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Reports from Bishkek
30/3/05: Thanks to Mike Jempson of Mediawise, we have received the following eye-witness reports from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyztan.
They were written by a young Kyrgyz journalist, Bektour Sydykov, who works for the Children's Media Centre in Bishkek.24/03
It is still a shock for me, but it has happened, and Askar Akayev is not a president of the Kyrgyz Republic anymore.
I didn't take part in today's demonstration at the Ala-Too square. I still don't know whether I was right or not, when I decided to leave the centre of the city with my younger sister this morning.
Anyway, I'm glad that it has happened, although our country will face some new problems. Many people still don't trust the Bishkek militia, and there are actually no people who can control the public order at the moment.
Groups of offenders are robbing the Bishkek shops in the centre of the city right now. The situation is still a bit dangerous there, but there are some young activists, who are trying to stop these robbers from doing that. One of my close friends is among these activists, and I will ask him to tell you more about what was going on today in the evening after the revolution had happened.
The new presidential elections will soon be held, as well as the parliament elections. The KTR state TV channel is controlled by the revolutioners. It has been having a live broadcast from the KTR studio since 4 o'clock, and many of the revolutioners has had a chance to speak to the population through the main television channel.
I have been near the central square in the morning. I saw how riot participants started gathering near the American University in Central Asia, which is located next to the Parliament building. And what really surprised me - I was not so far from the central square when revolutioners started fighting the police, but it was absolutely quite and calm just a couple of blocks from there! :)
I will try to deliver any information about forthcoming changes in Kyrgyzstan.
Best regards,
Bektour Sydykov
Children's Media Centre26/03
Here is the summary of what has been happening in Bishkek since the government house was captured by the opposition forces, and Akayev's regime came to its end.
The first night after the revolution was terrible. I hadn't ever been so afraid - the groups of looters were crashing the shops in the centre of the city. In the early hours of the morning two huge supermarkets - "Beta Stores" and "Go-In" - were in flames. The fire was seen from all high buildings in the centre of the city.
In the morning of the 25th of March the Bishkek citizens saw the centre of their city full of garbage, broken glass and in several places even old shoes of some looters were left on the sidewalks - they left them to wear the new ones that they had just stolen.
A lot of shoe boxes were lying near the Children's Media Centre building, where I do work. Some looters chose the front entrance of the media centre to change the clothes.
The whole Friday afternoon people were cleaning the shops and carrying out huge amount of garbage that was left after the looters.
Friday evening was also very nervous. A bunch of looters robbed the gun shop, and went to ZUM - the only supermarket in Bishkek that had not been robbed during the first night (because it had been defended by the ZUM staff and by volunteers). The militia forces were prepared for such a scenario, and they had been waiting those looters near ZUM. Looters were the first who started shooting, and it caused a massive shoot-out between the militia and looters.
Life in the centre of Bishkek stopped at 6 o'clock in the evening. Militia and looters were shooting at each other not only near ZUM - people living on Moskovskaya str., on Ibraimova str., on Kievskaya str. and many other central streets of Bishkek were frightened by the sound of shooting guns.
The biggest fight between the militia and looters happened under the railroad bridge on the Sovetskaya str., the main street of Bishkek.
A big group of looters met the militia forces there at 7 o'clock. There were about seven militia cars. Looters started running away in different directions, and many of them hid somewhere in the yards of Bishkek houses all along Sovetskaya street. But along with that, dozens of looters were caught by the militia and sent to the prison.
By 10 o'clock in the evening the situation became stable. The militia cars were driving throughout the city, and there were no more cases of looting.
It was also calm today. At the moment, I'm sitting in my apartment and help some websites and the "Max" radio station with updating the information about the situatuon in the city, as far as some of my friends are working for the volunteer forces who help the militia, and they deliver me the latest information by the phone.
Best wishes,
Bektour Sydykov
Children's Media Centre
Last modified: Wednesday, March 30, 2005
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Previous stories
International
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