Thursday, March 24, 2005, 01:02 A.M. Pacific

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Demonstrators clash in Kyrgyzstan capital

By Seattle Times news services

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Apparent pro-government forces clashed with protesters in Kyrgyzstan's capital today, throwing sticks and stones and brandishing clubs to threaten demonstrators gathered near the presidential headquarters.

Some of the thousands of protesters rallying near the government seat retaliated, throwing stones back at the hundreds of men in civilian clothes and blue armbands who began chasing the demonstrators.

The men in armbands moved in and chased protesters away from a platform in a central square adjacent to the building housing the presidential and government offices, but demonstrators charged back and drove them away again.

Protesters also began breaking tiles off the platform and some threw them at the pro-government forces before the melee calmed down. The men in armbands appeared as a column of some 5,000 protesters marched past the government building, which was surrounded by riot police.

The protesters had earlier massed in front of a hospital demanding the resignation of veteran Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and then set off for the White House, the seat of government, about a mile away.

They were cheered on by residents as they marched along Chui boulevard, the city's main thoroughfare.

Some analysts have warned that the growing tension threatens to push the ex-Soviet Central Asian state into civil war.

The protesters, who want Akayev to annul parliamentary elections in which the opposition was routed, have already taken control of two towns in the poor south of mountainous Kyrgyzstan where there were bloody ethnic clashes in the dying days of Soviet rule.

The country borders China and lies in an energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Both powers have military bases outside the capital.

Earlier, newly appointed Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev appealed to protesters to behave.

"I ... have information that significant numbers of protesters have arrived here to take part in protest actions in Bishkek," he told reporters.

"We ask [them] not to destroy, not to loot, not to storm state buildings and shops."

Dushebayev, the former police chief in the capital of Bishkek who replaced Bakirdin Subanbekov as interior minister, was instrumental in preventing protests from swelling in the capital in the last few weeks following parliamentary elections on Feb. 27 and March 13 that the opposition, the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said were seriously flawed.

Akayev, 60, is prohibited from seeking another term, but the opposition has accused him of manipulating the parliamentary vote to gain a compliant legislature that would amend the constitution to allow a third term. Akayev has denied that.