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Kyrgyzstan Protests Turning Violent
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.
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.
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.
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.
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