When I returned to Kyrgyzstan for the first time in eight years last October, I was curious to see how the country was faring. It was fall, and the alpine foothills beyond the capital of Bishkek were stippled with color. The beleaguered opposition told of dirty tricks and government harassment. Ordinary folk shrugged off all questions about politics and turned away in disgust. As I traveled south into wilder territory, the friendly Kyrgyz regaled me with stories of poverty, corruption and growing ethnic tension.
Unemployment is rife.
For many people, the only real hope for making a living lies in the burgeoning drug trade - 70 percent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan and the lions share of that amount travels north through Kyrgyzstan en route to points west. The country's human-rights record, too, has deteriorated badly in the past few years. In Osh, a city that once marked the easternmost advance of Alexander the Great, the tension was palpable. Its dense population and relative inaccessibility make the valley a kind of pressure cooker. The resulting history of ethnic conflict and Islamic fervor has prompted some experts to predict the outbreak of Balkan-style conflict.