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| Friday, March 25, 2005 |
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Chaos in Kyrgyz capital as protestors storm govt compoundPublished: 3/24/2005
The city`s central Ala-Tu square, usually filled with strolling couples, Thursday reverberated to angry shouts and the thuds of rocks being thrown as thousands of opposition supporters converged on the plaza adjacent to the government`s main seat of power. "Down with Akayev!" the protestors chanted as they pelted helmeted riot police with stones in front of the government compound, known in Kyrgyzstan as the White House. Other protestors -- many sporting the pink and yellow headbands of the opposition -- ripped up cobblestones near the Liberty statue in the middle of the square and smashed them against the ground. "Are you indifferent or what?" one 20-something protestor, waving a wooden stick, yelled at people standing on outskirts of the square earlier Thursday. "We`ve been like slaves for 15 years," he shouted. As the police retreated from their positions, the crowd went after them with rocks. A boy who appeared no more than 10 years old, picked up a police helmet dropped on the ground, put it on, smiled into a passing television camera before running off with a wooden stick in his hand. A lone rider on a black horse galloped through the crowd with a yellow banner in his hand. His speed turned it into a yellow blur -- a powerful opposition symbol in the nation where, as the national saying goes, children learn how to ride before they learn how to walk. Eventually the crowd flooded into the compound, smashing the windows of the Soviet-era structure and throwing out portraits of Akayev and documents and waving the national flag. The opposition in Kyrgyzstan has staged protests for more than a week since a March 13 runoff vote in which the opposition was nearly shut out of the nation`s 75-seat parliament. The opposition charges that President Askar Akayev -- a 60-year-old physicist by training who has ruled this mountainous Central Asian nation since 1990 -- had fixed the election in order to pack the chamber with supporters ahead of October`s presidential elections. Although Akayev has vowed not to run in the ballot, the opposition fears he will either try to hang on to power anyway or install a loyal ally. Such fears were fuelled by the fact that two of his children won seats during the election. The protests until now had been contained in the nation`s impoverished south, which has a history of violent unrest.
03/24/2005 12:32 GMT |
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