Washington Times / UPI
March 28 2005

UPI hears…

Those pesky democratic demonstrators scampering around Kyrgyzstan’s
capital, Bishkek, have disrupted joint military exercises between
Russia and several ex-Soviet republics, which were due to take place
in Kyrgyzstan next week. The exercises accordingly have been
postponed for a week to April 2 and moved to neighboring Tajikistan.
The exercises were due to take place on March 29 in Kyrgyzstan
between the members of a collective security cooperation treaty that
was signed in 1992 by Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Unlike previous revolutions in other
former Soviet states, the Kyrgyz revolution was primarily economic,
with protestors furious about the Akayev’s administration inability
to improve the national economy. According to official statistics, 82
percent of Kyrgyz families live below the poverty line, and nearly 40
percent of the country’s 5 million inhabitants subsist on less than
$3 per month.