The Car Accident

clipped from online.wsj.com "The American ambassadors used to be very outspoken about their opinions," said Medet Sadyrkulov, a former head of Mr. Bakiyev's administration. "Now they have gone quiet." The U.S. ambassador, Tatiana C. Gfoeller, declined to be interviewed for this article. State Department officials in Washington likewise declined to comment. Days after Mr. Sadyrkulov shared his views in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in March, his body was found in his burned-out car outside Bishkek. Colleagues call his death a political killing. The government says he died in a car accident. In the interview, he said he quit his job in the presidential administration largely because he worried that Mr. Bakiyev was taking the country too close to the Kremlin. Mr. Bakiyev then flew to Moscow, where the deal was signed, and the Kyrgyz president announced at a Kremlin press conference that he was kicking the American forces out of the country. U.S. officials were stunned.