Protesters in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan took control of the capital Thursday as they fought with pro-government partisans, stormed government buildings, took control of the national TV network and apparently chased the president from the country. It was the third time in two years that opposition forces had overturned an authoritarian government in Russia's back yard in the wake of allegations that elections were fraudulent. Unlike the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine last year, the Kyrgyz revolt was marred by violence.Opposition leaders quickly tried to re-establish order Thursday evening as the defense and interior ministers ordered their troops to stand down. The Supreme Court met in emergency session and annulled the results of a recent parliamentary election that anti-government politicians said was tainted by fraud. Parliament also convened Thursday night and named Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, a former member of Parliament, as acting president. Reports that President Askar Akayev had fled the country - to Kazakhstan or Russia - were still unconfirmed late Thursday.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States was working with the United Nations, European monitors and "our Russian friends" to keep track of the rapidly unfolding events. "The future of Kyrgyzstan should be decided by the people of Kyrgyzstan, consistent with the principles of peaceful change, of dialogue and respect for the rule of law," he said. The United States maintains an air base at the Manas airport outside Bishkek, the capital. The base, with an estimated 1,000 troops, is used principally for flights in support of American forces in Afghanistan. A Russian military base, known as Kant, sits only a dozen miles away.
Protests have been building in Kyrgyzstan since March 13, when pro-government candidates swept parliamentary elections. Protesters said the vote had been rigged by Akayev loyalists, and European monitors said the elections were badly flawed. There's also deep resentment at widespread corruption that favors Akayev's family, business friends and political colleagues. The president, 60, a farmer's son and Soviet-trained scientist, has been in power since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The protests began in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad earlier this week when opposition crowds forced their way into government buildings and police stations, then spread to Bishkek, where some, seeking to emulate the uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine, took to calling their revolt "the tulip revolution" or "the narcissus revolution." Thursday's events in Bishkek began when protesters were charged by stick-wielding Akayev supporters wearing blue armbands.
| That'd be the "Blue Counterrevolution..." |
Kyrgyzstan, with a largely rural and deeply impoverished population of 5 million, isn't well endowed like most of its neighbors in Central Asia. There's only a trickle of oil - not enough to export - and the region's major oil and gas pipelines detour around the mountainous country. Its geography has been something of a curse lately for Kyrgyzstan. The country has become part of a major transit route for heroin shipments coming out of Afghanistan in record amounts. Although a moderate Islam prevails among Kyrgyzstan's nomadic peoples, the country also contains part of the Fergana Valley, a hotbed of Islamist extremism. Al-Qaida recruiting is said to be resurgent among the ethnic Uzbeks who live in the valley. Regional analysts and residents of the valley report increased activity in recent years by the radical Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.