Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan's government yesterday denounced the opposition takeover of the country's second city of Osh as a "coup" and dismissed charges it rigged recent elections.
Meanwhile, the opposition held large rallies in Osh, which it has controlled since storming government buildings on Monday.
The police, evicted with petrol bombs from their Osh city centre headquarters, have switched sides.
With protests spreading and armed interior ministry troops being deployed on the streets of the capital, Bishkek, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe offered to mediate.
OSCE chairman Dimitrij Rupel said: "Violence can never be justified. Both the authorities of Kyrgyzstan and the opposition should begin a constructive dialogue."
But the OSCE may find mediation awkward. It was the OSCE report on irregularities in the March 13th elections that triggered the opposition protests in the first place.
The main opposition demand is simple: a full and public investigation of the vote-counting that saw the opposition win just six of the 75 seats in parliament.
For the moment, the government says No. President Askar Akayev yesterday ignored the demonstrations and formally opened parliament, cementing the official election results that give parties loyal to him a two-thirds majority.
Mr Akayev, who has ruled the country for 15 years, ruled out opposition calls for him to resign, saying, "Only the people and the parliament can decide that."
Meanwhile, his spokesman condemned the opposition, alleging it was led by mafia elements. "The 'third force' - criminal elements connected to the drug mafia - are in complete control of the situation in Osh and Jalal-Abad, and are struggling to gain power," said Abdil Segizbayev.
This mountainous country in the heart of Central Asia now appears split. As well as Osh, the opposition controls the nearby city of Jalal-Abad and four towns across the southern regions, traditionally the poorest part of the country.
All eyes are now on the capital, where riot police have been deployed to confront promised opposition protests later this week. The opposition yesterday signalled that it was in Osh to stay, setting up joint patrols with city police.
Throughout the day, patrols of policemen and youths wearing red armbands toured the city, urging citizens to remain calm.
The move echoes opposition tactics used in Ukraine's Orange Revolution in December, when opposition chiefs were at pains to ensure street protests did not spill over into riots.
Citizens' patrols were also in operation at the airport, amid fears that the government might try to fly troops into the city.
A government inquiry into the opposition's vote-rigging claims, announced on Monday, appears to have run into the sand, with the Central Election Commission chief, Sulaiman Imanbayev, announcing that results in 71 of the country's 75 electoral districts were final.
"The sooner the new parliament starts to work, the sooner the situation in the country will get stabilised," he said.
Russia condemned the protests, with its foreign ministry saying that "extremist forces" were trying to undermine the Kyrgyz government.