Activists welcome anti-corruption probe

Anti-corruption activists have applauded a move by Kyrgyzstan's interim government to investigate the business interests of former president Askar Akayev and his family, calling upon the Kyrgyz authorities for systematic and comprehensive reforms to tackle corruption in the former Soviet republic. "We welcome this [move] but it is important that any investigations be not just politically motivated and [that] they are not just window dressing to identify some crimes and not others," Ben Elers, Europe and Central Asia project manager with international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI), told IRIN from the group's headquarters in Berlin on Monday. "It is very good that there has been such an initiative from the Kyrgyz government to establish a commission comprising people who know and have a lot of information on family and clan-based corruption, which has developed in the country over the past 15 years," Tolekan Ismailova, head of the local Citizens Against Corruption human rights centre, told IRIN from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. "We welcome this initiative, but would like to add content to it because all these things should be done through an international independent audit and international financial institutions," Ismailova said, adding that those elements would provide transparency and international credit to the commission's work. Their comments followed the establishment of a state commission by the Kyrgyz interim leadership last week to look into the business interests of the former president and his family. Bishkek published a list of 42 businesses which would be investigated for links to Akayev and his family. The extensive list includes some of the country's key enterprises, including its main gold mine, sugar, alcohol and cement factories, as well as media groups and several entertainment businesses. On Friday, Prosecutor-General Azimbek Beknazarov announced a criminal case in relation to the sale of the Kumtor gold mine, which accounts for up to 10 percent of Kyrgyz annual gross domestic product (GDP). "A criminal case has been opened because around US $90 million that Kyrgyzstan received in exchange for Kumtor stock has disappeared," Beknazarov told AFP. Alleged corruption by the former ruling family was one of the key grievances of recent demonstrations that led to Akayev's sudden ouster from power on 24 March when opposition-led protesters overran his office. The decision to resolve the issue of ownership of various companies - allegedly belonging to or controlled by former president Akayev and his family members - was not taken to persecute the ex-president, but to see the real picture, Kurmanbek Bakiev, prime minister and acting president, told Kyrgyz national TV on Sunday. "As there are varying reports in the media [on the issue], it is necessary to clear that up and say openly what has been acquired according to the law and what has been acquired illegally in order to provide a clear picture to public," Bakiev said. "If this or that business was acquired illegally or far below its price then such privatisation instances need to be put in compliance with the law, while those acquired legally should be announced as being so." Meanwhile, TI's Elers urged Bishkek to engage in a more comprehensive approach to the issue of corruption. Kyrgyzstan ranked 125 out of 146 countries in TI's Corruption Perception Index 2004, an annual survey ranking countries in terms of experts' perception of corruption. "This is a perception of corruption, it is not the measurement of corruption itself. This shows that Kyrgyzstan is perceived to have endemic corruption, there is little doubt that systematic corruption occurred at all levels in Kyrgyzstan," the TI official suggested. The recent anti-corruption moves by Bishkek needed to be part of a serious long-term and comprehensive package of anti-corruption reforms, both Elers and Ismailova agreed. Such high-profile investigations could have symbolic value to show that the new authorities were determined to fight corruption, but were certainly not sufficient to root out corruption in the country, Elers explained. Ismailova emphasised the need for constitutional reform, saying that systemic corruption could be curbed or decreased only through systemic approach. "Without these reforms it is very naive to say that corruption will be defeated and justice will come to our society," she noted.