By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writethru

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Irina Kuznetsova scowled at a newspaper headline about unrest gripping southern Kyrgyzstan, where opposition forces demanding the president's resignation have seized government buildings in key cities.

"Fools!" she spat out, scanning the papers at a news kiosk on Bishkek's main street.

Like many others, the 40-year-old Kuznetsova is worried the protests, which were triggered by disputed parliamentary elections, could spread northward to the capital.

President Askar Akayev's government took a firm stand Wednesday, sending riot police to break up a rally in Bishkek and warning it would not tolerate efforts to seize buildings in the city.

Akayev fired the interior minister over the southern unrest, and replacement Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev declared Wednesday, "We will not let any stormings, seizures and takeovers in Bishkek."

Persistent rumors that opposition forces would stream into the capital have not proved true so far. But the harsh breakup of the rally on Wednesday sent an unmistakable signal.

About 200 helmeted riot police encircled groups of anti-Akayev protesters, scuffling with those who resisted and locking arms to force them out of the square. Police dragged some protesters away and detained 20 to 30 of them.

"If (Akayev) does not find common language with the opposition, we will not avoid bloodshed," said Asylbek Korchuyev, 65, one of a handful of people who have come to a small park every day for weeks, hoping that a large rally against Akayev might occur at the main square nearby.

"Akayev is corrupt. There is no place for him in this country. We will get him even if he flees to Alaska," said Korchuyev.

Others in the capital, however, support Akayev or are more concerned about keeping their jobs and making a living than about who is in power.

At the newsstand, Kuznetsova, an ethnic Russian who has lived in Bishkek most of her life, said she saw no alternative to Akayev. The opposition says Akayev, 15 years in power, is plotting to extend his time in office despite his insistence that he will step down after a presidential election scheduled for October.

Like the government, Kuznetsova dismisses the opposition leaders in the south as self-interested leaders who have recruited jobless men from the impoverished countryside to press their cause.

"This mess has been organized by a handful of people. They are doing it with the hands of some foolish, uneducated people," agreed Ruslan, a middle-aged Bishkek resident who would give only his first name. "It's not good."

Akayev is a northerner and in a political arena where alliances are based as much on clan as on ideology. That lends him comparatively strong support in the region that includes the capital.

But the animus of people like Korchuyev and those who have gathered with him to protest suggests that the capital is not immune to serious unrest.

"If people rise up, I will support them," said Orazbek Ardybayev, a vegetable vendor who came to Bishkek from the Osh region in the south, where the opposition forces have seized the administration building. "We have to change the government. Maybe life will change for the better then."

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