A hand grenade went off in central Bishkek at 4.45 a.m. on March 3. Something like that would have been dismissed as a commonplace occurrence in Moscow, but Bishkek was certainly rocked by the explosion. RGD-5 hand grenade (the make was identified by specialists afterwards) was thrown to the balcony of the first floor apartment of Roza Otunbayeva, leader of the oppositionist Ata-Zhurt [Fatherland] and former foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan. Repair works were under way in the apartment which is why it was empty at the moment. The grenade went off on the floor and the blast shattered windows in Otunbayeva's apartment and nearby ones. The last attack on a private apartment in Bishkek occurred several years ago during attempt on the life of Misir Ashirkulov, former secretary of the Security Council.

It seems that terrorists were not after Otunbayeva's life this time - they could not help knowing that the apartment was empty. Otunbayeva herself thinks that it was a warning. Had she not been ousted from the parliamentary race on the stage of registration of candidates, she would have been running for it now against Bermet Akayeva, 32, the daughter of the president. Otunbayeva (ex-foreign minister, ex-ambassador to the United States and Great Britain, and former assistant to the UN general secretary for the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict settlement) was denied registration on the pretext that she had spent the last five years abroad.

"That's an attempt on the part of the authorities to put the opposition under pressure and intimidate it," Otunbayeva said at her press conference in Bishkek yesterday. "Even that, however, will not compel us to abandon political struggle." Presidential Press Secretary Abdil Segizbayev, also present at the press conference, immediately accused Otunbayeva of a banal political PR. He said that had the explosion been unexpected, Otunbayeva's behavior would have certainly been different.

Segizbayev made some other statements that clearly resembled his patron's way of thinking. "Otunbayeva's words about explosions in her apartment are a provocation, pure and simple," he said. "A grenade went off in heads, and particularly in the heads of these oppositionists." According to Segizbayev, there had been no explosion at all, nothing but "statements". On the other hand, he had said shortly before that, "We cannot draw any conclusions while investigation is under way" [Segizbayev clearly meant the explosion and not "statements" - author].

Segizbyev then got down to condemnation of the Kyrgyz opposition and its "dangerous political games". "It may lead to the sort of consequences we saw in other countries," Askar Akayev's press secretary warned gravely. There is no saying whether he meant Ukraine where the opposition toppled the regime or Tajikistan whose history and that of opposition in it he can know only from stories of his elders.

Investigation is being run by the National Security Service. An action may be eventually brought under the article dealing with an attempt on the life of a state official or public figure. Otunbayeva says that she discovered the $ sign sprayed on the door of her apartment. "It's either a sign of where a pogrom is needed or just an attempt to scare me," Otunbayeva shrugged. She believes that the hand grenade might have been thrown from the floor above. The apartment directly above hers was recently bought by the son of the president's own driver.

Vremya Novostei, March 4, 2005, p. 5
© Translated by Ferghana.Ru