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DanS
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Kickball Capital of the World
Jan 1970
time: 00:21
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This doesn't seem to be the way to go.
Maybe the government is paying groups to start trouble?
It looks like these opposition folks are not as well organized as some of the the other successful velvet revolutionaries this year.
Anyway, I'm hoping for the best.
quote:
Election protesters seize Kyrgyzstan's second city
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian
Opposition protesters in Kyrgyzstan seized control of the country's second city of Osh yesterday, as mass protests in the wake of a parliamentary election threatened to split the former Soviet republic.
An estimated 15,000 demonstrators, some bearing sticks and petrol bombs, demanded the resignation of the president, Askar Akayev, after his supporters triumphed in the vote.
Kyrgyzstan is the third former Soviet state in 17 months to witness popular unrest after an election allegedly fixed by the government.
Article continues
In an attempt to dispel the mood of popular defiance, Mr Akayev yesterday announced that he wanted the supreme court and central election commission to investigate the widespread vote abuses alleged by the opposition.
His allies, including his son and daughter, won all but six of the 75 seats in the poll. Many opposition figures were barred from running, and fear that the president will use a pliant parliament to extend his rule.
The president's offer had no apparent effect on the protesters who seized control of the airport in Osh yesterday afternoon. The opposition claimed that the city was now under the control of a "people's government".
One of its leaders, Roza Otunbayeva, told the Guardian that talks with Mr Akayev would be pointless. "We do not have a subject to discuss," she said. "He should leave."
She said she was going to the capital, Bishkek, last night, where she hoped to repeat the events of Osh. Mass protests are planned in the capital for Thursday.
She said the police, security services and army had "moved to our side" in Osh, and that a peaceful crowd was listening to speakers in front of Lenin's statue in the central square.
The town was the site of violent clashes on Sunday when police used batons to regain control of the local administration building. Ms Otunbayeva said seven people had been taken to hospital as a result of the fighting. Police also fired shots, apparently in the air, as protests were held in the town of Jalal Abad, raising fears that the unrest might end in bloodshed.
There were unconfirmed reports that four police officers had been beaten to death by protesters on Sunday.
"Unfortunately, the situation is spinning out of control," Kurmanbek Bakiyev, another leader of the opposition's loose coalition, told the Associated Press news agency. "[It] cannot be any more explosive than it is at the moment."
The violence is the first to mar a series of post-electoral protests in the former Soviet Union that have forced out the governments of Ukraine and Georgia. Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment in Moscow, said there was a risk of civil war if a compromise were not reached by this morning.
The US and Russia have military bases in the country, which borders the volatile police state of Uzbekistan and the natural resources of Kazakhstan. Mr Malashenko said the Uzbekistan regime would probably try to support Mr Akayev to prevent "a precedent being set in the region".
While the EU and Washington have condemned the voting irregularities, the Russian foreign ministry yesterday released a low-key statement opposing another apparently popular revolution in its former territories.
"During the February 27 and March 13 parliamentary elections, the majority of citizens supported peace, harmony and the continuation of socio-economic reforms," the statement said. There was "nothing extraordinary in the fact that not everyone is satisfied with the election results".
Russian nationalists also called on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who backed the Ukrainian regime last year, to intervene. |
Last edited by DanS on 24-03-2005 at 22:52
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DanS
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Kickball Capital of the World
Jan 1970
time: 00:21
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Looks like it might be turning out for the best. 
Still uncertain, though. Russia is right that this needs to get on a constitutional footing quickly.
quote:
Kyrgyz regime on brink of collapse as protesters seize control
BISHKEK : Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev was reported to have fled the country after thousands of opposition protesters stormed the seat of power in a potent demonstration of street force.
Russia's Interfax news agency, citing unnamed sources, reported that Akayev was flying by helicopter with his family to neighbouring Kazakhstan.
His whereabouts had been unknown since demonstrators, armed with rocks and clubs, stormed the Soviet-era structure housing the government and presidency in the capital Bishkek and took over the main television station.
They also freed Felix Kulov, a key opposition leader who had been in prison since 2000.
Kulov immediately went on television urging Akayev to "meet with opposition leaders in order to peacefully and constitutionally transfer power."
Thursday's developments were a dramatic escalation of mounting protests over a disputed March 13 parliamentary election that had until now largely been in the volatile south of the country.
Kulov, a former vice president and leader of the Ar-Namys (Dignity) party, had been jailed on corruption charges many believe were politically motivated.
Earlier thousands of protesters, many throwing rocks or waving clubs, swept past overwhelmed riot police and into the compound of White House, as the seat of government and presidency in central Bishkek is known.
Once inside they threw portraits of Akayev out of the windows and waved the flag of Kyrgyzstan.
Thirty people were reported injured, medical officials told AFP.
A short while later, the two main opposition leaders, Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Rosa Otunbayeva, entered the building.
Addressing a crowd on the steps, Bakiyev said, "If the generals and police come over to our side, we will solve this problem peacefully."
The Interfax news agency in Moscow reported that the country's defence and security ministers were blockaded inside.
If Akayev quits, ending 15 years of leadership, it would set an unexpected precedent in a turbulent region with a centuries-old tradition of autocratic rule, an explosive mix of ethnic groups and strong Islamist influences.
Kyrgyzstan borders Afghanistan, which lies on one of the world's main drugs trafficking routes and itself has a history of inter-ethnic conflict.
The ITAR-TASS news agency in Moscow reported that Akayev was in talks with an envoy from the European security body OSCE.
In Moscow, the foreign ministry said the events were "a cause for serious concern" and appealed for a return "onto a lawful path."
In the past three years Russia has witnessed peaceful revolutions both in Georgia and Ukraine, like Kyrgyzstan also part of the former Soviet Union.
Authorities had warned they could use force if the protests degenerated but it was not long before demonstrators threw rocks at riot police. At least five police officers were injured.
At one point in the chaos dozens of mounted police charged the protesters, but could not prevent them running inside the tall wrought-iron railings.
Police swiftly abandoned their posts and were reported to be retreating to the defence ministry under a hail of rocks.
The dramatic developments were mirrored in the southwestern city of Batken, where a witness reported that hundreds of opposition supporters broke through police lines and took over a government building.
It was the third regional capital in the nation's impoverished south where government buildings have been overrun in protests over the election 11 days ago, when the opposition's presence in the 75-member parliament was all but wiped out.
Kyrgyzstan's disjointed opposition has up to now mostly staged protests in the south, notably the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, where demonstrators have seized government buildings, airports and police stations.
The opposition claims Akayev's government rigged the poll in order to pack parliament with supporters ahead of presidential elections in October.
- AFP |
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22-03-2005 11:47
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