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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-03-24

Freedom's Breaking Out All Over

Much like the waters when they first break through the dam.

Protesters alleging corruption, repression and electoral fraud forced the longtime president of this central Asian country to flee his palace on Thursday, the third time a government of a former Soviet republic has been toppled in a popular uprising in a year and a half.

President Askar Akayev and his family fled Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, after crowds at a large opposition rally seized control of the presidential palace and began looting it. Kyrgyzstan's Parliament elected a former opposition lawmaker, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, as the country's interim president. It was unclear whether the decision was legally binding, in part because of uncertainty over whether Mr. Akayev, whose whereabouts were unknown, had stepped down.

While I'm as much in favor of free and fair elections as the next guy, this is starting to be a pattern. At what point does an uprising become a coup? And why is it all happening in the former Soviet Union? Never mind--I know the answer to that.
Posted by: Michael / 3/24/2005 11:37:00 PM

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