General Ismail Isakov, chairman of the Kyrgyz lower house\'s State Security Committee, has told his parliamentary colleagues that, with one exception, the parliamentarians who discovered listening devices in their offices were all oppositionists from southern Kyrgyzstan. In Isakov\'s interpretation, the devices were planted on the instruction of President Aksar Akaev\'s closest supporters -- all northerners – in order to destroy their political opponents from the south. Isakov, a former deputy defense minister, also called on parliament to cut the National Security Service\'s budget by half on the grounds that taxpayers\' money should not be used to spy on their elected representatives. Anti-Akaev forces in parliament are calling on the president to resign for failing in his duty as protector of the constitution. Prominent opposition parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov noted that a similar bugging scandal occurred in 2000 and was used by the authorities to discredit former National Security Service chief Feliks Kulov, who had joined the opposition. (Deutsche Welle)