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Tuesday, 30 April 2002
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION SAYS KYRGYZ PRESIDENT ORDERED POLICE TO OPEN FIRE ON DEMONSTRATORS
By empty (4/30/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights announced in Bishkek on 29 April that it has learned from unidentified \"reliable sources\" that it was President Askar Akaev who gave verbal orders to Interior Minister Temirbek Akmataliev that police should open fire on demonstrators in Djalalabad Oblast\'s Aksy Raion on 17 March, RFE/RL\'s Bishkek bureau reported. Akaev reportedly also ordered the Defense Ministry to be ready to use force against the demonstrators. But in the absence of Defense Minister Esen Topoev, who was in Moscow, Topoev\'s deputy demanded written instructions from the president, which the latter refused to issue.
The Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights announced in Bishkek on 29 April that it has learned from unidentified \"reliable sources\" that it was President Askar Akaev who gave verbal orders to Interior Minister Temirbek Akmataliev that police should open fire on demonstrators in Djalalabad Oblast\'s Aksy Raion on 17 March, RFE/RL\'s Bishkek bureau reported. Akaev reportedly also ordered the Defense Ministry to be ready to use force against the demonstrators. But in the absence of Defense Minister Esen Topoev, who was in Moscow, Topoev\'s deputy demanded written instructions from the president, which the latter refused to issue. (RFE/RL)