KYRGYZSTAN: JALAL-ABAD RALLIES RELEASE DETAINEES
RIA Novosti
BISHKEK, March 21 (RIA Novosti's Yulia Orlova) - Jalal-Abad rallies released today 58 inmates from the town police pre-trial prison, a Kyrgyz police officer said to Novosti.
Police have been ordered not to use weapons on public protesters under any circumstances.
As rallies attempted, yesterday, to seize town police premises by force, police officers made warning shots to keep the attackers at bay. The crowd hit back by setting the house on fire. Police bosses chose to flee with weaponry stocked up on the premises lest the rioters take the arsenal.
The rallies did not release the detainees yesterday-police managed to convince them there were only criminals in the jail.
"We have never recurred to weapons, and we shall not use them, come what may," State Secretary Osmonakun Ibraimov pledged again in a national television live cast.
"I had a talk with the Osh airport manager. He said people were out to raze it to the ground. The man was trying to coax them not to do it," added Mr. Ibraimov.
The rally-seized Osh airport has been paralyzed. No phone calls are answered. According to the latest eyewitness accounts, the rallies have not recurred to violence for now.
Things were quite different in the Jalal-Abad airport yesterday as demonstrators badly damaged a runway strip.
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