Kyrgyzstan FM pledges fair elections

Kyrzgyzstan’s foreign minister on Friday promised fair parliamentary elections and warned that any attempt to foment a Ukrainian-style revolution would spark civil war in his Central Asian former Soviet republic. "There is no reason for a revolution to happen in Kyrgyzstan," Foreign Minister Askar Aitmatov told reporters on a visit to Moscow two weeks before legislative polls whose first round is scheduled for February 27. "Given the specific mentality and traditions of our country, a revolution risks unfolding not like in Ukraine or Georgia but like in Tajikistan," where a civil war broke out in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, killing a reported 150,000 people over five years, he said. "Aware of that, the Kyrgyz government is doing everything to avoid that situation notably by organising democratic elections," Aitmatov said, adding that 200 Western OSCE observers were expected in Kyrgyzstan in late February. "We largely have freedom of speech in our country, not to speak of a robust opposition which is fairly critical towards the president and the government, "the foreign minister said. Kyrgyzstan’s President Askar Akayev on Tuesday put fellow citizens on guard against a pre-election "revolutionary virus."