KYRGYZSTAN: Riot police in Kyrgyzstan continued a stand-off yesterday with opposition supporters who are holding captive a regional governor accused of fraud in Sunday's elections.
The stand-off entered its third day with more than 3,000 opposition supporters barricaded inside the regional government headquarters in Talas, 250 miles west of the capital, Bishkek.
Meanwhile, opposition supporters, who have accused the government of manipulating the results of Sunday's poll, are promising fresh demonstrations in Bishkek after massing there on Tuesday. In an echo of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" last December, they accuse the president, Askar Akayev, of rigging Sunday's second round of parliamentary elections.
The results gave a hefty majority to Mr Akayev's supporters, reckoned to have about two-thirds of the new parliament. But the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, which monitored the elections, said that the voting failed to meet democratic standards.
The protests are being organised by the People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan, whose leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a former prime minister, failed to win a seat in parliament on Sunday.
Opposition groups say that the government manipulated the media, bought votes, rigged the counting and disqualified popular candidates from standing.
One of those disqualified, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, told the Moscow Times that it was the dirtiest election he had ever seen. Among new MPs in the 75-seat parliament are the president's son and daughter, both in parties supporting their father.
Mr Akayev has been president since 1990 and he is thought to want a two-thirds majority in parliament in order to overturn a constitutional law which forbids him from standing again for the presidency.
Kyrgyzstan is the smallest of a clutch of Central Asian states which gained independence when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Every one of these states has been criticised by human rights groups for failure to respect their democratic constitutions.
But Kyrgyzstan is unique in that it is a springboard for both American and Russian troops. Moscow and Washington have air bases 20 miles apart outside the capital. America uses its base to supply units in Asia and Afghanistan, while Russia supports forces guarding against Islamic militants in surrounding republics. Neither power is likely to welcome the sort of disturbances which left them bruised and divided in Ukraine.