BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — “You know what this is for,” Emilbek Kaptagaev recalled being told by the police officers who snatched him off the street. No other words, just blows to the head, then all went black. Mr. Kaptagaev, an opponent of Kyrgyzstan’s president, who is a vital American ally in the war in nearby Afghanistan, was found later in a field with a concussion, broken ribs and a face swollen into a mosaic of bruises.
Mr. Kaptagaev said that the beating last month was a warning to stop campaigning against the president, but that he would not. And so he received an anonymous call only a few days ago. “Have you forgotten?” the voice growled. “Want it to happen again?”
Mr. Kaptagaev’s story is not unusual in this poor former Soviet republic in the mountains of Central Asia. Many opposition politicians and independent journalists have been arrested, prosecuted, attacked and even killed over the last year as the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has consolidated control in advance of elections on Thursday, which he is all but certain to win.
“This is how the authorities rule in Kyrgyzstan,” said Mr. Kaptagaev, 52. “They use criminal methods to keep power.”
The United States has remained largely silent in response to this wave of violence, apparently wary of jeopardizing the status of its sprawling air base, on the outskirts of this capital, which supports the mission in Afghanistan. Indeed, the Obama administration has sought to woo the Kyrgyz president since he said in February that he would close the Manas base.
In June, President Obama sent a letter to Mr. Bakiyev praising his role in Afghanistan and the campaign against terrorism. Mr. Bakiyev allowed the base to stay, after the United States agreed to pay higher rent and other minor changes.
The lack of criticism of Mr. Bakiyev underscores how the Obama administration has emphasized pragmatic concerns over human rights in dealings with autocratic leaders in Central Asia. Under pressure in Afghanistan, the administration has feared alienating nearby countries whose support is increasingly important.
How to react to crackdowns like Mr. Bakiyev’s is a longstanding challenge for American diplomacy, here and around the world. Some American officials stress that rebuking governments over human rights is often ineffective because they lash back, and tighten things further.
The administration is mindful that a neighboring former Soviet republic, Uzbekistan, closed an American military facility there after American officials condemned an attack by the security forces in 2005 that killed hundreds of people. The Obama administration is trying to repair that relationship.
In the Kyrgyz elections on Thursday, opposition parties have rallied around the candidacy of a former prime minister, Almazbek Atambaev, but he is given little chance. Mr. Atambaev’s campaign manager, Bakyt Beshimov, said the Kyrgyz president drew strength from the American reluctance to speak out.
“This regime clearly understand that for the United States, democracy is not a priority, freedom of speech is not a priority,” Mr. Beshimov said. “They want peace, stability, air bases and regional security connected with Afghanistan.”
The Obama administration’s attempt to improve ties with Central Asia was underscored by a visit to the region this month by a senior diplomat, William J. Burns.
In Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Burns said at a news conference that the United States hoped for “fair and credible elections,” but he did not mention the treatment of the opposition or journalists.
Interviewed about the political situation, another State Department official, George A. Krol, said reports of violence “greatly disturb the department.”
“The United States doesn’t shy away from raising these issues with the Kyrgyz authorities,” he said.
The Kyrgyz president, Mr. Bakiyev, took office in 2005 after the Tulip Revolution — the third in what was seen at the time as a series of so-called color revolutions that offered hope of more democratic governments in the former Soviet Union.
Today, widespread disillusionment has set in, as in Ukraine and Georgia, which also had such upheavals.
Kyrgyzstan, with five million people, continues to have a more open political system and more open media than its hard-line neighbors in Central Asia. It is not a police state, and in general, only those who overtly challenge the government are hounded by the security services.
Even so, human rights groups have been taken aback.
“President Bakiyev has become infamous for even greater levels of corruption, authoritarianism and ineffective economic policies than his predecessor,” Freedom House, a human rights group, said in a new report.
In an interview at the presidential residence, Mr. Bakiyev dismissed such criticism. He said the security services were in no way persecuting the opposition.
He said he would be easily re-elected because the country was faring well despite the financial crisis, adding that opposition leaders were complaining that balloting would be falsified because they needed excuses for their lack of support.
“A strong opposition would not behave in that way,” Mr. Bakiyev said.
He said he was so confident that the elections would be honest that he had invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor them. In a report in May, the organization, which has 56 member states, described concerns in Kyrgyzstan about “a criminalization of the political process.”
Mr. Bakiyev, asked about repeated attacks on journalists, said he doubted that the attacks were related to their jobs. He said the government would never try to silence the media.
“The only authorities that would take that step are ones who are afraid — afraid of journalists, afraid of openness, afraid of something that they want to hide,” he said. “I, as president, and the government of Kyrgyzstan fear absolutely nothing. There is no motive, there is no reason to hunt down journalists.”
Still, the bloodshed continues. This month, a journalist named Almaz Tashiyev died after being beaten by police officers, prosecutors said.
Syrgak Abdyldaev says he barely escaped that fate. In March, Mr. Abdyldaev, 47, a well-known journalist who has scrutinized the president’s political activities, was lured to a meeting by an anonymous caller who promised confidential information, and was attacked.
He was stabbed 29 times in the thigh, apparently in an effort to cause him to bleed to death. He survived after passers-by came to his aid.
“They wanted to make an example of me,” Mr. Abdyldaev said. “They wanted me to die in front of everybody. And then nobody — not a journalist, not anybody with a brain in his head — would dare write anything in the press.”
While he was hospitalized, his newspaper, The Bishkek Reporter, dismissed him. He was told it was too risky to keep publishing his work.
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