The government of Kyrgyzstan has fallen! According to reports this morning President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who opened fire on his own people, has fled. The government has been dissolved and opposition forces have begun to assume power. Yesterday we received a report from a comrade in Russia, which gives a graphic account of these events.

Five years ago Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power in Kyrgyzstan on the back of the so-called Tulip Revolution, only to slavishly follow the dictates of imperialism and enrich himself and his entourage at the expense of the working people. Now the workers and poor have had enough and have risen up once more. Here Isa Al-Jaza'iri looks at the background to the tumultuous events taking place.

The coverage of last week’s events in Kyrgyzstan in the western media is, as one might expect, superficial and misleading. There is no attempt to lay bare what interests are involved, and what the role of the big powers is. Suddenly, without any explanation, Kyrgyzstan’s “tulip revolution” joins Georgia’s “rose revolution” and Ukraine’s orange one. The reader is invited to take solace from the bare assertion that democracy always triumphs in the end, Good defeats Bad, Light over Darkness and so on. In other words, we have no serious explanation of what is happening.