Kyrgyzstan: 1,500 Attend Anti-Government Rally

An anti-government protest in Kyrgyzstan on November 18 drew a crowd of about 1,500. Organizers asserted that in the days leading up to the rally, authorities used violence and intimidation in an attempt to foil the event.

Participants at the rally -- held in the provincial city of Talas -- expressed dissatisfaction with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's administration, with some calling for his resignation. The country now finds itself in an economic crisis, with some cabinet officials warning of shortages of electricity and heating. [For additional information see related EurasiaNet story].

Prior to the start of the protest, Azimbek Beknazarov -- a prominent opposition figure, and one of the event organizers -- alleged that authorities had employed a variety of dirty tricks against opposition activists, the Interfax news agency reported.

On the night of November 15, the car of one activist, Roza Nurmatova, was torched by unknown assailants, Beknazarov noted. "There was nobody in the car when the fire was set, and there are no victims," he said, adding that on the next night "a group of young people came to a house where rights activist Topchubek Turgunaliyev was. He is an active member of the movement. They asked him to go outside and demanded that he leave Talas before 10 am local time on November 17."

Beknazarov said he believes "the unknown people who set fire to the car and those who approached Turgunaliyev acted with the authorities' consent."

However, a spokesman for the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry, Bakyt Seitov, told Interfax that authorities took no action to deter the rally.