Phil in Paris
03-24-2005, 09:55 AM
March 24 2005
By Dmitry Solovyov
Bishkek - Kyrgyzstan's opposition seized the main government building in the capital on Thursday and said it was ready to take control of the country after days of violent protest.
Impoverished Kyrgyzstan looks set to become the third ex-Soviet state in two years to see its entrenched leadership fall to popular protests after disputed elections, following Ukraine and Georgia.
Thousands of opposition protesters, cheered on by residents, took to the streets of the capital Bishkek to demand that veteran President Askar Akayev resign and annul what they say were fraudulent parliamentary election results.
"We will establish order. We will not allow looting. We will hold our own elections to start our rule," former prime minister and opposition figure Kurmanbek Bakiev said after the government headquarters had fallen into the hands of protesters.
Demonstrators then marched to a prison outside the town and secured the release of Felix Kulov, a former police chief who is seen as another of the opposition's main leaders. He was being held for abuse of power and theft.
There was no word on the fate of Akayev, who has been in power for 14 years.
Local media speculated he might have gone to a Russian airbase 20km outside the capital.
The local head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), whose monitors criticised the February, March elections as flawed, said Akayev might have left the country.
"Our nation has suffered incredibly... the people and I myself are ready to cut Akayev's throat with our own teeth. If he doesn't step down we will topple him by force," said protester Talant Kushpakov.
Earlier this week the opposition took control of two key towns in Kyrgyzstan's poorer south, scene of bloody ethnic conflict in the dying days of the Soviet Union, where resentment is strong against the better off north.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=qw1111672081434B262
By Dmitry Solovyov
Bishkek - Kyrgyzstan's opposition seized the main government building in the capital on Thursday and said it was ready to take control of the country after days of violent protest.
Impoverished Kyrgyzstan looks set to become the third ex-Soviet state in two years to see its entrenched leadership fall to popular protests after disputed elections, following Ukraine and Georgia.
Thousands of opposition protesters, cheered on by residents, took to the streets of the capital Bishkek to demand that veteran President Askar Akayev resign and annul what they say were fraudulent parliamentary election results.
"We will establish order. We will not allow looting. We will hold our own elections to start our rule," former prime minister and opposition figure Kurmanbek Bakiev said after the government headquarters had fallen into the hands of protesters.
Demonstrators then marched to a prison outside the town and secured the release of Felix Kulov, a former police chief who is seen as another of the opposition's main leaders. He was being held for abuse of power and theft.
There was no word on the fate of Akayev, who has been in power for 14 years.
Local media speculated he might have gone to a Russian airbase 20km outside the capital.
The local head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), whose monitors criticised the February, March elections as flawed, said Akayev might have left the country.
"Our nation has suffered incredibly... the people and I myself are ready to cut Akayev's throat with our own teeth. If he doesn't step down we will topple him by force," said protester Talant Kushpakov.
Earlier this week the opposition took control of two key towns in Kyrgyzstan's poorer south, scene of bloody ethnic conflict in the dying days of the Soviet Union, where resentment is strong against the better off north.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=qw1111672081434B262