Thursday, March 24, 2005
Main government building falls in Kyrgyzstan
Jax
Kyrgyz protesters stormed the main government compound in the capital, Bishkek, today and released the country's opposition leader from jail. In their first major rally in the capital, about 1,000 protesters, angry at what they claim were fraudulent elections earlier this month, drove riot police from their positions protecting the government headquarters. Some demonstrators were able to get inside the compound. Others smashed windows with stones, while hundreds of police stood by and watched.
Protesters marched the defence minister, Esen Topoyev, out of the building, holding him by the elbows. They tried to protect him, but he was hit by stones thrown by the crowd, and one protester kicked him. Interior ministry troops led other officials out by a side door. Three injured people with bandages covering their wounds left accompanied by a doctor.
Two demonstrators waved a flag from a top-floor window in the building and others hurled furniture out of the building as cheers erupted from demonstrators below.
Elsewhere in the city, opposition leader and former vice-president Felix Kulov was freed from jail, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
"We have freed Kulov. We are already in Bishkek. He will soon speak on television," Kulov aide Emil Aliyev told Reuters by telephone.
Mr Kulov was jailed for theft and abuse of power in 2001, in what his supporters said was a ploy by the country's president, Askar Akayev to neutralise the influence of his main rival. (Link)
