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Kyrgyz Riot Police Clash With Protesters
Kyrgyz Riot Police Clash With Protesters; President Fires Interior Minister, Prosecutor-General
Kyrgyz opposition protesters rally in Jalal-Abad some 600 km ( about 370 miles ) southeast from Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, Wednesday, March 23, 2005. Kyrgyz opposition activists this week took control of the regional administrations in Osh and Jalal-Abad, the seats of two of the Central Asian nation's seven administrative regions. (AP Photo/ Ivan Sekretarev)
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan Mar 23, 2005  Riot police broke up a small opposition rally in the center of the Kyrgyz capital on Wednesday, signaling the government's determination to keep the protests over alleged election fraud that have thrown much of the south under opposition control from spreading north.
The show of force came hours after President Askar Akayev fired the interior minister and chief prosecutor over the unrest in southern Kyrgyzstan, where opposition protesters have seized control of several key government buildings and kept up pressure on the president to resign.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev was planning to visit the southern city of Osh to seek negotiations, Akayev spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev said, but he stressed there would be no talks with "criminal groups that are controlling the situation there."
In the capital, Bishkek, some 200 riot police encircled groups of protesters who were calling for Akayev's ouster, 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.
Among those detained were an organizer, Bolotbek Maripov of an opposition youth movement, and Edil Baisalov, head of the Coalition of Civic Groups for Democratic and Civil Society, according to protesters.
Kyrgyz politics is heavily clan-based, and Akayev has strong support in his native north. If the fractured opposition can carry its protests north across the mountain range bisecting the country and toward the capital, Bishkek, tensions could explode in a strategically important country where both the United States and Russia have military bases.
The protests began even before the first round of parliamentary elections on Feb. 27 and swelled after March 13 run-offs that the opposition and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said were seriously flawed. Protesters this week seized control of government buildings in two of Kyrgyzstan's seven regional capitals and a number of smaller locales.
SKopp''About 200 riot police violently broke up a peaceful, anti-Akayev protest of some 300 to 400 people and arrested 20 to 30 protesters in the capital city of Bishkek on Wednesday, just hours after President Askar Akayev appointed head of police in the city, Keneshbek Dushebayev, as new interior minister.

"Our primary task is to restore constitutional order in all regions," the new interior minister said. "The law gives us every right to take action, including by using physical force... and firearms."

Akayev has previously stated that he would not resort to force to end protests.

Akayev dismissed Interior Minister Bakirdin Subanbekov and the general prosecutor, Myktybek Abdyldayev, earlier in the day. According to a spokesman for Akayev, Abdil Seghizbayev, the dismissals were for issues relating "to the events in the south and their poor work on preventing those events."

Seghizbayev stated that Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev would visit the southern city of Osh for negotiations on Thursday, but said there would not be talks with "criminal groups that are controlling the situation there."
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Elsewhere in Bishkek, approximately 10,000 people held a pro-government demonstration as riot police guarded key government buildings and main roads were sealed off. Several demonstrators said they had been coerced into taking part. 

"Our classes were cancelled and we were told to be here at the meeting in support of Akayev," a Kyrgyz National University student said.

"We are protesting instead of working now," said an employee of the interior ministry at the rally.

Neighboring Tajikistan also sealed border crossing points from Kyrgyzstan into the country because of the unrest.