When I woke up this morning, this was one of the first headlines that I saw on my Windows Dashboard MSNBC News Ticker: "Kyrgyz Opposition: We've Taken Over." Yesterday while we were all in classes and going about our daily lives, the people in one of the former Eastern Bloc " 'stan" countries decided to over thrown their government. Last night, through the internet tool StumbleUpon, I came across raw uploaded Youtube footage of riots in the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishek. The riots were in repsonse to increasing disatisfaction of the economic sink hole that the country is in the the governments failure to resolve the issue. So it basically all hit the fan yesterday when a few Kyrgyzs said, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."
The footage that I viewed consisted of this: the inevitable Cops With Riot Shields, rocks being thrown at said cops, the same cops being chased down and beaten with their own riot shields and batons, cars with broken windows that may or may not be flipped over, burning or both. You're probably saying to yourself, sure this what you might expect when viewing riot footage in another country, but what stood out to me was the fact that there was actual live firearms fire between both protesters and police. As the riots progressed and the mobs increased in strength, people started taking weapons and ammuntion from police and security forces. This included less-lethal weaponry such as tear gas launchers as well as assualt rifles and RPGs. Casualties were inflicted on both sides, casualties that include deaths.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I am completely amazed that in this day and age we can witness history as it happens. We can watch a revolution from the safety of our own homes as all hell breaks looses in a previously unknown country. I'm kind of glad that I could bear witness to something few people outside of Kyrgzstan know about.
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