On Thursday evening, there was still gun fire and periodic gun battles could be heard. I heard it from my flat, from a region called ‘Alamadinsky.’ This region is about one kilometre from my home. I got home at dusk and was warned by a few people to get off the streets as it would become dangerous.
From Wednesday, it felt like there was no law and order, and things felt very uncertain and unpredictable. I was thinking ‘when the looters go home to their villages, everything will be better.’ By Friday most shops were closed, though public transport ran randomly and occasionally police were on the streets, as were groups of people.
Parliament had been secured by security guards, who looked as though they were just teenagers. Friday was a National Day of mourning for those killed in the demonstrations. Friday night was calmer.
It’s a limbo period now, while everyone waits to see what the Opposition will do. It’s been announced that schools would open again on Monday, so it appeared normality would resume to some degree after the weekend, although some people went back to work on Friday.
On the day of mourning, everyone was praying in the main Square, flowers were placed over the blood stains on the streets and photos of the dead were placed on the burnt gates of the White House.
The opposition set up a security office in the sports stadium and people could sign up to become part of ‘controlled security groups,’ made up of men patrolling the street so as to fight off looters. The opposition at this point seem to be doing what’s necessary to restore order.
There were people on TV on Friday night, urging people to get on with their lives and vowing to unite and protect their towns and cities against looters. The opposition declared it would give one million Som ($22,000) to each family who lost someone during the fighting. There were funerals countrywide on Saturday, with one joint funeral for 15 victims. Kyrgyz flags were draped over their coffins and there were other private funerals.
The new leader of the interim government is a woman. In a Muslim country, where men are traditionally shepherds and women do most of the work in the home, this feels like a positive change.’
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Rob
That’s a terrific report. The palace is overrun and angry looters help themselves to stuff, but less understandable is when people take to the streets and under the banner of “revolutionary change” start looting other people’s stuff. “A poor people’s revolution”, perhaps it is — let’s hope that a viable government is quickly set up and improvements are started soon, to make all the people’s lives easier.