MOSCOW — A senior government official in Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday that authorities were prepared to use force against opposition leaders who have taken control of key southern cities, as riot police in the capital broke up protests demanding the resignation of President Askar A. Akayev.
Signaling a significant change in tone from Akayev's pledge a day earlier that he would not declare a state of emergency, the newly appointed interior minister said that harsh measures could be used against lawbreakers in the week-old crisis that erupted in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections.
"If we allow a split of the country or a civil war, history will not pardon us for it," Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev said. "The law allows law enforcement agencies to use physical force, special means and authorized weapons to maintain constitutional order," he said.
Breaking the relative calm that had prevailed in the capital in contrast to the turmoil in the south, an estimated 2,300 pro-democracy protesters marched through Bishkek in two demonstrations Wednesday. Riot police used truncheons and shields and arrested more than 200 demonstrators.
"All of this indicates that the leadership of Kyrgyzstan is more and more leaning towards hard-line policies in dealing with the current crisis.... It has begun to turn towards a forcible scenario," said Orozbek Moldaliev, head of the SEDEP Research Center in Bishkek.
The former Soviet republic has been rocked by protests since the second round of parliamentary elections March 13. Opposition parties, which have set up independent governing councils in the southern towns of Osh and Jalal-Abad, have alleged that the campaign and balloting were heavily skewed toward Akayev supporters.
Akayev first came to power in 1990 and was reelected by the legislature after independence in 1991. He earned a reputation as a reformer, but since has concentrated his power as the mountainous Central Asian nation has slid further into poverty. Under term limits, he is legally obligated to step down in October, but opponents fear that his potent new majority in parliament may enable him to amend the constitution and remain in office.
Akayev has warned that the political crisis could unleash dormant ethnic hostilities and plunge the nation into civil war. His spokesman railed against the disorder in the south. "As of now, no one has control over the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad besides criminal forces who run the show there," Abdil Segizbayev said in a telephone interview.
