keehah
8th April 2010, 02:34 AM
Globe And Mail: Scores of protesters reported killed; opposition says President has fled; major U.S. air base reported operating normally (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/kyrgyzstani-government-ousted-in-violent-uprising/article1525821/)
Apr. 07, 2010
Massive, violent protests have toppled the authoritarian regime in Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian republic wooed by both Moscow and Washington and the site of a sprawling air base vital to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
By nightfall, the opposition claimed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had fled and a new government headed by former foreign minister Rosa Otumbayeva, 59, was in control...
Mr. Bakiyev, who swept to power in 2005 after the so-called Tulip Revolution brought stability to the poor, mostly Muslim nation of five million, has presided over an increasingly repressive regime. A harsh clampdown on the media has been matched by the imprisonment of political opponents, often on trumped-up criminal charges, according to international observers, while a pattern of nepotism has seen his son and other family members named to top government posts. Corruption is endemic, and a recent 200-per-cent increase in electricity rates set off angry protests made all the more volatile by the fact that Mr. Bakiyev’s family is widely believed to control the national electrical utility. The country is considered among the most corrupt in the world.
“Power is now in the hands of the people’s government,’’ a blogger based in the capital, Bishkek, quoted her as saying. “The main thing now is to stabilize the situation in the republic, to safeguard people’s lives and to rule out marauding,†said Ms. Otumbayeva, who heads a left-wing parliamentary group.
Scores of protesters were reportedly shot and killed by security forces during waves of day-long running battles that left the capital littered with burning vehicles as crowds stormed the main television station and the Interior Ministry. According to witness reports, another leading opposition figure, Keneshbek Duishebayev, was issuing orders for calm from the National Security Agency, the reviled and feared secret police.
After days of mounting violence, Mr. Bakiyev, the increasingly repressive and unpopular Kyrgyzstani leader, reportedly fled Bishkek on the presidential jet and was believed headed for Osh, a city in the Uzbek south of the landlocked former Soviet republic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1srqYLnu8
________________
National Post: World leaders hold breath as chaos engulfs Kyrgyzstan (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2776083)
Protesters overthrew the government of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan yesterday after spectacular violence tore through the strategic central Asian state.
World leaders watched anxiously as street demonstrations turned into bloody and deadly riots that ended with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev fleeing the capital, parliament overrun and the government opposition seizing control.
The United States, which uses an air base at Manas in Kyrgyzstan to supply troops in Afghanistan, called for calm, saying it was "deeply concerned" by events. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also appealed for restraint and denied Russia had played any hand in the clashes.
Analysts said Washington sees Kyrgyzstan as a bulwark against radical Islam in central Asia and that the United States, Russia and China would want a quick end to the anarchy.
"Russia and the United States have been competing for influence for a long time and have air bases just a few miles apart, so it is an active centre of the 'Great Game' right now between the powers of Russia, China and the U.S.," said Chris Weafer, the chief strategist at Uralsib bank in Moscow.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/news/2776084.bin?size=404x272
Apr. 07, 2010
Massive, violent protests have toppled the authoritarian regime in Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian republic wooed by both Moscow and Washington and the site of a sprawling air base vital to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
By nightfall, the opposition claimed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had fled and a new government headed by former foreign minister Rosa Otumbayeva, 59, was in control...
Mr. Bakiyev, who swept to power in 2005 after the so-called Tulip Revolution brought stability to the poor, mostly Muslim nation of five million, has presided over an increasingly repressive regime. A harsh clampdown on the media has been matched by the imprisonment of political opponents, often on trumped-up criminal charges, according to international observers, while a pattern of nepotism has seen his son and other family members named to top government posts. Corruption is endemic, and a recent 200-per-cent increase in electricity rates set off angry protests made all the more volatile by the fact that Mr. Bakiyev’s family is widely believed to control the national electrical utility. The country is considered among the most corrupt in the world.
“Power is now in the hands of the people’s government,’’ a blogger based in the capital, Bishkek, quoted her as saying. “The main thing now is to stabilize the situation in the republic, to safeguard people’s lives and to rule out marauding,†said Ms. Otumbayeva, who heads a left-wing parliamentary group.
Scores of protesters were reportedly shot and killed by security forces during waves of day-long running battles that left the capital littered with burning vehicles as crowds stormed the main television station and the Interior Ministry. According to witness reports, another leading opposition figure, Keneshbek Duishebayev, was issuing orders for calm from the National Security Agency, the reviled and feared secret police.
After days of mounting violence, Mr. Bakiyev, the increasingly repressive and unpopular Kyrgyzstani leader, reportedly fled Bishkek on the presidential jet and was believed headed for Osh, a city in the Uzbek south of the landlocked former Soviet republic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1srqYLnu8
________________
National Post: World leaders hold breath as chaos engulfs Kyrgyzstan (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2776083)
Protesters overthrew the government of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan yesterday after spectacular violence tore through the strategic central Asian state.
World leaders watched anxiously as street demonstrations turned into bloody and deadly riots that ended with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev fleeing the capital, parliament overrun and the government opposition seizing control.
The United States, which uses an air base at Manas in Kyrgyzstan to supply troops in Afghanistan, called for calm, saying it was "deeply concerned" by events. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also appealed for restraint and denied Russia had played any hand in the clashes.
Analysts said Washington sees Kyrgyzstan as a bulwark against radical Islam in central Asia and that the United States, Russia and China would want a quick end to the anarchy.
"Russia and the United States have been competing for influence for a long time and have air bases just a few miles apart, so it is an active centre of the 'Great Game' right now between the powers of Russia, China and the U.S.," said Chris Weafer, the chief strategist at Uralsib bank in Moscow.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/news/2776084.bin?size=404x272