Fleeing dictator forgets to put cat out

I suppose despots have different moggies to you and I.   A pair of snow leopards and two bear cubs were among the exotic animals found in the private zoo of ousted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.  This rather exotic-sounding (if slightly unpronounceable) place sprung to global attention, either because of a bloody uprising or some minor BBC hack was being held

A golden eagle, two falcons, four African peacocks and Indian ducks were also found in the zoo at the family home in the southern Jalalabad region. If the BBC was trying to maker the fleeing despot sound fearsome, they rather lost the plot when it came to Indian ducks.  And I am not sure peacocks are very African either, come to think of it.

Investigators found the collection when they raided the estate after Mr Bakiyev fled the country. He is now in Belarus.  Where else would failed despots from unheard of places end up?  Maybe welcomed with open arms at a Premier League team perhaps

He has been charged in absentia with organising mass killings.  Not very successfully if the stories are to be believed.  But then who are we to complain given that our police are not averse to bashing a bearded New Zealander on the head and quietly covering the murder up for 30 years.

Mr Bakiyev was ousted in protests on 7 April in which more than 80 people died – which does admittedly sound more than a little careless.  But still doesn’t seem ot have brought this unpronounceable country to a broader audience.

The interim government says his administration ordered troops to open fire on protesters. It plans to seek Mr Bakiyev’s extradition from Belarus to face trial.

The former president also kept an African ostrich and Austrian white and black swans in his private menagerie, investigators said.

“The prosecutors are considering measures to evacuate those animals for their protection,” the prosecutor general’s office told the intrepid BBC reporter.  Looks like a bag of stale bread might be mandatory for visiting the suddenly empty presidential palace in the weeks ahead.