Kyrgyzstan president says protests staged

MOSCOW – President Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan reacted defiantly Tuesday to anti-government protests that have swept the south of the Central Asian republic, charging in a speech to parliament that the “opposition is directed and funded from the outside.”

He did not name the alleged foreign backers. But analysts said Akayev was voicing widespread suspicion among governments in the former Soviet republics that the recent popular revolts in Ukraine, Georgia and now Kyrgyzstan stem from Western, particularly U.S., efforts to install friendly leaders under the guise of building democracy.

“The events in Kyrgyzstan are not isolated from any of the so-called color revolutions that have been staged in other … countries over the last 18 months,” Akayev said in a reference to the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia and last year’s Orange Revolution in Ukraine. “Such revolutions, which are nothing more than coups, go beyond the framework of the law.”

U.S. and European officials have dismissed such charges, saying they have provided funding to nongovernmental organizations and in support of the elections in countries in the region but have not backed particular candidates or parties.

On Sunday and Monday, thousands of protesters, some armed with molotov cocktails and clubs, seized government buildings in Osh, the country’s second-largest city, and Jalal-Abad, as well as some smaller towns. Opposition leaders claimed they restored order Tuesday in Osh and initiated joint patrols by their supporters and police.

In his speech, the president repeated declarations that he would not use violence to put down the protests.

In a rally in the north, 2,000 people gathered in the town of Talas late Monday to demand the “creation of a government of people’s trust,” according to news reports. Some protesters pitched tents in the central square in a nod to the tent city erected last year in Independence Square in Kiev.