APRIL 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A corruption scandal over the privatisation in 2008 of Kyrgyz mobile operator MegaCom and its part re-nationalisation last year is testing the survival skills of Kyrgyzstan’s fragile government coalition.

On March 31, President Roza Otunbayeva sacked Prosecutor-General Kubatbek Baibolov for his links to the scandal. But Mr Baibolov didn’t go quietly and he accused first deputy PM Omurbek Babanov of corruption.

Mr Babanov is head of the Respublika party, one of three partners in a precarious coalition cobbled together at the end of 2010. On April 13, Mr Babanov quit the government while a parliamentary committee investigated the allegations.

For now, his resignation appears to have prevented a split in the coalition but tempers are fraying and a few days before his resignation a fight broke out in parliament.

Corruption is widespread in Kyrgyzstan — ranked by the Berlin-based lobby group Transparency International at 164 out of 178 in its 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index — but the country desperately needs a stable 2011 after a difficult 2010.

Kyrgyzstan hosts both a Russian and US air base and is trying to attract foreign investors, particularly to its mining sector, but in 2010 a revolution, ethnic violence and a new Constitution which shifted power to parliament from the president all underlined its fragility.

Now rampant poverty amplified by soaring inflation and frustration at official corruption are stirring unease once again.