Kyrgystan

▪ 1998

      Area: 199,900 sq km (77,200 sq mi)

      Population (1997 est.): 4,595,000

      Capital: Bishkek

      Head of state and government: President Askar Akayev, assisted by Prime Minister Apas Jumagulov

      Kyrgyzstan experienced further setbacks in the democratization process in 1997 as a result of prosecutions of government opponents and independent journalists. In January, Topchubek Turganaliyev, head of the opposition Democratic Party of Free Kyrgyzstan, was given a 10-year sentence on a previously dismissed embezzlement charge; many attributed the move to the government's desire to silence an influential critic. The prosecution in May of the chief editor of one of the main independent newspapers resulted in an international outcry; the journalist was later freed by the Supreme Court.

      The output of a new gold-refining mill, a Canadian-Kyrgyz joint venture, gave Kyrgyzstan the highest percentage increase in industrial production in the Commonwealth of Independent States for the first half of 1997, but other enterprises continued to languish, and living conditions for most of the country's population failed to improve. In July the Communist Party and several Slavic interest groups appealed to the Kyrgyz leadership to form a union with the Russian Federation, on the model of the union between Russia and Belarus, as a way out of the economic crisis. The government of Kyrgyzstan ignored the appeal, which was repeated in the following months.

      Authorities in Kyrgyzstan were increasingly concerned during 1997 about the growth of the illegal narcotics trade in the country. Not only was Kyrgyzstan being used as a conduit for drugs in transit from Afghanistan and Tajikistan to Western Europe, but illegal drug-processing laboratories were discovered within Kyrgyzstan itself. The government appealed for international help.

BESS BROWN

      This article updates Kyrgyzstan.

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