Disabled Take Over House of Maxim Bakiyev

The morning after Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled Bishkek, a handful of civil society organizations, including the Kyrgyz Republic Society of Disabled Persons and the Union of Young Disabled of Chui Oblast, seized control of the property belonging to the son of the ousted president, Maxim Bakiyev. Maxim’s compound, once the subject of folkloric tales of decadence, has become home to a group of disabled squatters. They harbor aspirations of turning the property into a shelter and work center. A spray-painted sign across the makeshift gate reads, "Disabled Against Marauding."