Kyrgyzstan's Neighbors Ready to Help

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti, by Dmitry Kosyrev) -- Kyrgyzstan must be helped. It is obvious for Moscow, Beijing and all the neighbors of this Central Asian state, where the looting of offices and shops are underway instead of a "feast of democracy." People in neighboring Kazakhstan, whose living standards have gone up in the past few years, watched with condescension how Kyrgyzstan's economy showed no progress under the leadership of President Askar Akayev. They were proud to say that on the average a Kazakh today is 6 times as rich as a Kyrgyz. (In Kyrgyzstan with a 5 million population annual GDP is $2 billion, while in the 15 million Kazakhstan it is $37 billion.) Now pride has given way to concern.

The causes of concern are obvious enough. It takes just two hours to get by car from Alma-Ata to Bishkek. Most often refugees go on foot, but they will not have to walk too long to cover this distance. It appears to be dangerous to have a poor neighbor. It is wiser and more advantageous to help him to get rich. For this reason in Kazakhstan and other countries of the region, even if they are not so rich, the authorities begin to think what investments are required in the poor districts of Kyrgyzstan, from where crowds marched to Bishkek. It is a cause of concern also for Russia and China, the countries that are more distant from Kyrgyzstan but which are not indifferent to what is going on in Central Asia.

It is Moscow that the new leader of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, appealed for to help. Soon after assuming power he found out that the most urgent problem facing the country was spring sowing. Its disruption would cause famine already next winter. Bakiyev called President of Russia Vladimir Putin to ask for seeds and fuel for tractors. A positive answer came immediately.

But emergency actions do not solve all problems. The change of political thinking in the capitals of the neighboring countries is that regional cooperation should be intensified to avert common dangers, the character of which has been clearly shown by the events in Kyrgyzstan. Earlier thinking was different - many words about cooperation were said, but they were never followed by actions.

We are faced with the same grim reality, a problem which most of nearly 200 countries have been trying for decades to bring home to a group of industrialized states. In the world today we should no longer put up with such a contrast between the rich and the poor countries. It is dangerous, above all for the rich countries. Help the poor nations to develop their economies and, instead of threats, you will get hundreds of millions of new buyers.

It is rather difficult to understand this obvious idea on a world level. But the regional level is a quite different matter. Today every Russian or, say, Chinese, having seen TV news reports from Kyrgyzstan, may well imagine what troubles lie in store for him, if similar "feasts of democracy" with robberies, smashed shop windows, and throwing of president's colors under feet erupt all across Central Asia, which borders on both Russia and China. It is far more difficult to calculate what losses the events according to the worst scenario would be. But in any case the cost is far greater than investment in the economic and political development of the neighbors, which actually boils down to helping themselves.

As for the worst scenarios, today they are, perhaps, most obvious for the population and leaders of Uzbekistan. In the past the terrorist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan had deep roots in Kyrgyzstan as well, around Osh, a city not far from the Uzbek capital with a large Uzbek community. And today it is not clear who led a crowd from the suburbs of Osh and Dzhelalabad to storm state buildings and prisons. It was not the former Kyrgys opposition, which was surprised at those developments more than all others. But who did? Could it be the IDU and Khizb-ut-Takhrir, the organizations involved in the recent series of terrorist acts in Tashkent? Anyway, Tashkent has to help Bishkek to restore law and order and solve the problems of poverty in the southern regions bordering on Uzbekistan.

It in no smaller degree concerns the two other regional powers - Russia and China. The threats to the security of Kyrgyzstan directly concern both China, which has a common border with Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, as it fears a disaster in the whole of the region, which begins southeast of its borders with Kazakhstan.

Evidently regional organizations, set up to ensure stability and development in Central Asia - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Collective Security Treaty Organization and others - will become more important for Moscow and Beijing today. The consequences of the changes in thinking may already be witnessed at the SCO summit due in Astana in July.