Even knowing where it is won't help out.
You have to be born there to know where it is. - Tom
Posted on 03/27/2005 5:35:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
When the wave of protest hit the capital, President Akaev’s 15-year-old regime proved to have no defenses.
OSH, Kyrgyzstan--When the end came, it looked swift. An opposition demonstration that began at 11:30 in the morning ended three and a half hours later with the president’s offices being stormed. Four and a half hours later, the opposition announced that President Askar Akaev had fled Kyrgyzstan. The collapse was complete: Within the space of half a day, a president of 15 years had been toppled and had then fled, his prime minister has resigned, a leading allegedly political prisoner have been freed, an opposition leader had become acting prime minister, and the security forces were under the control of the opposition.
On 25 March, Akaev denounced the revolution as a “coup” and insisted he was still president. But he looks in no position to reclaim his position. Even his location is unknown. Unconfirmed reports from the Russian media indicate that the president’s family is in northern Kazakhstan while he himself may be in Kazakhstan or in Moscow. Leading Kyrgyz opposition figures claim that Akaev was refused refuge in Russia, while the Kazakh authorities, who have closed the borders, have denied speculation that he is in the country.
Kyrgyzstan’s political system has moved swiftly to fill the political vacuum. At the same time that Kurmanbek Bakiev, who chaired the opposition’s coordinating committee, announced that Akaev had fled the country and Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev had resigned, the Supreme Court annulled this winter's parliamentary elections, which international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said had been marred by numerous violations. The Supreme Court’s decision effectively reinstates the authority of the outgoing parliament, whose powers were supposed to expire on 14 April. Though that parliament was also dominated by Akaev supporters, deputies immediately then appointed Bakiev as acting prime minister. He thus returns to the post he held from December 2000 until 2002.
Bakiev will also be acting president, though reports from 24 March indicated that the role would be filled by Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, one of the few opposition members in the old parliament. Like Bakiev, Kadyrbekov has served in government, in his case as construction minister.
Responsibility for the security services was immediately taken over by Feliks Kulov, a former vice president and a man released from prison on 24 March by opposition supporters.
A new cabinet--or council of national unity--is due to be formed today, 25 March.
New elections are pending. Presidential elections, originally due in October, may be brought forward to June and new parliamentary elections could be held in the autumn.
WHEN THE TSUNAMI HIT
No one had expected such swift change. For months, opponents of Akaev, many of them middle-aged women and village elders, had rallied in numerous parts of the country and blocked roads in protest at parliamentary elections that looked likely to be flawed. For weeks, when it became clear that the first and second rounds of the elections would produce an overwhelming pro-Akaev majority, the demonstrations had continued. When it emerged that 69 of the 75 seats in parliament would be occupied by his supporters or suspected supporters, the opposition began, starting 4 March, to seize government buildings in southern Kyrgyzstan in the face of minimal resistance from the police.
But the protests took on a new and ultimately overwhelming dynamic on 20 March, when police tried to regain control of government buildings in Osh and Jalal-Abad. They failed, and control of key parts of the south of the country fell to the opposition. (The opposition’s advance in the south was further underlined on 24 March, when government buildings in another southern city, Batken, were seized.)
With its position strong in the south, the opposition then said it would turn its attention to the north and the country’s capital, Bishkek. The capital had been the site of persistent, though intermittent demonstrations against Akaev for the past three years, but the arrival of many southerners promised to provide new impetus to the opposition’s campaign in the capital.
A move by Akaev on 21 March that had initially held the promise of some compromise soon proved to hold false hope. The president created a commission to review the election results, but the next day it confirmed that the elections in at least 71 of the districts had been valid, an opinion hardly likely to be accepted by the opposition, which maintains that there were widespread violations during the election campaign and the actual voting.
The government offered little by way of an olive branch. Akaev’s spokesman Abdil Segizbaev branded the opposition “criminals connected with the drugs mafia, who crave power.” There were no formal negotiations over the past week between either side, though the OSCE, the UN Development Program, the U.S. embassy, and other international organizations called on both sides to avoid violence and start talks.
Instead, Akaev reiterated his determination to stand by his position at an extraordinary session of parliament on 22 March, claiming that the results were “beyond doubt.” He also charged the new parliament to “resolve the situation in the country,” an appeal taken up by some parliamentarians, who called for a state of emergency to be imposed.
Akaev did not take that step, but he appointed a new interior minister, Keneshbek Dushebaev, who immediately said that the Kyrgyz security forces might use “special means and firearms” against protestors.
Akaev’s actions seemed to push the country towards a showdown--and within two days of the wave of protests arriving in the capital, it was clear that discontent with Akaev’s rule was more powerful than his own resolve and the resolve of the security forces. In the end, the scenario in Bishkek was the same as in Osh and Jalal-Abad: once the government building was stormed, the authorities lost control.
On 23 March, the opposition rallied roughly 3,000 supporters outside the presidential and government headquarters, commonly referred to as the White House. The demonstrations were broken up by baton-wielding policemen who briefly detained scores of peaceful protestors, including passers-by and Bolot Shamshiev, a popular film director.
On 24 March, the opposition returned, this time with the support of 5,000-10,000 people. The rally had initially looked likely to be peaceful. Children wearing the opposition colors, pink and yellow, led the march. Many demonstrators carried daffodils and some placed flowers in the shields of riot police. The demonstrators were unarmed. The police had truncheons but no guns.
However, at about 2 p.m., before some of the opposition leaders had turned up, violence flared. Reporters on the spot say that opposition supporters were confronted by pro-Akaev demonstrators. It is not clear which side initiated the violence, but some reports indicate that pro-Akaev supporters, wearing blue armbands to distinguish themselves from the yellow and pink worn by opposition supporters, charged at protestors brandishing sticks and carrying shields.
Very soon the situation became uncontrollable. Groups from both sets of demonstrators began fighting and opposition supporters, many of them teenagers, hurled stones at the police.
Shortly before 3 p.m., a small group of mounted policemen charged into the crowd but two of the officers were swiftly pulled from their horses. Within minutes, opposition supporters managed to disperse the police and then stormed the White House, where they encountered no resistance, though Defense Minister Esen Topoyev was in the building along with armed special forces.
Demonstrators ransacked parts of the building, but opposition leaders fairly rapidly restored order, and militia guarded the building overnight.
Meanwhile, away from the presidential square, opposition supporters marched on a prison and, at 5 p.m., freed Kulov, who was serving a 10-year sentence for embezzlement and abuse of power, charges that the former vice-president claims were political. An hour and a half earlier, employees at the state television station moved over to the opposition. State radio began broadcasting coverage by Radio Liberty, a Prague-based U.S. government-funded station that had been taken off the air ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Kulov emerged from four years in prison to tell supporters: “Let's keep the peace, let's not lose our head. I want to thank you that you weren't afraid and were peaceful and civilized."
But the peacefulness and civility did not last. The clashes with the police may have left up to 200 people nursing injuries, but they passed without gunfire and fatalities. Within hours, though, three people had reportedly been killed in a wave of looting that initially centered on a shopping precinct that was believed to be owned by the Akaev family. The looting has since spread, affecting many shops. Some have been burned.
WHAT COMES NEXT
The pace of events surprised everyone. Bakiev, who arrived at the White House late, said in Akaev’s office, "I did not expect this. I thought we would have a rally and appeal to the president. But because they did not come to the talks, this was the result."
That was a theme also picked up by Kulov, who told television reporters that "Askar Akaev is guilty of all that has happened here."
Cholpon Baekova, the head of the Constitutional Court, also suggested that Akaev had thrown away the chance for a political solution, saying on national television on 22 March that she met Akaev the day before and insisted that he talk to the opposition. Akaev said, she claimed, that it was impossible for him to meet the opposition.
The immediate challenge for the new government is to restore order and, thereby, to help cement support for it. The revolution has left Chingiz, from the southern city of Osh, with a sense of great relief. “I am so happy that the president, who wanted to privatize our national parliament, is no longer the head of the country.”
But in Bishkek, the looting has led to mixed feelings. “After the occupation was over and the crowds of people left the central square, many people were very relieved, but soon rumors spread that robberies had begun all over the center of Bishkek,” says Asel, a Bishkek resident. “Many people are glad about the opposition's victory, but hundreds and hundreds of people blame the opposition for the disorder and nightmare” of violence on 24 March.
There are continued reports of looting in bazaars and shops in Bishkek, and both police and looters have begun to use guns.
The new authorities are blaming Akaev and his family, saying this is an effort to discredit the revolution. Some residents believe this speculation. Zukhra, a 24-year-old resident of Bishkek, says “iI is most probably supporters of Akaev who are doing this, to undermine trust to the opposition.”
In Osh, the police are back in control and taking orders from the city’s new opposition governor. In bosh Osh and Jalal-Abad there were stone-throwing incidents and burning buildings, but the violence was limited and the looting minor. In Osh, only three shops were looted, and the robbers were quickly identified.
Initial reports of deaths in Jalal-Abad proved unfounded.
Despite the deaths in Bishkek, the violence was much less than might have been feared. The short-lived hard-line interior minister had flagged his willingness to use guns, but, in the event, the police did not do so.
Assuming Bakiev, Kulov, and other members of the interim government do establish control and prevent any recurrence of the violence seen in Kyrgyzstan in the early 1990s, the main political issue in the next two months will be who becomes the new president.
One leading opposition figure, Roza Otunbaeva, has already said she will not stand.
Bakiev was expected to be the main opposition challenger in June’s presidential elections and his new positions as acting prime minister and president strengthen his chances.
But the re-emergence of Kulov, something of a totemic figure after his imprisonment in 2000, will raise questions about who will assume the presidency, the most powerful as well as the highest position in the country. Kulov had been expected to challenge Akaev for the presidency in 2000 but was arrested before he could mount a bid.
Bakiev became prime minister in December 2000. Kulov was arrested in March 2000 and sentenced in 2001.
Bakiev resigned as prime minister in May 2002 after the country’s security council debated a report condemning the authorities for their role in events leading to the deaths of six civilians in protests that March. It is not clear whether he was pushed or not: a resignation offer was initially rejected by the president, but, days later, Akaev called for Bakiev and his government to resign.
Hamid Toursunof is a TOL correspondent based in Osh.
Aren't they right next to Elbonia?
Bump anyway.
Sounds like the early hours of the attempted escape of Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his lovely wife, Elena (aka "Bullseye").
Even knowing where it is won't help out.
You have to be born there to know where it is. - Tom
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