BISHKEK - Unrest intensified Wednesday in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan as protestors occupied the supreme court building, some threatening to set themselves alight, as the leadership that replaced ousted president Askar Akayev struggled to assert itself.
Several hundred protestors broke through a cordon at the supreme court in the capital Bishkek to join 20 others who have held a week-long sit-in.
They hung yellow banners from the building with slogans such as "tulip revolution" and "out with Akayev's henchmen."
"Tomorrow we will set ourselves on fire publicly if parliament does not sack the whole leadership of the supreme court," said one of a number of female protestors, Zynet Abdiyeva. "We have already prepared canisters of petrol."
"The situation inside the building is currently absolutely quiet -- we have sealed the offices and appointed a guard on each floor," protest leader Bulat Kachkynov said.
"We won't let anyone in, not even the cleaners, until the supreme court's leadership has resigned," Kachkynov said.
Elswhere around 200 more protestors tried to get into the parliament building, breaking a hole in its door. Others gathered outside the national security service's headquarters, said an AFP reporter who witnessed the events.
The somewhat uncoordinated protestors are mostly supporters of five candidates disqualified by the courts from standing or stripped of victory at parliamentary polls this spring that sparked a wave of protests, climaxing in Akayev's March 24 ouster.
On Monday the supreme court's chairman, Kurmanbek Osmonov, tendered his resignation, but it has yet to be accepted by parliament.
The protests reflect the limited reach of the new leadership of interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, which has left many top officials from the Akayev era in place and has yet to fully resolve the mess left by the February and March polls.
Bakiyev has yet to make clear his position on the protests.
A separate protest at the offices of the national security service aimed to demand freedom for two men arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir and illegal weapons possession.
Elsewhere, thousands of impoverished landless people have occupied land around the capital that they say they will build on, many of them denouncing the new leaders.
Residents of neighbouring Tajikistan have also been settling on Kyrgyz land close to the countries' border, parliament deputies have said.
On Wednesday, Deputy Interior Minister Abdylda Suranchiyev, an Akayev-appointed official, acknowledged that the police were struggling to contain the situation.
"Our personnel it seems are now in a state of siege in connection with the unceasing protest actions in the country," Suranchiyev told a parliament commission.
Amid heightened fears about security, police arrested four men carrying eight hand grenades with them in a taxi in the capital Bishkek on Tuesday night, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
Instability looks likely to continue up to presidential polls set for July 10, which Bakiyev has promised will be free and fair, analysts said.
"It's partly that protestors supporting some of these deputies are no longer under the control of the deputies," David Lewis, an analyst with Crisis Group, a security think-tank, said.
"People involved in these events got a taste for protest and that's scary for everyone because the old days when you could manipulate the masses are gone."
04/27/2005 15:41 GMT