Numerous news agencies have reported that three Kyrgyz protestors are taking the
desperate act of self-immolation should the government refuse to release arrested
opposition leader, Feliks Kulov, the chairman of Ar-Namys party and declare invalid the
results of the February-March parliamentary elections. Since March 14, two days after the
second round of elections were declared unfair by the OSCE and the other monitoring
organization in the Kara-Buura district in Kyrgyzstan’s Talas region, protestors set
out for Bishkek in quest of justice. The protestors have frequently faced arrest and have
been moved to the city's Maksim Gorky Square, which is hidden by huge buildings away from
view. The square itself looks like an isolated island. People pass by and don’t pay
attention to the sunburned, poorly dressed picketers with their posters placed around the
square. Now only 13 of the protestors remain, living in dirty tents and sleeping on old
shabby mattresses on the cold ground. Another fifty or more come during the day to stay
with their friends or relatives and lend encouragement and support.

"We don’t have any money now and none of the organizations support us",
says one of the protestors a 40-year old Kyrgyz who speaks Russian with a strong Kyrgyz
accent like most villagers in Kyrgyzstan.. Over 60 villages are represented in the
protest. The protestors say that people living in the villages are ready even for war. An
angry elderly man says "If Akayev runs for the third term, or something happens to
us, there will be a war. People are fed up with his politics." People in the capital
are largely unaware that in the villages, the living conditions are dramatically worse
than in Bishkek, with no money to harvest crops, no money to buy technical equipment. The
villagers live below the poverty level, many in destitution. There are no cattle in the
collective farms and the factories are bankrupt. Protestors’ families in Talas region
have been persecuted and the militia threatens them with fines because a person in their
family supports Feliks Kulov. Protestors compare the situation to Stalinist times when
so-called "enemies of people" and their families were destroyed or persecuted.

Picketers are not allowed to leave the square. One protestor explained, "Two days
ago there was an important meeting two blocks from here and a couple of militia came here
and threaten to jail us if we left the square. Is this fair? I cannot go where I want to
go but Akayev can. We have the same law for everyone." The protestors’ message
is simple: "We will stay here until something changes. We are not afraid and have
nothing to lose. Somebody has to sit here and demand justice for the future of our
children. We don’t want violence. But Akayev is the one who causes problems. Akayev
fed us with democracy but after the elections that looked more like war with the firing of
guns and the beating of people, we see that Kyrgyzstan is not what we want it to be. Three
of us are ready to burn ourselves in the name of justice." An ethnic Kyrgyz woman
tells anyone who comes by and is willing to listen.

When picketers announced that they would burn themselves, the government did not react.
Bolot Januzakov, Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary, came to talk to the protestors but
there was no agreement reached because he simply asked them to stop protesting. President
Akayev did not come to show any concern and instead has chosen to ignore the protestors.
The protestors still hope that Akayev will confess his errors and resign from office
peacefully. However, his recent actions suggest that he will run for the presidency again.
He made Russian an official language to satisfy the Russian population of Kyrgyzstan. Then
he had Iskhak Razzakov, the first Prime Minister, exhumed in Moscow, and reburied in
Kazakhstan, a move that will help him to gain respect of Osh region. The protestors still
have hope after nearly three months of desperate picketing. Even though every two weeks
the protestors attempt to hold a march or a demonstration, the militia stops it
immediately and sends the protestors back to their remote square. As one old villager put
it, "Our last hope is the people of Kyrgyzstan. We are waiting for Akayev’s
decision."

Anna Kirey, American University-Kyrgyzstan student, department of Journalism