Friday, March 25, 2005, 12:00 A.M. Pacific

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President of Kyrgyzstan flees as opposition storms palace

By Alex Rodriguez
Chicago Tribune

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Racing past cordons of police and soldiers who offered little resistance, thousands of demonstrators stormed the governmental palace in this impoverished, mountainous Central Asian nation yesterday, forcing the president to flee as ecstatic protesters looted his offices and clamored for a new government.

Within three hours, an orderly rally by Kyrgyz citizens opposed to President Askar Akayev blossomed into a jubilant revolution as demonstrators streamed up seven flights of stairs to the president's wood-paneled office, where they took turns sitting in his chair and rifled his desk drawers.

The uprising set the stage for Kyrgyzstan to become the third former Soviet republic in 16 months to undergo regime change as a result of popular uprisings against rigged or flawed elections.

Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous republic of 5 million, is in the heart of turbulent Central Asia, near China, Afghanistan and some of the key oil-producing nations of the Caspian Sea region. As a result, the United States and Russia maintain military bases in Bishkek, the capital.

The nation has seen ethnic violence and Islamic extremist militancy in the 13 years since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and those forces could be unleashed again if Kyrgyzstan is plunged into instability, analysts said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is "trying to help to promote a process there that will turn the developments on the ground into a democratic process that can get for the Kyrgyz people a stable government and a move toward a better democratic future."

The U.S. air base at the Manas airport, with an estimated 1,000 troops, is used principally for flights in support of American forces in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday he didn't believe they would be adversely affected by the turmoil. The Russian military base, known as Kant, sits a dozen miles away.

While the sudden revolt did not follow the script of Georgia's ouster of Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003 or the Orange Revolution that lifted Viktor Yushchenko into Ukraine's presidency last year, it shared a common element: a military and government that recoiled from the prospect of moving against their own people.

Soldiers in the building's lobby were armed but had been ordered by Akayev to not shoot protesters, a presidential aide told the protesters. With demonstrators filling the halls and ransacking virtually every office they came upon, Kyrgyzstan's military leadership saw no other choice but to leave.

Demonstrators racing to Akayev's offices found the 60-year-old leader gone. Inside Akayev's office, a presidential aide said Akayev fled after realizing demonstrators had broken through the building's front door.

Outside the massive, Soviet-era building known to Kyrgyz people as "the White House," a sea of demonstrators lingered for hours. Some leapt onto the military's abandoned armored-personnel carriers to hug fellow protesters; others gleefully yelped as they wandered about the plaza, carrying looted computers, telephones, vases and books in their arms.

Akayev's whereabouts were uncertain. The Russian news agency Interfax, quoting unnamed sources, reported that Akayev and his family had flown to neighboring Kazakstan.

Another Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, reported that Akayev had formally resigned, but that could not be confirmed. Akayev, a former physicist, had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained independence in the Soviet collapse.

The lower house of the Parliament met overnight and elected a former opposition lawmaker, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, as interim president, but the upper house later elected prominent opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev as acting prime minister, an appointment lawmaker Temir Sariyev said meant he is also acting president.

Legislators also tapped Felix Kulov, a popular opposition figure who was released from prison yesterday, to be in charge of law enforcement.

Kulov said on television today that he was ashamed about the looting that swept Bishkek overnight, and demanded that all law-enforcement officers return to work. Many of the city's major stores were attacked and robbed, mostly by rowdy young men who roamed streets largely empty of police, and some were torched.

Kulov said that one person was found shot to death, while Sariyev said three people were killed in the disorder. Kyrgyzstan's opposition began calling for Akayev's resignation after the country's Feb. 27 and March 13 parliament elections, won overwhelmingly by Akayev's allies. International observers said both elections were tainted by vote-buying, media bias for pro-Akayev candidates, and the improper removal of opposition candidates from ballots.

Demonstrations gathered steam over the weekend in the poverty-stricken southern cities of Jalal-Abad and Osh, where protesters seized police headquarters and other government buildings, and had claimed control over those regions. Early this week, busloads of demonstrators from the south arrived in Bishkek, the capital.

By yesterday, thousands of protesters carrying daffodils and wearing pink-and-yellow armbands and headbands — the colors of two major opposition parties — had begun a 10-block march from the outskirts of Bishkek to Ala-Too Plaza and Akayev's headquarters.

Once at the plaza, thousands of protesters amassed around a red granite platform, where opposition leaders gave speeches urging protesters to maintain their resolve to rally until Akayev resigned.

Shortly after midday, a scuffle broke out among demonstrators and activists affiliated with Akayev's Alga Kyrgyzstan Party. Within minutes, the scuffle behind the platform had escalated into an all-out brawl.

Opposition demonstrators were able to surround the pro-Akayev activists, pinning down several of them and pummeling them with sticks and rocks. The pro-Akayev activists retreated to a street next to the White House, where hundreds of Kyrgyz soldiers in riot gear stood guard, armed only with truncheons and riot shields.

The demonstrators quickly overtook the troops, wresting away their shields and helmets and beating several soldiers. That left the building defended by only a single line of soldiers without firearms.

Akayev's troops tried one last move to disperse the crowd. Several soldiers on horseback and armed with clubs raced toward the demonstrators. Many protesters fled, but hundreds stood their ground and attacked the soldiers on horseback. Several soldiers were pulled down from their horses and beaten.

In what may become a lasting symbol of the uprising, one young demonstrator jumped into the saddle of one of the horses. He reared the horse up, then sent the animal into a charging gallop through the crowd, triggering a roar from demonstrators as he raced by.

Demonstrators began raining the White House with stones, forcing the last of the soldiers inside. Marching up the steps of the building, demonstrators screamed "Akayev, go!" and, within minutes, had broken through the building's large wooden doors.

Throngs of demonstrators streamed into the building. The lobby was flooded with water and a fire hose lay amid the debris — perhaps the result of a last-ditch attempt by soldiers to hold off the crowd. In Akayev's office, demonstrators rifling through his desk pulled out newspaper clippings in which someone had highlighted quotes by the president's political enemies. They also pored over a blue notebook in which Akayev had written down sayings of famous people that he wanted to use in his own speeches.

The chaos that took place inside the presidential building was clearly on the minds of opposition leaders as they struggled to decide how to restore order and establish a new government. Bakiyev, a former prime minister under Akayev, walked into Akayev's ransacked office and urged discipline.

"We should not have chaos," Bakiyev told a small group of demonstrators. "This is people's property and people's money. Please don't destroy it."

Bakiyev said Akayev made the mistake of refusing to hold talks with opposition leaders. "For 20 days, we tried to negotiate. The government didn't do anything. Because they did not come to the negotiations, this is the result."

By early evening, Bakiyev and other opposition leaders began cobbling together a plan to re-establish order. Selection of a new leader will not be an easy task, because the opposition lacked a single person it could rally around. Along with Bakiyev, Akayev's former foreign minister, Roza Otunbayeva, had been trying to position herself as a major force within the opposition.

Another leading candidate is Kulov, who once served as Akayev's vice president. He was jailed on embezzlement charges in 2000, shortly after announcing he would run against Akayev.

Speaking later on Kyrgyz state television, Kulov praised the actions of the demonstrators, saying, "It is a revolution made by the people."

Information from The Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press is included