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