Kyrgyz opposition figure claims control a day after president ousted in massive protests
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA

AP Worldstream
Mar 25, 2005

Kyrgyzstan’s interim prime minister, acting to fill a power vacuum
after the ouster of the president, named four acting key ministers
and a chief prosecutor Friday, the speaker of parliament’s upper
house said.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev chose mostly prominent opposition figures for the
posts of foreign, defense and finance ministers and chief prosecutor.
For the job of acting interior minister he picked a former chief
prosecutor who had been fired by deposed President Askar Akayev on
Wednesday, speaker shenbai Kadyrbekov.

By appointing them as acting ministers Bakiyev avoids the need to
have them approved by parliament’s upper house.

The opposition worked quickly in an effort to restore order a day
after protesters drove Akayev’s government from power, unleashing
widespread looting.

The new leadership faced an immediate challenge in halting vandalism
and looting that left major stores in the capital, Bishkek, gutted
and many others damaged by rowdy youths who roamed the city overnight,
with few police to be seen.

The drama of the events, propelled by widespread anger over disputed
elections, were heightened by Akayev’s sudden flight. It was not yet
clear where Akayev was.

Bakiyev emerged from the Parliament building Friday and said he had
been named Kyrgyzstan’s acting leader.

“Freedom has finally come to us,” Bakiyev told a crowd in the central
square of the capital, Bishkek.

Bakiyev’s appointment as acting president was endorsed by a
newly restored parliament of lawmakers who held seats before the
elections, which fueled protests against longtime leader Akayev and
his government.

The move set Bakiyev squarely at the helm of the leadership emerging
from the fragmented former opposition.

Kyrgyzstan became the third former Soviet republic over the past 18
months _ after Georgia and Ukraine _ to see popular protests bring
down long-entrenched leaders widely accused of corruption.

Another opposition figure, Felix Kulov, who was released from prison
during Thursday’s turmoil and appointed head of law enforcement,
said Akayev had fled to a foreign country after being turned away by
Russia. The Russian news agency Interfax said Akayev and his family
were in neighboring Kazakhstan.

“He had a chance to resign, but he fled,” Kulov said in televised
comments. “He wanted to go Russia, but the Russians didn’t accept him.”

Bakiyev told the crowd on the square that Akayev was “not on the
territory of the republic. I don’t know where he is.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said, however, that the Kremlin
wouldn’t object if Akayev wants to go to Russia. Russia’s Foreign
Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Friday that Moscow doesn’t
know where Akayev is.

Putin, speaking during a visit to Armenia on Friday, lamented the
violence and looting in Kyrgyzstan, saying that “it’s unfortunate that
yet again in the post-Soviet space, political problems in a country are
resolved illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and human victims.”

He urged the Kyrgyz opposition to quickly restore order, and praised
the Kyrgyz opposition leaders for helping develop bilateral ties
during their earlier work in the government.

Kyrgyz lawmakers met early Friday to consider the country’s new
leadership but were interrupted by youths throwing stones at the
Parliament building. Bakiyev then emerged and told about 1,000
demonstrators in the central square that he had been appointed “acting
prime minister and acting president” and would seek to form a Cabinet.

The crowd shouted his name in support.

Bakiyev urged opposition supporters not to allow looting, and
stressed that the popular opposition figure Kulov would coordinate
law enforcement. Bakiyev proposed that former Foreign Minister
Roza Otunbayeva be named the country’s top diplomat, and said,
“All intergovernmental agreements will remain in full force and are
in full effect.”

Bakiyev said he would fight corruption _ a major complaint against
Akayev’s regime _ and the clan mentality that roughly splits the
country between north and south.

“I will not allow the division of the people into north and south,”
he said. “We are a united nation.”

The square was the scene of swift political change Thursday, when
opposition protesters seized control of the presidential and government
headquarters. The takeover followed weeks of protests over disputed
parliamentary elections the opposition said were aimed at keeping
Akayev in power.

The Red Cross reported dozens injured in the turmoil Thursday, while
lawmaker Temir Sariyev said three people had been killed and about
100 injured overnight.

On Friday, a shopping center on the main avenue stood mostly destroyed
by fire and strewn with wreckage that spread into the street, as smoke
hung in the air. At another shop gutted by fire, a few elderly people
and children picked through what was left after looting overnight. Cars
were picked clean, their windows and tires gone.

The 60-year-old Akayev had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained
independence in the Soviet collapse.

The takeover of government buildings in Bishkek followed similar
seizures by opposition activists in the country’s impoverished south.
The protests began even before the first round of parliamentary
elections Feb. 27 and swelled after March 13 run-offs that the
opposition said were seriously flawed.

The fractious opposition unified around calls for more democracy,
an end to poverty and corruption, and a desire to oust Akayev. There
was no sign the new leadership would change policy toward the West
or Russia. Unlike the revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, foreign
policy has not been an issue.

Both the United States and Russia have military bases near Bishkek.

Kyrgyzstan has been a conduit for drugs and a potential hotbed
of Islamic extremism. There was no indication, however, that the
opposition would be more amenable to Islamic fundamentalist influence
than Akayev’s government has been.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress