Riot police violently broke up an anti-government protest in Kyrgyztan today hours after Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev named a hard-liner to take charge of security affairs.
Akayev, who has said he would not to resort to a massive use of force against demonstrators, named the head of police in the capital Bishkek as new interior minister to deal with protests trying to force him from office and which are dividing the mountainous Central Asian country.
A short time later, riot police moved in and broke up an anti-Akayev demonstration of about 200 people in the capital.
"Akayev is strengthening his grip on power by putting hard-liners in these posts," said Edil Baisalov, who heads the independent Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society.
Reuters correspondent Dmitry Solovyov said police beat demonstrators and drove several away in buses. "It was very brief and very violent," he said.
The opposition, which has taken control of two major towns in Kyrgyzstan's poor south which saw bloody ethnic clashes in the dying days of Soviet rule, said Akayev's cabinet changes were meaningless.
Akayev appointed Keneshbek Dushebayev as new interior minister and sacked his prosecutor general.
"These personnel changes do not placate us, because the most important thing for us is the rapid departure of Akayev. We will not stop until he leaves," said Topchubek Turgunaliyev, a member of the opposition's coordinating council.
"(They) are the last breath of the Akayev regime ... They could spill blood and at the cost of spilled blood save Akayev's regime."
Analysts warned the violence could spiral out of control in Kyrgyzstan which borders China and lies in an energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Both powers have military bases outside the capital.
A government spokesman in the capital said Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev might travel south to Kyrgyzstan's second city, Osh, tomorrow to meet opposition protesters.