100's People Killed in Kyrgyzstan Protests

[Magda Hassan]

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html...&PageNum=0

Itar-Tass
April 7, 2010

Kyrgyzstan’s opposition claims President out of town

BISHKEK: President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan is not in the Government Building at the moment, Temir Sariyev, the leader of Ak-Shumkar party said Wednesday night after a meeting with Prime Minister Daniyar Ussenov, who had tendered his resignation.

“We don’t know anything about Bakiyev’s whereabouts but we know for sure he isn’t in Bishkek now,” Sariyev said.

Well-informed sources in the Kyrgyzstani government told Itar-Tass earlier Bakiyev was working in his office in the Government Building.
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http://en.rian.ru/world/20100407/158472444.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 7, 2010

Kyrgyz opposition says it has taken full power in the country

Bishkek: A government formed by opposition in the ex-Soviet Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan said it has taken full power in the country after a day of unrest in which over 40 people were killed, the opposition-nominated premier said on Wednesday.

"(Prime Minister Daniyar) Usenov has signed a resignation letter. Power is fully in the control of the opposition," Rosa Otunbayeva said.

"The whereabouts of (President Kurmanbek) Bakiyev are unknown."
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http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html...&PageNum=0

Itar-Tass
April 7, 2010

Moscow officials do not expect Kyrgyzstani President’s arrival

MOSCOW: Moscow does not expect the arrival of Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a high-rank source in the Kremlin told Itar-Tass.

When a reporter asked him about the possibility of Bakiyev being on a Moscow-bound flight, the source said: “Unlikely so because Russia doesn’t expect him.”

SkyNews channel said earlier Bakiyev had left Bishkek aboard a jet. According to a France Presse report, a spokesman for Manas international airport in Bishkek confirmed that Bakiyev’s jet had taken off.

In the meantime, officials at the Russian Air Navigation Service told Itar-Tass there have been no requests to permit a landing for Bakiyev’s jet anywhere on the Russian territory.

[Magda Hassan]

http://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20100408/158481793.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 8, 2010

Russia sends some 150 paratroopers to its airbase in Kyrgyzstan - General Staff

Prague: Russia has sent some 150 paratroopers to its Kant airbase in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to ensure the safety of families of Russian military staff, the General Staff chief Nikolay Makarov said.

Protests in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek have left at least 74 people dead and more than 500 injured.

"The president has decided to send two companies of paratroopers there and some 150 people have arrived in Kant," Makarov, who is with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague for the signing of a new arms cut deal, said.

Earlier a source in Russia's Defense Ministry said the Russian airbase was put on high alert, while the U.S. said its Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan was continuing to function normally.

Russian Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik said the Russian airbase in Kant, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, is also continuing to function normally.

[Magda Hassan]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/in...242301.htm

Xinhua News Agency
April 8, 2010

Why large-scale riots in Kyrgyzstan?

-The United States recently decided to allocate 5.5 million U.S. dollars for the construction of a counter-terrorism training center in Kyrgyzstan.
One of the issues raised by the opposition during the unrest is to ask the United States to withdraw troops from the country's Manas air base.


BISHKEK: Large-scale riots broke out Wednesday in a number of cities and regions in Kyrgyzstan, including the capital of Bishkek.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters in the small central Asian nation took to the streets, storming government buildings, besieging and eventually taking over the Presidential Palace, occupying the Parliament Building, and violently clashing with military and police forces.

Officials said more than 60 people were killed and about 400 others were injured during the riots.

Members of the Kyrgyz opposition said the immediate cause that triggered the large-scale unrest was the government's arrest of Bolotbek Sherniazov, a vice chairman of the opposition Ata-jurt (Fatherland) movement. On Tuesday afternoon, about 1,500 demonstrators besieged and then took over the state government building in Talas, taking the governor hostage and demanded the release of Sherniazov.

The government immediately dispatched a large number of police officers, who drove the crowds out of government buildings and freed the governor.

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov said Wednesday that 85 police officers were injured during the Talas incident, and 15 others were still missing.

The opposition had planned to hold a "People's Assembly" around the country on Wednesday, but the initiative was not approved by the government.

Kyrgyz authorities warned that if the opposition insisted on holding the so-called "People's Assembly," which was contrary to the Constitution and beyond the law's boundaries, security agencies will take resolute measures against them.

On Wednesday morning, opposition supporters launched large-scale protests near government buildings in many states and cities.

In Bishkek, thousands of demonstrators broke through security lines set up by the police in the suburbs, and gathered around the Presidential Palace.

They asked President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Prime Minister Usenov to come out and talk to them face-to-face.

After the request was rejected, opposition supporters stormed the building, and clashed with police.

Meanwhile, opposition supporters in Talas, Narynskaya, Chu and other states also attacked and occupied local government buildings.

In Naryn, the state capital of Narynskaya, opposition supporters ousted the governor, throwing documents and flags out of the window of the governor's office. Azimbek Beknazarov, the country's former attorney-general and now one of the opposition leaders, declared in Naryn that the ultimate goal of the opposition is to take over the government.

On Wednesday afternoon, TV signals from the first and fifth channels of the state television were interrupted, and their programs were then completely shut down.

It was later confirmed that the headquarters of the national television had been took over by opposition supporters.

In addition, a staff member at Bishkek Manas International Airport told Xinhua that the airport will be temporarily shut down between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and all flights were suspended.

Due to the tense situation, neighboring Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have strengthened security along their borders with Kyrgyzstan.

By Wednesday evening in Bishkek, Xinhua reporters saw the buildings of the Defense Department and the attorney-general's office engulfed in big flames, and constant shootings could be heard at city center.

Subsequently, a large number of protesters stormed the parliament building and damaged facilities there.

Upon the time when the story is released, most of the opposition leaders who were detained by the government have been released.

Omurbek Tekebayev,chairman of the opposition Atta-jurt movement, asked the government to resign.

Analysts say that since it seized power through a "color revolution," the current government has failed to properly address the economic and livelihood issues. With rampant corruption and nepotism, public discontent was growing.

Later last year, the government decided to double electricity and heating fees, and sharply raise water prices, which led to strong public dissatisfaction.

On March 10, demonstrators held massive rallies in Naryn, asking the government to withdraw its decision on price increases and large-scale privatization.

On March 17, the opposition decided to hold rallies across the country, demanding implementation of economic and political reform.

External factors also played a role in the unrest as the government's growing relations with the West caused concern and dissatisfaction from the opposition.

On Dec. 3 last year, France announced that it would open an embassy in Kyrgyzstan. On Feb. 10 this year, the European Union opened an embassy in Bishkek.

The United States recently decided to allocate 5.5 million U.S. dollars for the construction of a counter-terrorism training center in Kyrgyzstan.

One of the issues raised by the opposition during the unrest is to ask the United States to withdraw troops from the country's Manas air base.

(Xinhua writers Shadati, Li Bin, Zhao Yu, and Zhou Liang contributed to the story)

[Magda Hassan]

http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaN...0920100408

Reuters
April 8, 2010

Afghan supply flights suspended from Kyrgyz base - NATO

KABUL: Flights supporting NATO operations in Afghanistan from a Kyrgyzstan air base have been suspended, but Kyrgyz political unrest has not seriously disrupted Afghan military operations, the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said.

The opposition in Kyrgyzstan - a poor, land-locked central-Asian state north of Afghanistan -- said on Thursday it had seized power and dissolved parliament after deadly protests forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the capital.

The United States operates Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan as one of the main regional hubs for logistical operations to support the war in Afghanistan.

"Our understanding is that Manas relocated some aircraft and temporarily suspended flights in and out of the base. Those actions had no significant impacts on operations or logistical support in Afghanistan," said Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

Manas is one of the main way-stations for troops and supplies to be flown into Afghanistan, and has been particularly busy this year as Washington deploys 30,000 extra troops ordered to Afghanistan by U.S. President Barack Obama in December.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

[Magda Hassan]

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=119504

Azeri Press Agency
April 8, 2010

Roza Otunbayeva: “Nothing will be changed in the agreement between the Bakiyev administration and the United States regarding the presence of the US airbase”

Baku: Roza Otunbayeva, designated the head of an interim government, said separately that a key US airbase outside Bishkek vital to the NATO campaign in Afghanistan would remain open despite the chaotic shift in power in the capital, APA reports quoting Agence France-Presse.

“Nothing will be changed in the agreement between the Bakiyev administration and the United States regarding the presence of the US airbase”, Otunbayeva said.

[Jan Klimkowski]

What do we think?

Is this Putin's geopolitical riposte to the (probably) western-inspired and financed Lubyanka terror bombing?

Or a grassroots revolt involving ordinary people saying "No more of this shit", with the opposition parties trying to ride the popular anger?

Or something else altogether?

[Paul Rigby]

What do we think?

Is this Putin's geopolitical riposte to the (probably) western-inspired and financed Lubyanka terror bombing?

Or a grassroots revolt involving ordinary people saying "No more of this shit", with the opposition parties trying to ride the popular anger?

Or something else altogether?

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-04-08/akaev-...ident.html

Askar Akayev, former Kyrgyz president, says part of the reason why President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is facing the current situation is because of his cooperation with the US driven by economic interests.

“In recent years President Bakiyev has been moving closer to the United States in terms of foreign policy. This course was reflected in his initiative to create a second U.S. military base, this time in the Fergana Valley where the interests of all Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – meet,” Akayev said.

[Ed Jewett]

April 8, 2010
Baloney in Bishkek

Whoever engineered the coup in Kyrgyzstan did a damn fine job. The experienced trouble-shooters got in and out without a trace. The rebels understood enough to take over the airwaves. Even more impressively, many demonstrators stood their ground under small arms fire. Diverse channels leaked stories to the U.S. press, stories that were (as usual) repeated uncritically, to the effect that Washington nervously awaits word whether the new regime will allow it to keep its airbase. Virtually nobody in the mainstream or alternative media wonders whether the coup might not have been a local product. Message sent to pipsqueak dictators everywhere: "Don't push your luck, Buddy, we can get rid of you if we like." Pretty much a perfect coup. If the CIA wasn't behind it, it should've been. I hope whoever organized it gets promoted.
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[B]From the FAQ's:[/B]

[B]Er, thanks. And who are you again, anyhow? [/B]


Here's the short version of my bio: I'm George Kenney. I was born in Algiers in 1956, during the battle of Algiers, to a US foreign service family, and I grew up in the states, in Africa and in Europe. I spent way too much time in graduate school at the University of Chicago (MA in Economics) from which, following family tradition, I joined the foreign service myself. I was a tenured, mid-level career officer, serving as Yugoslav desk officer at the State Department headquarters in DC, when I resigned my commission in 1991 over US policy towards the Yugoslav conflict. Subsequently for a few years I was a consultant in residence at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Those were my salad days as a pundit. I had about 60 articles published in mainstream outlets, did hundreds of radio and tv interviews and talk shows, and traveled extensively through the US on speaking tours. In the mid-1990s, however, I came down with symptoms of a hereditary illness — iron overload — which sidelined me for years. With treatment I'm now operating more or less on two cylinders, more or less permanently. C'est la vie... and I'm glad to be alive!

[Ed Jewett]

AlJazeera/English report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VJg-a3-S..._embedded#

[Ed Jewett]

“Yesterday Was Our Answer to the Repression and Tyranny Against the People”

9 04 2010 New Kyrgyz rulers hail Russia, aim to shut U.S. base


Roza Otunbayeva (L), the interim government leader, speaks as she sits next to Vice Premier Omurbek Tekebayev during a news conference in Bishkek
Credit: REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov
(Reuters) – Kyrgyzstan’s self-proclaimed new leadership said on Thursday that Russia had helped to oust President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and that they aimed to close a U.S. airbase that has irritated Moscow.
Their comments set Wednesday’s overthrow of Bakiyev, who fled the capital Bishkek as crowds stormed government buildings, firmly in the context of superpower rivalry in central Asia.
No sooner had presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed an arms reduction pact in Prague as part of an effort to “reset” strained relations than a senior official in Medvedev’s delegation urged Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers to shut the base.
The official, who declined to be named, noted that Bakiyev had not fulfilled a promise to shut the Manas airbase, which the United States uses to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan. He said there should be only one base in Kyrgyzstan — a Russian one.
Omurbek Tekebayev, a former Kyrgyz opposition leader who took charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said that “Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev.”
“You’ve seen the level of Russia’s joy when they saw Bakiyev gone,” he told Reuters. “So now there is a high probability that the duration of the U.S. air base’s presence in Kyrgyzstan will be shortened.”
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had played a part in the turmoil in the former Soviet republic, which Russia openly regards as part of its own back yard.

Roza Otunbayeva
But he was the first foreign leader to recognize opposition figure Roza Otunbayeva as leader of Kyrgyzstan, and rang her soon after she said she was in charge.
The United States said it had not yet decided whether to recognize Otunbayeva’s government, and did not say who it believed was in control.
Russia’s top general said 150 paratroopers had been sent to Russia’s own Kant base in Kyrgyzstan, and Medvedev’s office said they would protect Russian citizens at its embassy and other diplomatic facilities.
Otunbayeva, who once served as Bakiyev’s foreign minister, said the interim government controlled the whole country except for Bakiyev’s power base of Osh and Jalalabad in the south, and had the backing of the armed forces and border guards.
She said the situation in Kyrgyzstan’s economy was “fairly alarming” and it would need foreign aid. She said Putin had asked how Russia could help.
FLYING TO MOSCOW
“We agreed that my first deputy and the republic’s former prime minister, Almaz Atambayev, would fly to Moscow and formulate our needs,” she told Russian Ekho Moskvy radio.
Putin did not promise a specific sum, she said. “But the fact that he called, spoke nicely, went into detail, asked about details — generally, I was moved by that. It is a signal.”
Otunbayeva said Bakiyev was holed up in Jalalabad. “What we did yesterday was our answer to the repression and tyranny against the people by the Bakiyev regime,” she told reporters.
Kyrgyzstan, a country of 5.3 million people, has few natural resources but has made the most of its position at the intersection of Russian, U.S. and Chinese spheres of influence.
Washington has used Manas to supply U.S.-led NATO forces fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan since losing similar facilities in Uzbekistan, apparently after pressure from Moscow.
Bakiyev announced the Manas base would close during a visit to Moscow last year at which he secured $2 billion in crisis aid, only to agree later to keep it open at a higher rent.
The U.S. charge d’affaires in Bishkek met Otunbayeva, while in Washington a top U.S. diplomat received Bakiyev’s foreign minister, Kadyrbek Sarbayev.
“Our message to both is the same,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing. “We will continue to urge them to resolve this in a peaceful way.”
Michael McFaul, a senior White House adviser on Russia told reporters in Prague: “This is not some anti-American coup. That we know for sure, and this is not a sponsored-by-the-Russians coup.”
He said Medvedev and Obama had not discussed the base. A U.S. official said they had considered making a joint statement on Kyrgyzstan, but none was issued.
AIRBASE STILL OPERATING
The Pentagon said limited operations were continuing at Manas, and support to Afghanistan had not been seriously harmed.
Pentagon officials say Manas has been central to the war effort, allowing around-the-clock combat airlifts and airdrops, medical evacuation and aerial refueling, and that alternative solutions would be less efficient and more expensive.
Bakiyev, himself brought to power by a “people power” revolution in 2005, told Reuters by telephone that he had no plans to step down, but offered to talk to the opposition leaders who have claimed control of Kyrgyzstan.
“I can’t say that Russia is behind this,” he said. “I don’t want to say that — I just don’t want to believe it.”
Speaking to Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio, he acknowledged that he had little control over events in the capital.
With rioters roaming the streets and widespread looting after a day in which dozens were killed in clashes between protesters and police, the self-proclaimed new interior minister ordered security forces to fire on looters.
Bishkek awoke to blazing cars and burned-out shops on Thursday after a day in which at least 75 people were killed.
Smoke billowed from the seven-storey White House, the main seat of government, as crowds rampaged through it. Looting was widespread and shots could still be heard on Thursday night.
The uprising was sparked by discontent over corruption, nepotism and rising utility prices. A third of the population live below the poverty line. Remittances from the 800,000 Kyrgyz working in Russia make up about 40 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.
Another 10 percent or so comes from the giant Kumtor gold mine, operated by Canada’s Centerra Gold.
Centerra said operations were unaffected by the turmoil, but its shares were down around 5 percent on the day, following an 11 percent fall on Wednesday. [nN08121726]
(Additional reporting by Olga Dzyubenko in Bishkek, Khulkar Isamova in Osh, Robin Paxton, Steve Gutterman and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Peter Graff in Kabul; Denis Dyomkin in Prague; Phil Stewart, Andrew Quinn and Adam Entous in Washington; Writing by Kevin Liffey; editing by David Stamp)


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