Kyrgyzstan protesters hold towns, talks awaited Source: Reuters
By Michael Steen OSH, Kyrgyzstan, March 22 (Reuters) - Opposition protesters held two southern Kyrgyzstan towns on Tuesday, as they maintained pressure on President Askar Akayev who has pledged to hold talks to defuse the crisis. The anti-Akayev protests in Kyrgyzstan followed revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia as the latest outburst of anger against internationally criticised elections in an ex-Soviet state, and have forced the veteran leader onto the defensive. On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters armed with petrol bombs and sticks drove police out of Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second city, having gained the nearby town of Jalal Abad on Sunday. By evening the low-rise town was calm. People, many wearing traditional white Kyrgyz hats, went about their business along the dusty streets but the normally omnipresent police were gone. Akayev's spokesman pledged on Monday to hold talks with the protesters in a bid to find common ground. Akayev earlier warned that attempts to copy Kiev's "Orange Revolution" could lead to civil war in the ethnically divided Central Asian state. "The most important thing right now is to let people calm down, assess what has happened and then start negotiations with them about their demands," spokesman Abdil Segizbayev said. Mass protests against parliamentary polls that routed the opposition and were criticised by international observers have been confined to the south, which has an ethnic Uzbek minority and is poorer than northern regions around the capital Bishkek. But opposition activists called a demonstration for Tuesday afternoon in Bishkek, in a protest that threatened to clash with government efforts to rally supporters. "I think people have to oppose this mob," said Osmanakun Ibraimov, a state secretary, in an appeal for government supporters to take to the streets. It was not clear when talks between the government and opposition could take place, but Akayev -- who cancelled a planned speech on Monday but was shown on television meeting the Election Committee and Supreme Court heads -- ordered a review of the election results disputed by the protesters. The opposition has feared he could use his majority in parliament to change the law and extend his 14-year hold on power beyond the legal maximum, although he has said he intends to step down as the constitution demands in October. In contrast to Ukraine and Georgia, where Russia backed the unpopular incumbents, former imperial power Moscow has stood back from the unrest in Kyrgyzstan. Russia and the United States have air bases near Bishkek. (Additional reporting by Oleg Dzyubenko in Bishkek)
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SKopp''Thousands of protesters seized control of a second city in Kyrgyzstan as President Askar Akayev ordered a probe into allegations that the elections were seriously flawed on Monday.

“The south of the country is under the control of the people. Now we should concentrate on the capital of Bishkek,” said former ambassador to Britain and opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva to ''The Times''. “We have only one demand — that Akayev should resign.”

President Akayev ordered the Central Election Commission and Supreme Court to begin an investigation into allegations that sparked the protests. According to his office, he ordered them "to pay particular attention to those districts where election results provoked extreme public reaction ... and tell people openly who is right and who is wrong."

About 1,000 protesters armed with flammable liquid and clubs seized the governor's building in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city. The crowd of protesters, which swelled to 2,000, then seized the regional police and security stations of the city located 300 kilometres south of Bishkek.

"This is a new day in our history," said an opposition official named Omurbek Tekebayev. He also said the opposition would hold elections for alternative executive bodies throughout the country, and that they plan to call the presidential election, which is scheduled for October of 2005, within three months.

According to Tekebayev, the deputy regional police chief has joined the opposition and will be in charge of police under the new regional government.

Elsewhere in the country, at least 17,000 people continued to protest the alleged electoral fraud.

Protesters also seized control of the southern city of Jalal-Abad on Sunday.