Kyrgyzstan Protesters Hold Towns, Talks Awaited

[struggle4progress]

Mar 21, 2005 — By Michael Steen

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (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 criticized 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. <snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=601644