Anti-govt protests move into Kyrgyzstan's capital

Riot police broke up a small opposition rally in the centre of the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek today, signalling the government’s determination to keep protests that have left much of the south under opposition control from spreading north.

The show of force came hours after President Askar Akayev sacked the interior minister and chief prosecutor over the unrest in the south of the Central Asian nation, where opposition protesters have seized control of several key government buildings and kept up pressure on the president to resign over alleged vote fraud.

In Bishkek, some 200 riot police encircled groups of protesters calling for Akayev’s overthrow, scuffling with those who resisted and locking elbows to force roughly 100 demonstrators out of the central square. Police appeared to detain about 20 people, dragging some away in the chaos.

Protesters said those detained included two opposition leaders.

Kyrgyz politics is heavily clan-based, and Akayev has strong support in his native north.

If the fractured opposition can carry mass protests north across the mountain range bisecting the country and toward Bishkek tensions could explode in a strategically important country where both the US and Russia have military bases.

The protests began even before the first round of parliamentary elections last month and swelled after run-offs that the opposition and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said were seriously flawed.

Protesters seized control of government buildings in two of Kyrgyzstan’s seven regional capitals and a number of smaller areas this week.

Akayev, 60, is prohibited from seeking another term, but the opposition has accused him of manipulating the parliamentary vote to gain a compliant parliament that would amend the constitution to allow a third term. Akayev has denied that.

The US operates a military base, used for refuelling planes in Afghanistan, outside Bishkek. The Russian base is 12 miles from the capital.

Akayev was long regarded as the most reform-minded leader in former Soviet Central Asia, but in recent years he has shown an increasingly authoritarian bent.