Opposition claim 100 anti-government demonstrators killed as president declares state of emergency in central Asian republic
Luke Harding in Moscow and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 April 2010 17.42 BST
At least 17 people have been killed and 180 people wounded in Kyrgyzstan in clashes between riot police and anti-government demonstrators.
Police opened fire when thousands of protesters tried to storm the main government building in the capital, Bishkek, and overthrow the regime.
Opposition sources said 100 demonstrators had been killed but the claim could not immediately be confirmed.
Reporters saw bodies lying in the main square outside the office of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the central Asian republic's president.
Bakiyev declared a state of emergency as riot police firing tear gas and flash grenades beat back the crowds. There were unconfirmed reports that the interior minister had been beaten by an angry mob.
Opposition activist Shamil Murat told Associated Press that he saw the body of minister Moldomusa Kongatiyev in a government building in the western town of Talas.
Murat said the protesters beat up Kongatiyev and forced him to order his subordinates inBishkek to stop a crackdown on an opposition rally there.
Protests, which began last week in several Kyrgz provincial cities, erupted in the capital when around 200 people gathered outside the offices of the main opposition parties.
Demonstrators dodged attempts by police to stop them and marched towards the city centre, reports said. The crowd, armed with iron bars and stones, then tried to seize the main government building using an armoured vehicle. Several shots rang out from the building.
The leader of the main opposition party called on every Kyrgyz family to adopt the philosophy "freedom or death". In a broadcast after the state television channel was taken over by opposition activists, Omurbek Tekebayev of the Ata-Meken party called for Bakiyev to resign.
In Naryn, a town in central Kyrgyzstan, about 3,000 anti-government protesters today seized the main government building. They ordered local governor Almazbek Akmataliyev to leave and then threw documents and a flag from the window of his office. The crowd then tried to seize the local police department.
Opposition supporters also occupied the building of the Chuy region administration in Tokmak, a town about 30 miles (50km) from Bishkek, Interfax reported.
Some 4,000 protesters gathered at the main square in Talas, on the border with Kazakhstan. Witnesses said protesters, throwing stones, were attempting to storm the local police headquarters, a day after rampaging through the regional government's headquarters, fighting off police and burning Bakiyev's portraits.
The small central Asian republic is home to a US airbase supplying Afghanistan, and has been a source of increasing tension between Moscow and Washington. The Kremlin is irritated by the US presence in its "backyard". It has also grown frustrated with the Bakiyev regime, which it believes has fallen under US influence.
Today's protests appear to have been largely spontaneous. All the opposition figures who might have led the uprising were arrested last night and remained locked up. This morning's protests appear to have been an explosion of popular frustration rather than a well-organised coup attempt.
One commentator said punitive price increases on water and gas ignited the riots.
"In the last few months there has been growing anger over this non-political issue," said Paul Quinn-Judge, the central Asia project director of the International Crisis Group. "The government thought they could get away with it. Most people agreed but in the last few weeks we have seen several rumblings in the secondary towns and cities across Kyrgyzstan. There has also been a crisis inside government. Now it has all come together in one giant wreck."
According to Quinn-Judge, Kyrgyzstan was facing several power struggles – between the government and opposition but also inside Bakiyev's family-run regime. "It's not a happy family. They don't get on," he said. "Some of them are upset that one of them is creaming off large parts of the economy."
The key question was whether Bakiyev – who came to power in 2005 after the pro-reform Tulip Revolution – was prepared to use force to crush the revolt, he said.
Kyrgyz prime minister Daniyar Usenov condemned the opposition rallies, and said about 100 people were injured in the violence in Talas. "They are bandits, not an opposition movement," he said today. "This kind of thing cannot be called opposition."
Bishkek residents said internet access had been blocked in households around the city and that the main road between Talas and Bishkek had been cordoned off by police.
Kyrgyzstan was once the most progressive country in central Asia – a relative comparison given the region is run by democracy-averse presidents. In recent years it has moved towards authoritarianism. There has been increasing pressure on the media and fabricated cases against opposition leaders.
Recently Bakiyev mused that Krygzstan needed to emulate Russia's authoritarian model, under Vladimir Putin
Russia, the main regional power, called for restraint. "We have consistently urged that all disagreements – political, economic and social – are resolved by the existing Kyrgyz democratic procedures without the use of force and without harm to the citizens of Kyrgyzstan," the deputy foreign minister, Grigory Karasin, said according to Interfax news agency.
Last week, the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon visited Bishkek and called on the government to do more to protect human rights. The UN said yesterday that Ban was concerned at events in Talas and urged all parties to show restraint.
