-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

By Leila Saralayeva

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan's fragile interim government suffered its first major defection Monday as the acting president's chief of staff announced his resignation and disclosed plans to create a new political party.

Edil Baisalov's departure from the government renews concerns about political stability in this volatile Central Asian nation, which was shaken earlier this year by a mass revolt that led to the toppling of then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

"First of all, I am interested in seeing the events of April 7 through to their logical conclusion," Baisalov told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "In the popular uprising, we kicked out Bakiyev's corrupt family. ... Now we must return Kyrgyzstan to the path of democracy."

Over the coming months, political developments in Kyrgyzstan will be closely scrutinized by the United States and Russia, which both have military bases in the country.

Baisalov criticized appointments made by the provisional government and complained that corruption remained rampant.

"It worries me deeply that people without any education and with criminal records have come to power purely on the basis of party affiliation," he said.

Baisalov said his party will take part in the parliamentary election to be held in October. He urged members of government belonging to parties running in the election to step down over the coming week.

Most leading officials in the interim government also hold top positions in the parties most likely to compete for seats in parliament.

The interim government rose to power in early April after Bakiyev was ousted amid violent clashes between demonstrators and troops that claimed dozens of lives.

Acting President Roza Otunbayeva is set to lead the country until presidential elections in October 2011. But the stability of her government is likely to be tested in coming months by internal rivalries within the Cabinet.

Security also remains a concern amid uncertainty over the authorities' perceived inability to guarantee law and order.

Overnight Sunday, a leading criminal linked with recent unrest in the south was killed in a shootout between rival gangs, police said.

Local officials in the Jalal-Abad region said Aibek Mirsidikov, a Bakiyev supporter known locally as Black Aibek, helped organize the seizure of local government offices that sparked a wave of violence last month.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The View from Osh

2010-06-06T15:29:00.005-05:00

Slideshow: The View from Osh

Above: pictures from weekend feasting in villages outside Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Families attending each contributed about 40 USD to a day-long meal, prepared seasonally except in wintertime, that includes everything from mutton soup to pistachios.

Photo of the Day

2010-06-04T13:00:00.004-05:00

Some disquieting signage on Avia Traffic Company Flight 179 to Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

RBM Swears In

2010-06-03T12:19:00.002-05:00

Above: scenes from a ceremony Thursday in northern Kyrgyzstan where 67 Americans became Peace Corps volunteers. Performances included "Red Flower" by pop singer Julia Rutzkaya, remarks in three languages by volunteers, a partial recitation of the Manas epic, and a speech by the U.S. ambassador, who speaks seven languages. Afterwards, Osh-bound RBM bid farewell to his local host family and fellow English teachers.

AKIPress.com later posted the following story:

The swearing-in ceremony of the 18th group of new Peace Corps Volunteers in the Kyrgyz Republic took place at the “Alyi Parus” House of Culture in the town of Kant on June 3.

U.S. Ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller, government officials, local community members, representatives of international partner organizations, hosting families attended the ceremony.

This group of volunteers arrived in March in Kyrgyzstan and is the 18th group since inception of the program in 1993. During three months the group received intensive training in Kyrgyz, Russian languages, local culture and traditions.

After the ceremony the volunteers departed for their villages and towns, where they will live in families and work for 2 years. 41 volunteers will serve as English language teachers, 11 will work as health promoters and 15 volunteers will work in local organizations focusing on development of the country and business.

140 volunteers work in Kyrgyzstan in total. Volunteers are also engaged into health promotion projects, sport events, summer youth camps, establishment of English language resource centers.

Peace Corps volunteers arrive at invitation of Kyrgyzstan based on intergovernmental agreement signed between the Governments of the United States and Kyrgyzstan in 1993. The work of Peace Corps volunteers supports Peace Corps' three goals: to help interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women; to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people where volunteers serve; to promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.

Photo of the Day

2010-06-02T12:04:00.002-05:00

June 1, 2010 -- A toy tractor, rated for ages three and above, on sale at a supermarket outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan News Roundup

2010-06-02T08:42:00.005-05:00

From the AP, "US stops refueling tanker planes at key base." An excerpt:

The U.S. military has stopped refueling tanker planes at its Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan as the U.S. renegotiates fuel prices with the Kyrgyz government, officials said Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman and other U.S. military officials said flights continue to ferry military personnel and supplies to and from Afghanistan through Manas.

But in an effort to conserve fuel, officials said, the tanker planes used to refuel aircraft operating over the battlefields of Afghanistan are no longer stopping at Manas. Instead, the tankers are going elsewhere to pick up fuel.

"We are currently in discussions with the interim government to determine the optimal way to procure fuel in the future," Air Force Maj. John A. Elolf, a spokesman at the base said. "We have taken steps to conserve fuel at the transit center until the discussions are complete."

Operations at the base, which opened in December 2001, have long been the source of tension between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic. Several times, the Kyrgyz government appeared to be on the verge of closing it.

From UPI, "Ethnic tensions simmer in Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

Hundreds of Uzbek security forces were sent to an Uzbek enclave in Kyrgyzstan as protesters demanded protection for Kyrgyz inhabitants, security forces said.

Security forces in Uzbekistan sent police and military troops to the Uzbek enclave of Sokh in Kyrgyzstan to greet area protesters ... Hundreds of residents in the enclave, one of the largest Uzbek enclaves in Kyrgyzstan, blocked a main highway to Uzbekistan to call for security for Kyrgyz citizens.

The protesters said several cars belonging to Kyrgyz citizens were damaged in the area in recent days.

Uzbek authorities closed the border with Kyrgyzstan following the April uprising that removed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power.

From RFE/RL, "Anti-Bakiev Protesters On Hunger Strike In North Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

Seven residents of the city of Naryn in northern Kyrgyzstan have launched a hunger strike to demand that all associates of ousted former President Kurmanbek Bakiev be dismissed from official posts in the region, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Bakiev was ousted after mass protests on April 7 and fled the country, initially to Kazakhstan. He is currently in Belarus at the invitation of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

One of the protesters, Kanayim Berdibaeva, told RFE/RL that the hunger strikers will continue their protest for three days in Naryn. Then, if their demands are not met, they will march to Bishkek.

Naryn Deputy Mayor Chynara Abdraimova met with the hunger strikers but failed to dissuade them from their protest.

From GlobalPost, "Kyrgyzstan's deceptive calm." An excerpt:

Kyrgyzstan remains a society deeply split along geographic, economic and ethnic lines. Bakiyev comes from Jalalabad in the south; the provisional government leaders who replaced him are predominantly from the north. Within the south, Kyrgyz and Uzbeks compete and at times come into conflict.

“All the ingredients are there for continued nasty business,” said Alexander Cooley, an associate professor of international relations at Barnard College in New York and an expert on the region.

For all its diminutive size — 5.5 million inhabitants and comparable territory to South Dakota — Kyrgyzstan nevertheless sometimes seems to be not one country, but many. Economically, the north is relatively more developed and seems closer in character to Kazakhstan, with which the Kyrgyz share strong ethnic ties. The south — separated from the north by two walls of mountains — is part of central Asia’s racially mottled Ferghana Valley and is more traditional. Close to half the population is Uzbek. Even the Kyrgyz living there are viewed as a different breed by their northern brethren.

From the IHT, an op-ed, "Democratic Change It's Not." An excerpt:

Young people openly speak about the hard life in Kyrgyzstan. Revolutions have replaced economic growth. Stability has given way to full unpredictability, and opportunities for the young are scarce to nonexistent.

And from TIME, a retrospective, "After a President's Ouster, Kyrgyzstan Remains in Crisis." An excerpt:

Otunbayeva, the country's interim president, has urged calm and insists her governance can lead toward reform. She says she won't run in the 2011 election as a sign of her commitment to that. But as chaos swirls, it's a promise Otunbayeva may not even have the chance to keep.

Laundry Day

2010-06-01T01:20:00.002-05:00

Above: scenes from a barnyard in northern Kyrgyzstan where RBM has learned to wash clothes beneath a spigot.

Photo of the Day

2010-05-30T07:46:00.002-05:00

A Saturday shopper at Bishek's Osh Bazaar escapes the heat.

Kyrgyz Chinese

2010-05-30T07:15:00.014-05:00

Above: Peace Corps teachers order Chinese food from a basement restaurant in Bishkek known simply as bakyt (happiness). Despite some questionable entrees, the menu's eggplant, fried spinach, and spiced tofu garnered enthusiastic reviews.

Photo of the Day

2010-05-28T03:18:00.007-05:00

Lunch at a Bishkek university cafe offers not one, but two rarities in Kyrgyzstan.

RBM Goes South

2010-05-26T12:00:00.002-05:00

Above: incoming volunteers gather around a giant map of Kyrgyzstan to await news of their permanent assignments.

RBM is to assist instructors at a university in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's oldest city and the scene of power struggles in recent days, the Peace Corps announced today. Past volunteers posted to the same institution have co-taught subjects ranging from lexicology, grammar and phonetics to methodology, journalism and American literature. The local population of 300,000, “is a fabulous mix of peoples,” notes Stewart and Weldon's Kyrgyz Republic (2008). Their entry continues:

A market town to its very heart, [Osh's] bazaar has apparently occupied the same spot on the banks of the Akbura river for 2,000 years. The rich history of the oasis lies hidden beneath the avenues of socialism and little remains to be seen. History's cultures, religions, and wars have disappeared from memory. The founding of the city is variously attributed to Alexander the Great, the Prophet Suleiman and even Biblical Adam. The most enduring tale is that of Suleiman who, when he reached the blade of rock at its centre, shouted “khosh” (“that's enough”).

Surrounding Osh is the Fergana valley, a verdant lowland renowned for its watermelons and framed by the Pamir Alay to the south and the Chatkal range to the north. With Uzbekistan just five miles to the west, enclaves also abound among the region's Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Kurds, Uighurs, and other ethnicities. Physical isolation tends to exacerbate the valley's divisions, write Stewart and Weldon, along with "unemployement, poor housing, population pressure ... [and] the failure of the goverment to ensure fair and even distribution of land and resources."

"About 40 percent of the population of Kyrgyzstan's Fergana territory is Uzbek; people who report feeling like outsiders in Kyrgyzstan but who are considered Kyrgyz by Uzbeks in Uzbekistan. All of these destabilising influences make people more susceptible to the influence of Islamic extremism from the south."

Photo of the Day

2010-05-23T02:01:00.003-05:00

A vocabulary lesson from the back stoop of a compound where four Peace Corps trainees attend classes in northern Kyrgyzstan.

AFP: Secret tapes spark fraud scandal for new Kyrgyz rulers

2010-05-22T02:39:00.002-05:00

By Tolkun Namatbayeva (AFP)

BISHKEK — Secret recordings released Friday implicated Kyrgyzstan's interim rulers in a fraud scandal as the new government struggled to impose its authority over the unruly ex-Soviet state.

In the covertly taped audio recordings posted on YouTube, the country's acting prosecutor general and finance minister discuss how to "secretly" divert one million dollars from the Kyrgyz central bank.

"If we ask the central bank to give us a million dollars, they'll faint," interim finance minister Temir Sariyev is heard saying.

"They've said the money had to go through the treasury. But then the million dollars will be registered, that won't do. It would require a decree from the interim government and that won't be secret."

The two plot to order the central bank transfer all its reserves to the finance ministry, "ostensibly for safe keeping," Sariyev says. In the process, one million dollars can be diverted, he adds.

"Let's transfer 19.6 million dollars, but let the finance ministry write 18.6 million on its books," Sariyev proposes. "If there's an audit in five years, I'll say that we ate the million," he jokes.

Kyrgyzstan's new leaders, who came to power in an April uprising that ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, moved swiftly to deny its officials sought to embezzle funds.

"There is nothing illegal in these conversations," Sariyev said in a statement, confirming that at least one of the recordings was genuine.

The million dollars was urgently needed to pay for police operations amid unrest in the south of the Central Asian State, he said.

"I had to urgently resolve the question of funds to pay the law enforcement forces."

The interim government added that it had launched a probe into illegal wire tapping after other recordings of conversations among officials appeared on the Internet. The source of the audio tapes is unknown.

In one, acting prosecutor general Azimbek Beknazarov roughly accuses deputy interim prime minister Almazbek Atambayev of corruption, hinting at conflicts and division within the new government.

"You took 400,000 dollars to appoint someone on whom we all agree, then go and name someone else," he rages.

Atambayev defends himself, saying: "He was a bribe-taker and corrupt. And what money are you talking about? I've never taken a kopek!"

But Beknazarov furiously threatens to publicly denounce Atambayev along with interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, who this week was appointed president until 2012 after the new government scrapped October elections.

"I have energy enough for a third revolution! I have unmasked you -- you are stinking s(expletive)s, scum, farts worse than Bakiyev!," Beknazarov rants.

"We were all together when we overthrew Bakiyev but now our paths divide."

Neither party has commented on this recording.

The alleged fraud scandal is the latest blow to the authority of the interim government, which faces an economy in tatters as well as sporadic riots and ethnic violence in the south of the Central Asian state.

The audio tapes have the potential to be all the more of an embarrassment because the country's new government has pledged to make fighting corruption its top priority.

But its officials are not the only ones targeted in the wire tappings.

A phone tape that claims to record a conversation between Bakiyev's son Maxim and brother Janysh has also surfaced. Two men are heard plotting a smear campaign and counter-coup against the new Kyrgyz authorities. The whereabouts of Maxim and Janysh Bakiyev are not known.

Kyrgyzstan declared a state of emergency in the south of the country this week after ethnic clashes marked the latest unrest to shake the ex-Soviet state since a popular revolt in April ousted Bakiyev and left 87 people dead.

Bakiyev, who drew the bulk of his support from southern Kyrgyzstan, has since taken refuge in Belarus, which has so far not responded to calls for his extradition.

Copyright © 2010 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

40 Days of Mourning

2010-05-17T10:34:00.003-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Night falls on a farmhouse outside Bishkek

Today Kyrgyzstan is marking 40 days since the week of April 7, when more than 80 protesters died trying to oust the government of Kurmanek Bakiyev, who has since fled to Belarus. Pictures from a rally held hours ago outside Bishkek's presidential palace, where many of the victims died in gunfire, was replayed tonight on state television. Rosa Otunbayeva and other leaders of the interim government sat in the front row, listening to tributes and exhortations that moved a crowd dressed in black and patriotic crimson to tears. I could sense, by the sighing and clucking of my host mother and despite my limited Kyrgyz, that the most chilling words came from an April 7 survivor who mounted the podium last, his head wrapped in a bandage and his speech slurred. My host father, meanwhile, remained unusually silent -- feeling too much emotion, I imagine, to share with an American.

From the Kitchen: Samsa

2010-05-17T09:30:00.000-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

One friend describes the pastry pictured below, which enjoys popular support among host families and Peace Corps volunteers alike, as Kyrgystan's Hot Pocket.

Eating Well in Kyrgyzstan -- a pink cookbook distributed to volunteers that includes everything from "How to Read a Recipe" to "Issyk-Kul Thanksgiving Stuffing" -- offers the following:

Samsa

2 cups flour
1 egg
Melted butter
2 onions, finely chopped
Crushed red pepper (kalimpir)
3-4 cubs ground beef or mutton
10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt
Black pepper

Dissolve 2 tablespoons salt in warm water. Beat egg and mix with flour. Gradually add the salt water to the flour until the dough holds together and doesn't stick. Set aside in a covered bowl for 20 minutes. Mix meat, onions, garlic, salt, black pepper, and kalimpir together. Roll the dough out into a large disk about 1/4-inch thick. Spread a thin layer of butter onto disk, and then roll up into a long tube (as if you were making cinammon rolls). Cut tube into 3 inch sections, and roll each out with a rolling pin. Each section should be about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick. This will create fine layers in the pastry. Put 1-2 tablespoons of the meat mixture onto the dough and fold opposite ends together to make a little triangle package. Repeat with remaining sections of dough. Bake on a greased cookie dough sheet at medium heat for 40-50 minutes, or until meat is cooked through and the dough is brown.

Kyrgyzstan Journal

2010-05-16T12:30:00.006-05:00

A page from RBM's Peace Corps journal for Sunday:

The local track comprises three lanes of broken pavement ringing a soccer field. Red and blue stick-figure athletes arrayed in Olympic poses have been spray-painted onto a low wall surrounding the complex, lending the place a sense of antique glory. It's a popular venue for ball players and mascaraed teens alike ("Hallo! How are you? Hallo!"). Those not on the field saunter around the track or chatter atop the bleachers, where broken glass makes the ground glitter. (A corner store at the complex's entrance sells beer and vodka at prices that rival bottled water.)

The young easily outnumber the old here, but a few mothers pushing strollers can usually be seen rounding the track's curve. One balding Russian who wears a slight smile jogs barefoot for hours on the grass, while another man is fond of shadow boxing on the backstretch. The field itself is neatly mowed in the early morning hours by a machine I've never seen, but along the sidelines, where the grass grows high, poor farmers dragging plastic sacks work the land with scythes, then cart away free sheep fodder on bicycles and horse carts. Overhead, meanwhile, Russian jets from a nearby base hurtle themselves toward the Tian Shan range, which rises against the southern sky like a dragon's jaw.

On Friday, just as three friends and I finished a run and strolled toward the store for ice cream, commotion erupted at the near end of the field, just beyond the finish line. A crowd had been squatting in a big circle to swap text messages and shuffle cards, but then something went wrong. Two figures suddenly began to struggle, and as their friends drew close, I realized that these were young girls. Each teen looked, eerily, like a carbon copy of her enemy: spindly limbs clad in factory-faded jeans and low-cut t-shirts, teased black hair, and heavy makeup.

The lack of muscle made the fight no less fierce; within seconds they staggered toward the high grass and went down, pummeling, yanking, and screaming. Other girls intervened, but a full minute passed before it was over. (My own intervention here, I should note, risked a police report, which can unfortunately jeopardize one's service in Kyrgyzstan.) As the girls broke apart, one buried her face in her hands, sobbing and clutching at loose hair, while the other fled the scene. A freckled boy on a bike pedaled by just then, his face flushed with excitement. "Kyrgyzstan number one!" he yelled, happy as a dog.

This fight was, of course, much like the others I've seen among American teens, both on playgrounds and on YouTube. But the speed with which it broke the tranquility of the place I go to unwind was unsettling. It was a reminder, I think, of how parallel two worlds can become.

Kyrgyzstan News Roundup (Updated)

2010-05-13T12:30:00.008-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

New unrest involving at least three cities in southern Kyrgyzstan is making headlines today. Walking home along a railroad track in the North, however, it's hard to tell anything is afoot, save for the scowl of a soldier in wrinkled fatigues. Even this old man brightened when asked for a kiosk selling detergent at his crossing, where change comes in fistfuls of 10 som notes (each about 0.25 USD). Let's hope the country's politics stay calm enough for my socks to dry. And for volunteers already at work in the South to stay on.

From AFP, "Kyrgyz opposition seizes two regional HQs: reports." An excerpt:

Opponents of Kyrgyzstan's interim government Thursday seized regional administration buildings in the two main cities in the south, raising fears the volatile state is on the brink of new chaos.

Hundreds of supporters of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev stormed the administration building in the southern city of Jalalabad and occupied the premises, a local official told AFP.

Earlier, hundreds of opponents of the interim government seized the regional headquarters in the southern city of Osh, the main city in the region, a spokesman for the regional administration told AFP.

Another group also seized control of the airport in Osh, one of the interim government's members, Omurbek Tekebayev, told reporters ... Pro-Bakiyev supporters also seized control of the regional administration building in Batken, a smaller town also in the south, officials said.

From RFE/RL, "Former Kyrgyz President's Supporters Take Over Government Building In Osh." An excerpt:

RFE/RL correspondents at the scene say Sooronbai Jeenbekov, who was appointed Osh provincial governor by Kyrgyzstan's interim government last month, left the building surrounded by his guards.

Our correspondents say former Osh Governor Mamasadyk Bakirov and his deputy then entered their "offices."

Later, both Bakirov and Jeenbekov addressed the crowd outside the government building, where supporters of the interim government also gathered.

Bakirov called for the restoration of legality and the return of Bakiev. Jeenbekov called for calm and promised that the interim government would meet people's social demands and carry out reforms.

Interior Ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that police were maintaining order in the city.

From the BBC, "Opponents of Kyrgyz government seize regional offices." An excerpt:

Witnesses said the raid came after a demonstration in Osh's central square by some 1,000 supporters of the old regime.

A parallel protest, by some 500 supporters of the interim government, was also taking place in Osh.

From Reuters, "Kyrgyz protesters take over local government HQ in south." An excerpt:

In Bishkek, the capital, interim government chief of staff Edil Baisalov told Reuters that "measures will be taken to restore authority" in the city of Osh. He did not elaborate.

"Those are actions of revanchist forces, they will fizzle out soon," interim government spokesman Farid Niyazov said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov said police were monitoring the situation and would not allow an escalation of unrest.

And on Wednesday, from the Canadian Press, "Hundreds rally in Kyrgyz capital in call for return of mayor in largest meeting since uprising." An excerpt:

The demonstration was peaceful, but showed that tensions remain high in the Central Asian country that is of strategic concern to both Washington and Moscow ... the provisional government has warned that Bakiyev supporters may provoke disturbances in a bid to destabilize the country ... The demonstrators on Wednesday held signs in support of former Bishkek mayor Nariman Tuleyev, a Bakiyev loyalist sought by the interim authorities for complicity in organizing riots in the wake of last month's protests.

Also Wednesday, the security services detained the head of the Communist Party for questioning over his conduct during the April 7 disturbances. Iskhak Masaliyev was held at the airport after arriving from Moscow.

Update (May 14, 2010) -- TV pictures of stick-wielding crowds battling for control of Osh's government (interspersed with a cheery weather forecast calling for partly cloudy skies in Bishkek) made for interesting lunchtime conversation today. A regional governor came on the air shortly thereafter to assure viewers that the interim government is restoring order in southern Kyrgyzstan.

From Reuters, "Kyrgyz government supporters retake Osh administration." An excerpt:

Backers of Kyrgyzstan's interim government regained control of a key government building in the southern city of Osh on Friday, a day after it was seized in what authorities said was a coup attempt by their opponents.

In another southern city, Jalalabad, gunfire broke out as thousands of interim government supporters surrounding the provincial administration headquarters scuffled with opponents holding the building, two eyewitnesses said by telephone.

In the capital, Bishkek, interim authorities said ousted leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev was behind the seizure of government buildings in all three southern provinces and announced the arrest of a Bakiyev ally they said organized the unrest.

"Bakiyev is behind all this," interim government deputy chairman Omurbek Tekebayev said on state television.

From the AP, "Kyrgyz gov't supporters try to retake offices." An excerpt:

In Osh, Kyrgyzstan's No. 2 city ... [the] pro-Bakiyev crowd held the building until the arrival of a large group of people, many of them young men and middle-aged women wearing blue armbands — the color of interim Prime Minister Roza Otunbayeva's Social-Democrat party.

The groups threw rocks at one another, then Bakiyev adherents fled the building.

In Jalal-Abad, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Osh, the situation remained tense in the early afternoon.

Around 200 Bakiyev supporters, some with automatic rifles, were holed up in the government building. A column of about 4,000 backers of the Ata-Meken party, which supports the interim government, arrived to try to evict the occupiers, but quickly dispersed amid the gunfire.

Several hundred Ata-Meken activists, armed with guns and sticks, remained on the square near the government building as party representatives delivered speeches from a rostrum.

From VOA, "Deadly Clashes Erupt in Southern Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

At least one person has died and some 30 others were injured during violence that witnesses say involved gunfire and street battles with sticks and stones.

And from the UN: "Fresh clashes in Kyrgyzstan prompt call for restraint from UN chief." An excerpt:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued a call for calm and restraint as reports of violence and loss of life emerge from Kyrgyzstan, where clashes have broken out between supporters and opponents of the Provisional Government.

One person was reportedly killed and at least 58 wounded in the seizures of Government buildings in Osh, Jalalabad and Batken in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Update (May 15, 2010) -- From the AP, "Kyrgyz governor says new authorities in control." An excerpt:

Kyrgyzstan's restive south calmed down Saturday after a failed attempt to take control by supporters of the nation's deposed president in which one person died and dozens were wounded.

Jalal-Abad regional Gov. Bektur Asanov insisted that supporters of the interim government were firmly in control of the city after two days of riots — the worst violence since last month's forcible government change.

Asanov spoke in an interview with The Associated Press as laborers worked to clear up the aftermath of the seizure of the regional government building. He vowed there will be no repetition of the violence that raised doubts about the new authorities' ability to control the south, where support for former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev still runs strong.

"I think this attempt to seize power that was made the day before yesterday was the last attempt to destabilize the situation made by destructive forces led by Bakiyev's brothers," Asanov told the AP. "The people showed their force and nobody will be able to do this again in the future."

Update (May 19, 2010) -- From the AP, "2 dead as ethnic clash breaks out in Kyrgyzstan." An excerpt:

Clashes between rival ethnic groups killed at least two people and hurt 50 on Wednesday, raising fears of a new cycle of violence as this Central Asian nation struggles to restore order after a bloody revolt last month.

Eyewitnesses in the southern town of Jalal-Abad said thousands of ethnic Kyrgyz attempted to storm a private university that serves as the focus of the minority Uzbek community. Local residents said gunfire broke out as crowds approached the building, which they said had been encircled by a cordon of special security forces.

Kyrgyzstan has been struggling to maintain stability in the weeks after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted from power amid deadly clashes between government forces and demonstrators that claimed 89 lives.

Tensions have long simmered between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek — both Sunni Muslim groups — in the former Soviet nation's restive south. In 1990, hundreds were killed in a violent land dispute between the two communities in towns across southern Kyrgyzstan, which borders Uzbekistan.

It was not clear who opened fire in Jalal-Abad, but Interior Ministry spokeswoman Gulsara Alieva said that nobody in the crowd appeared to be armed.

At least two people were killed and 50 injured, according to the Health Ministry. Some of the injured were being treated for gunshot wounds.

Witnesses said the crowd assembled in front of the university threw stones at the building and shouted demands for the hand-over of Uzbek community leader Kadyrjan Batyrov, whom they charge with inciting racial tension. Batyrov, a wealthy businessman, paid for the construction of the Peoples' Friendship University.

In the middle of the afternoon, privately owned Akipress news agency cited eyewitnesses as saying that about 1,500 ethnic Uzbeks, some of them wielding spears, were moving toward the central square, where a crowd of ethnic Kyrgyz was assembled. Soldiers barred the Uzbeks' movement toward the square, the agency reported.

Interim Prime Minister Roza Otunbayeva said every possible measure is being taken to defuse the situation.

Update (May 20, 2010) -- From the AP, "Kyrgyzstan unrest persists; 2 officials attacked." An excerpt:

More than 2,000 supporters of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president have rallied near a southern town wracked by ethnic violence as unrest persists in the Central Asian country.

Several residents told The Associated Press the acting defense minister and a regional governor were attacked and briefly held hostage Thursday outside Jalal-Abad.

The town was rocked Wednesday by ethnic clashes that left two dead and more than 70 injured, prompting authorities to boost military reinforcements and announce a two-week state of emergency there.

The interim authorities that came to power after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's ouster last month have earned widespread popular acceptance. But unrest has persisted around Bakiyev's former stronghold in the south.

And from the The Wall Street Journal, "Kyrgyzstan Struggles to Quell Violence." An excerpt:

The interim government of Kyrgyzstan raised wages for police and military officers Thursday as it struggled to consolidate power and contain politically tinged ethnic violence in the former stronghold of deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The raises were announced after ethnic Kyrgyz protesters assaulted the governor of the southern city of Jalal-Abad, where two people died in clashes Wednesday at a university defended by ethnic Uzbeks. News agencies said the governor, who had been trying to calm an angry crowd, was treated for injuries at a hospital.

"The situation is explosive," Edil Baisalov, the acting president's chief of staff, said in a telephone interview from Jalal-Abad.

He described the violence there as a struggle between ethnic Kyrgyz- and Uzbek-led clans to fill a local power vacuum left by Mr. Bakiyev's ouster from office and departure from the country last month. The interim authorities who took over in Bishkek, the capital, have gained popular acceptance in most of the country, which is home to both U.S. and Russian military bases.

But Mr. Bakiyev had a loyal following in the Jalal-Abad region. The unrest there is being fueled, the chief of staff said, by "frustration among some residents, who fear that they will be denied representation in the new government."

Police officers have been reluctant to intervene in the disorders. On Wednesday acting President Roza Otunbayeva declared a state of emergency and sent army units to enforce a nightly curfew in Jalal-Abad and an adjacent rural district.

The pay increases announced Thursday are intended to get the police back to work and keep the army loyal. The pay of officers, who now earn $200 to $300 per month, was boosted by 50% to 80%.

Kyrgyzstan Journal

2010-05-11T10:51:00.008-05:00

A page from RBM's Peace Corps journal for Tuesday:

The most baffling part of the day came just minutes ago with a familiar tapping of metal at my door: five-year-old host brother E, back again, teasing the latch. This time he had a clear glass marble to show me. After inspecting it for a moment I closed the door, perhaps a little too quickly, and just then he snatched the key resting in the opposite side. I reemerged in time to catch sight of him stuffing the bright metal into his cargo shorts, whereupon he dashed toward our barnyard.

Determined to win him over with my broken Kyrgyz, as has worked in the past, I followed in slow pursuit. E stopped running. We considered one another across the mud and harsh sunlight, both expressionless. Then he inched toward me, shrugging innocence at my questions and even refusing a toy car I snatched on my way out. After a time E's hand burrowed into his pocket, and there in his palm lay the key, a thing of beauty, notched on four sides like no other I have owned.

It seemed then that a car-for-key trade might be in the cards, but instead the little man began gesturing toward the garage roof, threatening to launch the only thing that stands between me and the wilds of Kyrgyzstan into oblivion. E's eyebrows arched, drunk with power. Then he did it. He chucked the key skyward with a deft flick of his arm, and as it clattered toward a rusty doom between slats of corrugated metal that haven't seen daylight since glasnost, I stood with my mouth agape.

Had he really just done that? The rat bastard! Why? Rather than curse I could only shake my head, then begin yelling for E's grandmother, S, and his 16-year-old uncle, U, who came from the sheep pen. U scaled the roof twice to search but it was no use. After some gestures S came to understand what had happened and began laying into her grandson, who sent up a wail that only just ceased a few minutes ago. (Luckily she had a spare key, which avoided a lock change.)

I still can't fathom why E did this thing tonight -- or why, a few days ago, he buried my sandals under a cabinet in the main house. Except, perhaps, for the fact that he knows I sometimes drink fruit juice behind that locked door, and don't always share. And at five years old, that might be reason enough.

The View from the Backyard

2010-05-10T11:19:00.003-05:00

Slideshow: The View from the Backyard

With dancing and toy guns RBM's extended host family celebrates Victory Day in northern Kyrgyzstan, one of many former Soviet republics that observe the May 9 holiday.

Oil Spills and Human Hair: Who Thought of That?

2010-05-09T01:18:00.017-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Crude oil spreading shoreward from the blowout of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the northern Gulf of Mexico has "crept deeper into the bays and marshes of the Mississippi Delta," according to news wires. The AP notes that "[a] sheen of oil began arriving on land" days ago, prompting efforts by the Coast Guard and BP to burn, chemically disperse, or contain the spill with booms. Still, a "thicker, stickier goo -- arrayed in vivid, brick-colored ribbons -- is drawing ever closer to Louisiana's coastal communities."

Major U.S. oil spills, such as the the 2007 wreck of the Cosco Busan in San Francisco Bay, have been relatively infrequent since the plight of Alaska's Prince William Sound first generated public outcry more than two decades ago. When spills do make the news, one particularly novel means of mitigating the goo tends to attract volunteers and environmentalists -- and with them, reporters.

"As it turns out, hair adheres to oil pretty efficiently, which is why your hair gets greasy," explained NPR on Wednesday. "Now," the report continues, "salons are donating their discarded locks to help with the Gulf Coast cleanup." Matter of Trust, a San Francisco group specializing in oil booms trimmed with nylons and animal fur, "is directing its current stockpile of hair -- 400,000 pounds" toward the same effort. (Full disclosure: RBM worked for NPR between 2004 and 2008.)

I profiled two men behind the original prototype for an oil boom stuffed with human hair in "The Hair in Your Texas Garlic Toast," a nonfiction story appearing in the current issue of California State University, Fresno's The Normal School. Here's an excerpt:

[T]he year was 1989. Exxon’s infamous oil tanker had just run aground on a reef, spilling nearly eleven-million gallons of the state’s own crude into Prince William Sound. As reporters and volunteers descended on the scene of one of the nation’s worst ecological disasters, pictures of oil-drenched seabirds, harbor seals, and, especially, otters began flooding American TV sets. The volunteers made Dawn dishwashing liquid legendary in helping to treat affected animals, but the task of mopping up crude from the cold waters and rock-strewn shores of the sound proved a messy, largely insurmountable task.

Watching pictures of the cleanup, meanwhile, some 4,000 miles away in Huntsville, Alabama, was a hair stylist named Phil McCrory. “I thought if animal fur can trap and hold spilled oil, why can’t human hair,” said McCrory. World Response Group, Inc., an environmental firm [led by a Florida man, Blair] Blacker, describes what happened next as a “home experiment.” McCrory gathered up several pounds of hair from his salon, drove home, and stuffed the mass into a pair of his wife’s pantyhose. With the legs tied together, the nylon bundle formed a kind of pillow that he thought just might soak up oil. But to test the idea, McCrory needed an oil spill. And so he simulated the catastrophe of Prince William Sound on a slightly smaller scale––his son’s plastic wading pool. He filled the tub with water, added a gallon of used motor oil from his garage, and dropped in his invention. Two minutes passed. Then he checked the pool. “The water was crystal clear,” claims World Response. “Not a trace of oil was left,” said McCrory.

The stylist sensed he had stumbled on something useful, and before long one of the country’s foremost laboratories took an interest. “This is the kind of thing I call genius,” NASA scientist Elizabeth Rogers told an NBC reporter in 1999 ... “It would seem obvious, but no one else did think of it, and Phil McCrory did,” she said. McCrory promptly patented the design for an oil-collecting pillow. A few years later, a colleague of Blacker’s walked into the offices of World Response with a wad of hair. “I had an epiphany, if you want to call it that,” says Blacker. “I said, ‘Wow, we better pay attention to this.’” He decided to buy the technology––and hire its inventor.

Despite NASA’s confirmation that hair does prove effective in separating oil and water—especially because the strands appear to absorb oil, or simply hold on to it, rather than absorbing it, as polypropylene sponges do––the market in the 1990s was not as interested in McCrory’s invention as was NASA. “We were basically equal to or lower in price [and] more efficient” than the synthetic technology, says Blacker. “But it didn’t fit in the paradigm.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the conventional approach to mopping up spills, the one favored by oil companies, did not involve “green” products or attempts to repurpose the oil collected. “Use polypropylene mats and throw them away,” is how Blacker describes the paradigm. By contrast, World Response’s product (a refinement of McCrory’s pillow, still sold today), has cleanup crews wring oil from a limited number of mats woven entirely from hair, “and then when you’re finally done with whatever emergency spill that you have, either clean the mat and store it or then dispose of it.” Blacker explains this logic with the wistful tone of an entrepreneur whose brainchild remains unappreciated. “Totally different paradigm,” he adds. “And remember, petroleum then was 20 bucks a barrel.”

Unable to successfully market the “OttiMat,” as McCrory and Blacker dubbed their answer to Exxon Valdez (in deference, it seems, to Valdez’s otters), World Response began exploring other applications for human hair.

To read this and other tales of cunning and adventure in their entirety, visit The Normal School's subscriptions page and ask for volume three, issue one. "The Hair in Your Texas Garlic Toast" also appears in the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference's 2010 issue of Ten Spurs.

Update (June 9, 2010) -- Government scientists, BP, and the Coast Guard have been weighing in on precisely how valuable hair becomes in cleaning up spills such as the one currently affecting the Gulf. Not so valuable, seems to be their answer. First came skepticism from a microbial ecologist, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's Terry Hazen, who revised earlier comments suggesting that absorbent materials such as animal hair might be used to "seed the affected waters." Hazen recently told the SF Weekly that, in sum, "Yes, hair will soak up some oil. But not nearly as well or expediently as other things." What kinds of things? He says he prefers "corn cobs, corn stover (other corn detritus), the leavings from cotton gins and even peat -- which Hazen has helped Russians use to soak up oil spills."

Then, a week later, in a blow to efforts by San Francisco-based Matter of Trust (see above) to use human hair in mitigating the Gulf mess, the Coast Guard and BP announced they would not be taking hair booms out to sea. One petty officer told told reporters that "We foresee a risk that widespread deployment of the hair boom could exacerbate the debris problem." Instead, an alternative "sorbent boom," of the kind that pushed Blair Blacker away from the OttiMat business, has won out.

Update (June 25, 2010) -- BBC News Magazine has just published "From Food to Fashion, the Thriving Market in Human Hair." Writer Denise Winterman's story touches on hair's role in some of the same industries profiled in RBM's "The Hair in Your Texas Garlic Toast," including environmental protection. An excerpt:

BP's ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has highlighted a very environmentally-friendly use for human hair - as a mop for the crude oil. Each hair follicle has an enormous surface area and is "spiky", so the oil "sticks" to it. This is because it is adsorbent, not absorbent like a sponge. It's why we wash our hair, because it collects the oils our bodies produce. It is also the case with fur and wool ... The idea of using human hair to mop up oil spills was the brain child of US hair stylist Phil McCory. Watching the Exxon Valdez disaster unfold on TV in 1989, he noticed how hard it was for volunteers to clean oil from otters because it was trapped in their fur. He tested to see if it was the same with human hair and it was.

AP: US vows more transparency over base in Kyrgyzstan

2010-05-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

By Peter Leonard (AP)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A senior adviser to President Barack Obama said Friday that Washington will ensure greater transparency in the supply of aviation fuel to a key U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, where the previous government often was accused of corruption.

Perceived improprieties over a fuel supply deal with the Manas base, which Kyrgyz prosecutors believe financially benefited members of the recently ousted government, have severely dented the standing of the United States in the impoverished Central Asian nation.

Clarifying the procedure of how fuel is purchased would help eliminate speculation about activities at the base, White House official Michael McFaul told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Kazakh capital, Astana.

"A lot of this information is available publicly, but we want to put it together in one place, and we are even considering having a website where we have all the payments from the transit center that happen," McFaul said.

Kyrgyz prosecutors say that companies owned by a son of deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev avoided almost $80 million in taxes on aviation fuel sold to Manas base, which acts as a key refueling point for warplanes flying over Afghanistan and a major hub for combat troop movement.

Domestic and international critics have suggested the United States may have turned a blind to irregularities in the fuel supply procedure to ensure the future of the base.

The fate of the base was cast into doubt early last year when Bakiyev's government said it would terminate the lease. Kyrgyzstan later agreed to allow U.S. forces to stay after the annual rent was raised to about $63 million from $17 million. Manas was redesignated a "transit center" as part of the deal.

The U.S. hold on the base came under threat again last month after Bakiyev was ousted in a violent uprising and a provisional government took charge.

The acting prime minister, Roza Otunbayeva, has since promised to extend the current base agreement for another year after it expires in July.

But she and other leading members of the government have complained vocally in the past that their pleas for assistance were ignored by Washington when they were in the opposition and facing oppression from Bakiyev's government.

"We are falling down dramatically, and the United States doesn't care," Otunbayeva told The Associated Press in February.

But McFaul denied that the Obama administration had abandoned its commitment to democracy-promotion in favor of U.S. strategic interests in Kyrgyzstan — namely, the Manas transit center.

"That is not our policy in Kyrgyzstan or in any other country," he said. "The moment we have now creates an opportunity for us to be more clear and more direct in articulating President Obama's vision."

McFaul, who was in Kyrgyzstan earlier this week, said he also has urged the provisional authorities to investigate the bloody events of April 7 that propelled them into power. They have to date failed to heed calls for an independent international commission to investigate the clashes between government troops and demonstrators in which at least 85 people died.

Possible solutions could include a bilateral effort with the United States government or a broader international option "to create impartiality and to get the facts right, and to lead to some kind of truth and also reconciliation," McFaul said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

AP: Kyrgyzstan demands toppled leader's extradition

2010-05-07T08:29:00.001-05:00

By Leila Saralayeva (AP)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Prosecutors said Friday they have asked Belarus to extradite deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to Kyrgyzstan to face charges of complicity in murder and abuse of office.

The request for Bakiyev's return came as Kyrgyzstan's interim government stepped up efforts to arrest of several of his relatives and former high-ranking officials.

Belarus has signed an international extradition accord, so it is obliged to hand over Bakiyev, Kyrgyz General Prosecutor Azimbek Beknazarov said. But extradition appeared unlikely since Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has personally guaranteed Bakiyev refuge.

Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan last month, more than a week after he was toppled from power amid violent clashes between government forces and demonstrators in which at least 85 people died.

On Thursday, the international police agency Interpol placed one of Bakiyev's sons, Maksim, on its wanted list at the request of a Kyrgyz court. He is currently believed to be in the Baltic state of Latvia.

Kyrgyz prosecutors said that companies owned by Maksim Bakiyev avoided almost $80 million in taxes on aviation fuel sold to suppliers to a U.S. air base in the country, a key refueling point for warplanes flying over Afghanistan and a major hub for combat troop movement.

The alleged tax evasion dates back to 2005, the year Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power, prosecutors said.

U.S. presidential adviser Michael McFaul visited Kyrgyzstan this week and proposed supplying fuel to the Manas base through Kyrgyz state companies to avoid accusations of financial impropriety.

Other senior figures sought by the Kyrgyz authorities include Bakiyev's brother, Zhanybek, who is accused of issuing the order to fire at protesters in the capital, Bishkek, during street clashes April 7.

The interim government is offering cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of several of Bakiyev's fugitive colleagues, including former Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov. The rewards of $20,000 to $100,000 are colossal in a country where the average monthly salary is $130.

Bakiyev swept to power in 2005 on a wave of street protests, but his public standing collapsed amid corruption allegations, worsening living conditions and repression.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Country Driving

2010-05-06T11:19:00.011-05:00

Above: pictures from the window of a minibus in northern Kyrgyzstan, where transit stops feature elaborate Soviet architecture.

AP: Kyrgyz security chief warns of instability

2010-05-06T11:08:00.003-05:00

By Leila Saralayeva (AP)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Allies of deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev may fund public disturbances in a bid to destabilize this turbulent Central Asian nation, the acting head of the security services said Thursday.

The warning came amid unsuccessful efforts to track down Bakiyev's close relatives and former high-ranking officials.

"Until the close relatives of ex-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev are detained, there will be no end to the instability," said security services chief Keneshbek Duishebayev.
Duishebayev said authorities were concerned by rumors that demonstrations in Bakiyev's support will be held on May 17.

Political rallies will be permitted, but any attempts to create public disorder through illegal means will be quashed, Duishebayev said.

Bakiyev fled the country last month, more than a week after he was toppled from power amid violent clashes between government forces and demonstrators that claimed at least 85 lives. He is currently in Belarus, where he has been offered refuge by President Alexander Lukashenko.

Bakiyev swept to power in 2005 on the crest of a wave of street protests, but his public standing collapsed amid growing corruption allegations, worsening living conditions and political repression.

Duishebayev says Bakiyev's brother, Zhanybek, who is accused of issuing the order to fire at protesters in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, may be eluding capture by moving across the Kyrgyz border with Uzbekistan. Another brother, Akhmat Bakiyev, a businessman and powerbroker in the family's political stronghold in southern Kyrgyzstan, also is at large.

"These are experienced people that have spent their entire lives carrying out investigative work, so they know our methods very well," Duishebayev said.

Acting Finance Minister Temir Sariyev has warned that the Bakiyev family may use finances it is accused of appropriating during Kurmanbek Bakiyev's five-year rule to finance subversive and anti-government activities.

The interim government also is offering cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of several of Bakiyev's fugitive colleagues, including former Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov.

Rewards of $20,000 to $100,000 are being offered to those who can help find them — colossal bounties in a country where the average salary is $130 per month.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Victory Day Approaches

2010-05-05T09:08:00.010-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Above: regalia marking Soviet victory over the Nazis adorns downtown Bishkek's Ala-Too Square, where the charred remains of Kyrgyzstan's former tax ministry can also be seen. The building was damaged during riots that ousted Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power less than a month ago. Along with Victory Day on May 9, Kyrgyzstan celebrates Labor Day and Constitution Day this month. TV channels have been airing both remembrances of protestors killed during April's uprising and interviews with World War II veterans, whose numbers continue to dwindle. In a village park outside the capital, meanwhile, a stern memorial reminds passersby of what happened 65 years prior.

The View from Issyk Ata

2010-05-05T08:45:00.006-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Over the weekend myself and other Peace Corps trainees trekked through hills surrounding Kyrgystan's famous hot springs, once a destination for Buddhist pilgrims. Rowan Steward and Susie Weldon's Kyrgyz Republic notes the following:

Issyk Ata (Father Heat) used to be a place of pilgrimage but is now synonymous with its popular health resort, which offers the full package of medical examination and mineral spring-fed hot baths. Until the 19th century, villagers grateful for the healing properties of the water expressed their thanks by smearing sheep grease onto [a] large rock, which has a depiction of Buddha on it.

The trainees, I should note, enjoyed cold rain and a waterfall rather than the baths, which cost about 6 USD.

Slideshow: The View from Issyk Ata

The View from the Farmhouse

2010-05-03T11:30:00.007-05:00

Above: RBM's host family for Peace Corps training in northern Kyrgyzstan. For breakfast: tea, apricot jam, and pastries from a relative's bakery in Bishkek. For dinner: chicken dumplings with homemade bread. And more tea.

The Revolution, Now on DVD

2010-05-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

Above: a video montage of Kyrgyzstan's 2010 uprising, which culminated less than a month ago in Bishkek, has already reached kitchen tables in one northern village.

AP: Kyrgyzstan offers bounties for fugitive ex-leaders

2010-05-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan's interim government is offering cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of fugitive relatives and colleagues of deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Authorities are looking to close the net on Bakiyev's circle and said Monday a dozen of his relatives and acquaintances are wanted for unspecified "grave crimes."

The suspects include one of Bakiyev's sons and three of his brothers, as well as former Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov. Rewards from $20,000 to $100,000 are offered to those who can help find them — colossal bounties in a country where the average salary is $130 per month.

Bakiyev was toppled on April 7 during a bloody uprising in which at least 85 people were killed. His brother Zhanybek is wanted for ordering police to open fire on protestors.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The View from an Orphanage

2010-04-30T04:40:00.005-05:00

Slideshow: The View from an Orphanage

At a Bazaar Near You

2010-04-25T05:57:00.003-05:00

Slideshow: At a Bazaar Near You

Above: cookies, laundry soap, and other wares attracting customers at a local market in northern Kyrgyzstan.

A Note About Censorship

2010-04-25T05:28:00.003-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

A blog post from Google last week probably explains why I've had trouble updating my own blog as of late. More from Monday's Washington Post:

This morning, on their main blog, Google posted a little reminder to everyone about its view on censorship on the web. Specifically, they don't like it. And while we all know their take on China's demand for censorship by now, the search giant also offered up a new interesting little factoid: of the 100 countries around the world in which Google offers their services, some 25 at least partially block them ... They also link to a list from the Open Net Initiative which shows countries around the world known to censor some web content. All told, there are some 40 countries today that censor the web in some way, according to this data. This is up from just four countries in 2002, according to Google. This is all interesting, but it would be much more effective if Google would specifically name names of the countries doing the full or partial blocking of its services, as they have so vocally done with China.

Based on two recent visits to Internet cafes outside Bishkek, it seems that Kyrgyzstan, for the time being, numbers among Google's 25.

Back to Training

2010-04-21T05:22:00.002-05:00

Slideshow: Back to Training

Above: RBM tastes his first kumis as well as other scenes from the resumption of training for Kyrgyzstan's newest Peace Corps volunteers. After relocating to a secure location for nearly a week following the overthrow of now-exiled president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, trainees are once again studying Kyrgyz or Russian and living with local families in the country's northernmost province.

Kyrgyzstan News Roundup

2010-04-13T21:57:00.003-05:00

From UPI, "Bakiyev offers conditional resignation." An excerpt:

"I will go into retirement if security is guaranteed for me and my relatives," Bakiyev told reporters Tuesday.

From The Christian Science Monitor's blog, "Kyrgyzstan coup: Bakiyev inching closer to leaving the country." An excerpt:

for the moment, the fears of a possible civil war or a counter uprising against the interim government, which has promised fresh elections within six months, seems unlikely. The indicators coming out of Kyrgyzstan, at least today, are that a political accommodation between the interim government and Bakiyev is likely to be reached.

From the AP, "Kyrgyzstan interim leader says US base will stay." An excerpt:

Roza Otunbayeva said in an AP interview that the agreement allowing the Manas base will be automatically extended when the current one-year deal expires in July. She did not say how long the extension would last ... Otunbayeva also told the AP Tuesday that her government is offering security guarantees for deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his family if he steps down and leaves the country. Bakiyev fled the capital last week during an uprising that killed 83.

AP: Supporters of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president rally

2010-04-13T01:43:00.002-05:00

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan — Several thousand supporters of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president are rallying, in a test of his ability to resist opposition forces that drove him out of the capital last week.

Supporters of Kurmanbek Bakiyev are speaking at the square in Jalal-Abad and some of his brothers are mingling in the crowd. Bakiyev himself is expected to appear soon.

Tuesday's rally follows a smaller gathering of about 500 people in his home village the day before.

The self-declared interim government in the capital has threatened to arrest Bakiyev, who has warned that there will be bloodshed if they try.

The instability worries the West because a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan is crucial in the military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

At Play in Kyrgyzstan

2010-04-12T01:37:00.010-05:00

Above: painted sheep bones stand in for marbles and a Peace Corps trainee goes mano-a-mano with the local soccer talent in northern Kyrgyzstan.

AP: Kyrgyz ponder whether to abandon Bakiyev

2010-04-10T23:18:00.003-05:00

By Peter Leonard (AP)

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan -- In the stronghold of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president, residents clustered on the streets Saturday, holding intense discussions on whether to follow the figures who claim to be the new government.

Some said deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev did a lot of good for the country and dismissed the complaints of the opposition members who drove him out, but many other appeared weary of the country's turmoil and were willing to support anyone who can bring them a measure of stability and comfort.

Bakiyev fled the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after a protest rally against corruption, rising utility bills and deteriorating human rights exploded into police gunfire and chaos that left at least 79 people dead and sparked protesters to storm government buildings. He was believed to be in his home Jalal-Abad region on Saturday.

"He built the economy. He built schools, roads and kindergartens. The protesters were just a minority," said Aizat Zupukharova, a health worker in Jalal-Abad.
But, she added, "People are afraid to come out."

"Bakiyev did some good things, but his family led him astray," said another resident, Sapar Usmonov, referring to widespread allegations that Bakiyev's relatives profited hugely and improperly from his nearly five years in office. The claims echo those made against Bakiyev's predecessor, Askar Akayev, who was driven out of office in protests in 2005.

The interim rulers say they have offered Bakiyev safe passage out of the country if he steps down, but he has made no public sign of capitulation. That stalemate leaves Kyrgyzstan's near-term stability in doubt, a strategic worry for the West because of the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan that is a key element in the international military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The base provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and is an important transit point for troops. U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. John Redfield said that although normal flight operations at the base were resumed Friday, military passenger flights were being temporarily diverted.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday spoke with Kyrgyzstan's interim leader to convey U.S. support and discuss the importance of the U.S. air base.

Clinton telephoned Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister and onetime Bakiyev ally who heads the interim government, to offer humanitarian aid and to discuss the need for stability in the region, the U.S. State Department said.

Otunbayeva reaffirmed the country would abide by previous agreements to help the U.S. seek stability in nearby Afghanistan. Clinton will send Assistant Secretary Robert Blake to Kyrgyzstan to follow up on the discussion.

Kyrgyzstan's society is strongly clannish, but there are few overt signs that Bakiyev's fellow southerners would coalesce into support for him against the self-declared opposition interim government even though they think well of him.

In taking power on Thursday, the interim leaders said they controlled four of Kyrgyzstan's seven regions. By Saturday they claimed to have expanded their control throughout the country.

"We control the entire country, that's for sure," Otunbayeva said. "We have our representatives in the south. There are some places where there are outbursts organized by Bakiyev's minions and hirelings, but on the whole we are in control."

Jalal-Abad is on the southern side of the soaring mountain massifs that divide Kyrgyzstan into often-rival sections. Usmonov expressed fatigue with such jockeying for power.

"It doesn't matter where the president comes from — he just has to be a fitting man," he said.

Across the mountains in the capital, hundreds of people gathered in one of Kyrgyzstan's most prestigious cemeteries for the burial of some of those who died Wednesday. The interments tacitly conferred national hero status on the dead.

"For the sake of the future, for the power of the people, young people gave their lives," Otunbayeva said at the Ata-Beit cemetery. "The people who came into power five years ago on the wave of revolution turned out to be criminals."

"We won't let Bakiyev come back; the people won't let him back into Bishkek," vowed mourner Mehlis Usubakanov.

Otunbayeva said Friday the base agreement will be continued at least for the near future. Opposition figures in the past have said they wanted to close the U.S. base, located at the international airport serving the capital.

Russia, which also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan, had pushed Bakiyev's government to evict the U.S. military. But after announcing that American forces would have to leave the Manas base, Kyrgyzstan agreed to allow them to stay after the U.S. raised the annual rent to about $63 million from $17 million.

Associated Press Writers Yuras Karmanau in Bishkek and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Kyrgyzstan News Roundup (Updated)

2010-04-10T03:37:00.010-05:00

From Reuters, "Kyrgyzstan buries its dead, U.S. halts troop flights." An excerpt:

Kyrgyzstan on Saturday buried several of those killed in the overthrow of the government, while security concerns prompted the U.S. military to halt troop flights from its base in the Central Asian state. About 3,000 mourners gathered on the edge of the Kyrgyz capital at a mass funeral to commemorate at least 78 people who died in protests on Wednesday, during which government troops opened fire on demonstrators outside the presidential building ... Mourners carried coffins draped in the red-and-yellow Kyrgyz national flag and clutched portraits of the dead at a memorial complex built in honour of the victims of mass executions ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.

From the Times, an editorial: "Name That Revolution." An excerpt:

Kyrgyzstan may seem a world away. For better, and too often worse, Washington has become a very interested player. The American military installation at the Manas airport outside the capital of Bishkek is a critical transit and support center for United States operations in Afghanistan. As many as 30,000 military personnel pass through the base monthly, runways are crowded with C-17 cargo planes and KC-135 refueling tankers.

From The Atlantic's blog, "Kyrgyzstan: Scenes from the Turmoil." An excerpt:

Though the violence that claimed dozens of lives appears to be largely over, looting remains a concern and the politics are still in flux: Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva has seized control of the government; but Bakiyev, hiding in the southern city of Jalalabad, has yet to formally concede office.

From The New Republic, "The seven biggest questions facing the country, post-upheaval." An excerpt:

Some observers were quick to compare this week's events to movements in other former Soviet states (the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia) that ousted corrupt regimes and ushered in democracy. But one factor in particular separates this upheaval from the so-called "color revolutions": the use of force.

From NPR, an interview with a Central Asia watcher: "Kyrgyzstan: A Primer." An excerpt:

the income from exports is not sufficient, obviously, to maintain the economy of the whole country, which is one of the reasons why youve had a lot of migrant laborers going from Kyrgyzstan to Russia, which makes Russia a very important partner of whatever government is going to be in power, because this is a major source the source of about 20 percent of the country's GDP comes from remittances.

And the latest on RBM:

We are safe and sound somewhere in Kyrgyzstan -- more so as of [Friday]. Let's just say the hot buffet and portable toilets are appreciated, even if they come a little early into our service.

On a more somber note, the staff here is thinking of people across the country grieving loved ones lost in this week's violence. I understand many of the mourners came together in Bishkek [Friday] in a show of solidarity.

Update (April 12, 2010) -- From the Times, "Fugitive Kyrgyz President Warns of Bloodshed." An excerpt:

The president of this strategically important country, who was forced from the capital last week by rioting protesters, returned to public view on Monday, holding a rally with supporters and declaring that if the interim government that supplanted him sought his arrest, “there will be blood.”

And from the BBC, a look back: "Protests and bloodshed in Bishkek." An excerpt:

The number of protesters, mainly young working men, grew rapidly and by the time they arrived in the capital's main square they were in their thousands.

More from an Undisclosed Location

2010-04-08T12:30:00.001-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

I woke to news this morning from my shortwave radio that opposition protesters took control of the Kyrgyz government late yesterday, likely at the same time footage of the unrest began filling TV airwaves. The BBC reported that the power vacuum has prompted looting and sporadic violence across the country, and it aired an interview with a woman attempting to restore order: Roza Otunbayeva, a former Soviet representative to the UN who played a role in the 2005 Tulip Revolution that swept Kurmanbek Bakiyev to power. Otunbayeva said the opposition has dissolved the parliament, leaving her in charge for six months until a new constitution can be established. Facing arrest, Bakiyev, meanwhile, has fled the capital for yet another undisclosed location. All told, by day's end, at least 70 people were reported killed amidst a chain of events whose horizon remains hazy.

Aside from alarming TV pictures of empty store shelves in Bishkek, life feels little changed in my own corner of Kyrgyzstan. (The city where I'm training can't be named here for security reasons.) Peace Corps language lessons continued without interruption today, save for hurried conversations about politics over tea. It was hard, I must say, to concentrate on memorizing Kyrgyz prepositions with a revolution underway. The Tyiok family (a pseudonym) with whom I'm staying seems worried about last night's events, but by daybreak Ms. Tyiok had returned to her job at a hospital and the clerk at a grocery store where I buy crackers greeted four American visitors with her usual smile.

The View from an Undisclosed Location

2010-04-07T12:30:00.002-05:00

By R.B. Moreno

Two weeks in this corner of Central Asia feels somehow like a small eternity. Since my last post, as part of Peace Corps training, I've joined a family of sheep herders who drive a Soviet-era Lada and graze a herd of koň along railroad tracks bisecting a small city in northern Kyrgyzstan. (It can't be named here for security reasons.) The family, whom I'll call the Tyioks, consists of two grandparents, both in their 50s, three daughters (one of whom just earned her driver's license), a teenage son apparently handy with diesel engines, and two grandchildren who carry around the decks of playing cards I brought from Americaдan like religious totems.

At the bazaar

Each day of training, which runs six days a week, begins with wedges of homemade bread (нaн), green tea (чaň), and two eggs over-easy (жуmуptka) served up by Ms. Tyiok. By eight o'clock I've walked a half-mile down a road facing the soaring Tian-Shen mountain range and arrived at a tutor's house. Here three other Peace Corps trainees and I receive language lessons in a dining room kept just above freezing by a small stove. This home and others nearby remind me of Guatemala City: low bungalows ringed with high fences and snarling dogs, pit toilets, and laundry swaying in the breeze. (Just now, despite the cold, I met an elaborately-patterned frog on the path to my own outhouse.)

A night visitor

We lunch with one of our four host families, and each mother seems intent on outdoing the last in plying her guests with food. In this part of the country, Kyrgyz cooking leans heavily on potatoes, onions, rice, pasta, mutton, and, thankfully, for the Tyiok household, cabbage and carrot salads. In the afternoon we take walks to local attractions: the bazaar, the gymnasium, a river promenade lined with trash, a group of boys tossing painted sheep bones that stand in for marbles. Just before dusk I run laps along the railroad track, with bearded Mr. Tyiok waving encouragement to the crazy American in shorts. By night, with great patience and gesticulation, this bear of a man toils at my Kyrgyz vocabulary with help from the television and his daughters, who arm themselves with flashcards.

A stroll along the river

Amidst this generosity, the past week has brought reminders that Kyrgyzstan can be a restive place. Hikes in energy prices spurred protests and government censorship of the media just prior to my arrival in late March, and today a similar scene played out in downtown Bishkek. Internet service was unavailable for much of the day along with most TV channels after clashes in a northern province left scores of police wounded, according to news reports. The BBC described protesters overturning cars in the capital city, tear gas being fired, and lines of troops guarding government buildings.

Then, after dinner, my vocabulary lesson was interrupted by a barrage of TV gunfire. Two Kyrgyz channels began replaying unedited footage from the earlier in the day showing military vehicles set ablaze and a crowd in Bishkek approaching a gated compound. One man removed his shirt and approached troops cloaked in riot gear, spreading his arms in defiance. Shots rang out for minutes on end and cameras showed bloodstained pavement and protesters holding aloft bullets recovered from pockmarks in surrounding buildings. At least three men appeared dead or seriously wounded; ambulances were allowed to ferry away the bodies.

The most surreal aspect of all of this was watching the youngest Tyiok boy prance around the living room tonight. Along with playing cards, local schoolchildren are fond of a certain plastic toy machine gun that emits a nasty pop. To him, the rounds echoing off our walls must have seemed just as entertaining as those in the Russian action films that play in loops on Kyrgyz TV -- when there's not a revolution underway.

The View from Bishkek

2010-03-31T00:02:00.010-05:00

Above: primetime on local channel 12 and other scenes from Peace Corps training on the outskirts of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where I've arrived to begin 26 months of service as an English instructor.

But for the howls of wild dogs traversing a nearby sculpture garden said to depict the Epic of Manas, the constant sunshine and biting cold here on the training compound remind me of Colorado’s Front Range. Breakfasts feature onion crepes and a thick, sour milk that I find delicious, while the mutton soup at dinner leaves a mean aftertaste.

After crash courses on Kyrgyz and safety protocols and a barrage of vaccinations, 70 trainees of K-18 (the latest wave of Peace Corps volunteers assigned to Kyrgyzstan since 1993) are to meet their host families this week in a ceremony marked by fresh flowers and speeches from local officials.

Key to language learning for the trainee is memorization of the Cyrillic alphabet, which makes the reading of grammar textbooks and the adoption of vocabulary doubly difficult. Still, the uniformity of the Kyrgyz language, which lacks articles and the myriad tenses of English, makes the going easier.