The most efficient mass media tool in southern Kyrgyzstan these days is word of mouth, rumors and hearsay to be specific. Some of those are “new attacks will be launched after Ramadan ends” and “Uzbek young men left for Afghanistan and will soon return with arms to retaliate”. While absolutely discredited and demoralized local police urges residents not to believe such rumors, the approaching cold days followed by a mountainous country’s winter are no rumor in devastated Osh.

Another reality local residents faced this week, just before the long awaited by many Eid ul Fitr weekend, was the cut-off from gas and electricity supply. According to a local news website report earlier this week, “every day, about 20 households in Osh are cut-off from gas supply for debts exceeding 800 soms [about 18 USD].”

Residents of the war-torn Osh, hence jobless with no perspectives of employment, not only face lack of convenient heat and fire supply. They could also have problems with prosecutors’ offices and courts, should they still fail to pay the debt after (!) being cut-off. Another interesting point in this who-is-the-first race – either users pay or suppliers cut the supply – is that many parts of Osh already have no gas whatsoever due to wreckage inflicted during the unrest back in June. Hence, the debtors whose gas is being cut-off are those who can still more or less use it. Therefore, cutting them off means the whole town of Osh will soon resort to woods and dry dung once proposed by the ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Tiny Kyrgyzstan enjoys gas supplied by Uzbekistan, which despite eternal friendship agreements, demands money upfront for the gas to be used in future. According to latest estimates, the total debt before Uzbekistan now makes up over 1.5m USD.

Another unpleasant surprise, or rather a continuation of the Bakiyev-era legacy when it was quite common, this week was cutting electricity wires in homes of those whose debt exceeds 200 soms [about 4 USD]. Lack of electricity was no surprise and even something familiar and common in Bakiyev’s ruling times when the whole country, although known for its 12 billion cu.m. capacity water reservoir and a hydroelectric power station on it, would have no electricity for several hours a day. However, cutting-off for a 4-dollar debt was not practiced even then. But the electricity suppliers have their own arguments – the population owes them a hefty debt of over 2m USD.

Such unpopular steps in already devastated and barely breathing Osh and adjacent territories before the parliamentary elections only four weeks away could eventually throw out an unpleasant starvelings’ revolt at some point. There are already indications that certain groups are encouraging people to boycott the upcoming October elections. In fact, Osh and Jalalabad, the two largest towns in southern Kyrgyzstan, are not ready for the elections anyway and will probably see a very low turnout on the E-day. While Bishkek is pushing for it, as it with the June referendum, it is incapable of having its subordinates in the south to fulfill its directives.

One could suggest that boycotting elections in the south, due to such unpopular steps to say the least, would be beneficial for southern political parties and groups, which are clearly not going to enjoy voters’ support in the country’s north and join the parliament. Because northern Kyrgyzstan, as the state of affairs suggests, isn’t happy with the “bold” southern politicians and officials defying Bishkek.

Neither electricians nor gas suppliers in Osh would have inflicted such a heavy punishment on the already suffering people unless they were “inspired”, since they have witnessed the tragedy and know users are unable to pay (unemployment, poor business, etc). Right now, the only significant target aimed to channel people’s protest against is the October 10^th elections, after which Kyrgyzstan will wake up as the first parliamentary state in the whole post-Soviet space. By the way, Russian President Vladimir Putin Dmitriy Medvedev “believes a parliamentary democracy would be a catastrophe for both Russia and Kyrgyzstan.”