KYRGYZSTAND: Bishkek police investigate grenade attack on home of a Kyrgyz opposition MP

Record ID: 353334

  • Title: KYRGYZSTAND: Bishkek police investigate grenade attack on home of a Kyrgyz opposition MP
  • Date: 13th November 2006
  • Summary: OPPOSITION LEADERS ON STAGE, SOME EMBRACING ONE ANOTHER SQUARE FULL WITH OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS APPLAUDING AND WAVING FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 28th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5CTGXWIWXT2IA5T21TYLS5MR6
  • Story Text: Police in the the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek launched an investigation on Monday (November 13) into a multiple grenade attack on the home of an opposition member of parliament.
    Two hand grenades were thrown at the home of Isa Omurkulov in the early hours of Monday morning, causing shrapnel damage to the building, and shattering glass in some of the windows. No one was injured in the attack.
    "It was an attack on me, and on my family. Thank God no one was hurt," Omurkulov told reporters outside his home, as police investigators surveyed the damage caused by the explosions.
    Omurkulov, a prominent opposition figure who helped bring about reforms in Kyrgyzstan's constitution, following street protests last week, called on security and interior ministry officials to find those who carried out the attack.
    "I don't think the president organised this. Today the most important thing is for our Security Minister (Murat) Sutalinov, and Minister for Interior (Omurbek) Suanaliyev, to find out who was behind this," Omurkulov said.
    On November 9, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a new constitution that will reduce his powers, a climbdown that defused a political crisis which brought thousands of opposition protesters to the streets.
    The opposition said Bakiyev, who came to power in July last year, should quit if he did not agree to the new constitution. The document will transfer the power to appoint the government to parliament.
    The new constitution will make Kyrgyzstan Central Asia's only ex-Soviet republic to have such strong checks and balances on the powers of the president.
    Though it has few energy resources of its own, Kyrgyzstan lies in a region rich in oil, gas and uranium, and Beijing, Moscow and Washington are all jostling for influence.
    Bakiyev's 16-month rule has been fragile from the outset, raising the possibility he could suffer a fate similar to his predecessor, Askar Akayev, if protests had continued. Akayev was deposed by last year's Tulip Revolution.
    The new deal removes the president's right to dissolve parliament and appoint the prime minister, who will instead be nominated by the party winning most votes in elections.
    Attacks on opposition politicians are not uncommon in Kyrgyzstan. Last October, the deputy speaker of the Kyrgyz parliament, Erkinbek Alymbekov, was beaten in an attack his colleagues blamed on his opposition ties.
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