100's People Killed in Kyrgyzstan Protests

[Ed Jewett]

Kyrgyz opposition says it has taken power–Over 100 Dead

8 04 2010 [We will know whether the leaders of the second Tulip revolution are more Western puppets, or real social democrats, if we see this turn into a new opportunity for American military moves into Kyrgyzstan. If they are of the people and not of the evil empire then the new anti-terrorism Scorpion Battalion training agreement recently signed with the US will be cancelled. It won't take long to find out, the United States is on life-support now. Obama must find a new home in Central Asia for those troops allegedly leaving Afghanistan. SEE: Obama’s Tulip Revolution Replay]
Kyrgyz opposition says it has taken power

Olga Dzyubenko and Maria Golovnina
BISHKEK





Troops fire on Kyrgyz protests


























































Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov talks to the media in the capital Bishkek, April 6, 2010. REUTERS\/Vladimir Pirogov”}
BISHKEK (Reuters) – The Kyrgyz opposition said on Wednesday it had forced the Central Asian country’s government to resign after troops shot at protesters besieging government buildings, killing dozens.
“We have reached an agreement that the government will resign. That has not been signed on paper yet,” Galina Skripkina, a senior official in the opposition Social-Democratic Party and member of parliament, told Reuters.
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had flown to the southern city of Osh. “Bakiyev has taken a plane from Bishkek to Osh and he has already landed there,” she said.
“The opposition is in full control of power,” an opposition leader, Roza Otunbayeva, said, Russian news agency RIA reported earlier.
The announcement followed a day of violent clashes in Bishkek and other towns. Spokesmen for the government and the president were not available for comment.
Another opposition leader, Temir Sariyev, said the opposition had entered the government building in central Bishkek and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov had written a resignation statement, RIA reported.
“Bakiyev has left the White House … He is no longer in Bishkek,” said Sariyev, who was arrested on his arrival on a flight from Moscow on Wednesday, but later freed by the protest.
Bakiyev himself came to power after 2005 protests which ousted Kyrgyzstan’s first post-Soviet President Askar Akayev. Both men were accused by their opponents of concentrating power in the hands of their associates.
Political unrest over poverty, rising prices and corruption has gripped Kyrgyzstan since early March. About a third of the population live below the poverty line and remittances from workers in Russia have fallen during the global economic crisis.
The opposition said at least 100 people had been killed on Wednesday in clashes that have spread since last month across the ex-Soviet Central Asian country that hosts a U.S. military air base supporting troops in Afghanistan, and a Russian base.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier denied Russia — a major donor to Kyrgyzstan along with Washington and neighboring China — had played a hand in the clashes.
“Neither Russia, nor your humble servant, nor Russian officials have any links whatsoever to these events,” Putin was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
SHOOTING
Kyrgyz troops earlier shot at thousands of anti-government protesters who tried to smash two trucks through the perimeter fence of government buildings, a Reuters reporter said.
Around 1,000 people stormed the prosecutor-general’s office before setting fire to the building. Opposition activists also took control of state television channel KTR.
“There are dozens of dead bodies, all with gunshot wounds,” Akylbek Yeukebayev, a doctor at a Bishkek hospital told Reuters.
Many of the injured had gunshot wounds to their heads. “They are killing us,” said one wounded man on the emergency ward.
“About 100 people were killed today, possibly more. What kind of negotiations with the government can we talk about when they are killing our people?,” prominent opposition and human rights campaigner Toktoaim Umetaliyeza told Reuters.
The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said the official death toll in Bishkek was 40, with around 400 injured across the country.
Protesters seized government buildings in three other towns. In Talas, Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Aklybek Japarov and Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev were beaten. Kongantiyev was forced to shout: “Down with Bakiyev!,” two witnesses said.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov earlier told Reuters by phone that he and the president were working in their offices.
“We daren’t even look out of the window,” Kamil Sydykov, the prime minister’s spokesman, said by telephone from inside the presidential building.
European security watchdog, the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, chaired by neighboring Kazakhstan, called for calm and offered to broker any negotiations.
“The OSCE recognizes that there are political, economic and social issues underlying the unrest, which need to be addressed through broad political dialogue. The Organization stands ready to facilitate such a dialogue,” Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev told Kyrgyz counterpart Kadyrbek Sarbayev by telephone.
Analysts said the violence was likely to continue.
“Given (Bakiyev’s) resolve in recent years to concentrate power in his hands only, it is difficult to see how a political compromise may be found,” Lilit Gevorgyan, political analyst at IHS Global Insight.
Smoke from burning buildings and makeshift bonfires billowed around the capital of the ex-Soviet state of 5.3 million people.
Around 5,000 people were in the center of Bishkek, some carrying rifles and holding red-and-yellow Kyrgyz flags, beyond a curfew which came into effect at 8 p.m. (1400 GMT). Some shops and restaurants in the main square were looted.
The protests spread to the capital after riots which began in Talas and Naryn the day before and continued into Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Bishkek last week and called on the government to do more to protect human rights.
“The secretary-general is shocked by the reported deaths and injuries that have occurred today in Kyrgyzstan. He urgently appeals for dialogue and calm to avoid further bloodshed,” Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Reshetnikov in Bishkek; Guy Faulconbridge; Amie Ferris-Rotman and Conor Sweeney in Moscow; Sylvia Westall in Vienna; Writing by Robin Paxton and Alison Williams; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)


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