Article Last Updated: 3/22/2005 01:56 AM
Kyrgyzstan protesters riot
City overrun: Police are put on their heels as demonstrators push for the former Soviet republic's leader to quit
By Kadyr Toktogulov The Associated Press Salt Lake Tribune
OSH, Kyrgyzstan - Thousands of protesters, some armed with clubs and Molotov cocktails, overran Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city Monday, forcing police to flee as the government lost control of the impoverished southern region of the former Soviet republic. Demonstrators in Osh burned and stomped on portraits of President Askar Akayev and seized control of the airport. The army didn't intervene despite the chaos. No casualties were reported. The opposition occupied government buildings in five cities and towns across southern Kyrgyzstan, Interior Ministry spokesman Nurdin Jangarayev said. The capital, Bishkek, which is cut off from the south in winter by a high mountain range, remained calm, but the emboldened opposition vowed to press on until Akayev resigns. ''Power in Osh has been taken over by people!'' opposition member Anvar Artykov told the crowd. ''I congratulate you on our victory and urge you to maintain order.'' The protests, involving more than 17,000 people in the affected cities, won the first concession from Akayev - an investigation into allegations of widespread vote-rigging in two rounds of parliamentary elections since Feb. 27. The allegations, backed by European observers, have led to demands for Akayev's resignation and to weeks of increasingly violent protests. Although Central Asia is the last and largest bastion of post-Soviet dictators, Akayev was regarded as the region's most reform-minded leader. But in recent years he has increasingly cracked down, and his reputation was tarnished in 2002 after police killed six demonstrators protesting the arrest of an opposition lawmaker. Abdil Seghizbayev, an Akayev aide, said security forces wouldn't act against the protesters and said peace talks would be possible only after order is restored. ''Neither the authorities nor opposition leaders can control the crowd right now,'' he said. ''If an [opposition] leader emerges who can control the protesters, the government will be ready to talk to him.'' The demonstrations make Kyrgyzstan the next possible candidate for a revolution within the former Soviet bloc. However, the uprisings that swept Georgia and Ukraine in the past two years were peaceful - and, right now, Kyrgyzstan lacks a powerful opposition leader able to take over. Kyrgyzstan's opposition parties have long been fractured along regional lines running parallel to the mountain range that divides the country.