BISHKEK,
March 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Kyrgyzstan's
new leaders moved to tighten the grip on the ex-Soviet Central Asian
state Saturday, March 26, after two days of massive looting left up to
six people dead and many more injured.
“The
situation is fully under control. We do not need a curfew,” Felix
Kulov, an opposition leader put in charge of security, told reporters.
Kulov
has set up mobile police patrols and given orders for police to fire
in the air to disperse looters, said Reuters.
He
said that supporters of deposed president Askar Akayev were gathering
in various parts of the country but he disregarded them as a threat.
“The
situation is calm and can be controlled,” Kulov said.
Additional
police and army troops had been moving into the capital Bishkek
overnight, “to prevent lawless outrage,” interior ministry
officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
They
added that the national guard had already taken control of “all
major trade centers, embassies, banks and strategic sites.”
Gunshots
were heard in several areas of the capital, where businesses were
ransacked by looters who again took to the streets.
Outside
the headquarters of the interior ministry, police officers handed out
helmets, pistols and wooden truncheons to volunteers who signed up to
help restore order.
The
country’s new leaders -- a loosely united opposition that includes
many former government officials -- seized power when crowds of
protesters clashed with police and marched into Bishkek's White House,
the seat of government, on Thursday, March 24.
Kyrgyzstan,
a mainly Muslim country of 5 million bordering China, lies in an
energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Each
has a military base outside Bishkek.
No
Emergency
Kurmanbek
Bakiyev, a major opposition leader appointed by the parliament to head
the new regime, told Interfax news agency there were no immediate
plans to declare a state of emergency.
Authorities
said at least three people were reported killed and 173 others were
hospitalized as looters ran wild, stealing anything they could get
their hands on.
Other
estimates put the toll at six killed and some 400 injured over the
past two days.
“The
situation is complicated, but we are slowly starting to bring things
back to normal,” Bakiyev, a 55-year-old electrical engineer by
training, told Interfax over the phone.
He
said new presidential elections would be held in June, but did not
name a date.
After
earlier nominating Rosa Otunbayeva, another opposition figure, as his
foreign minister, he said he expected parliament this weekend will
approve his government which would serve until the election.
Courting
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Looter picks through rubble in a supermarket in central Bishkek. (Reuters)
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Bakiyev,
a former prime minister, sought to reassure Moscow and Washington that
the new leadership would not suddenly change tack.
He
pledged to continue Akayev's friendly policy toward Russia, Central
Asia's main power broker for years.
“Nobody
has any intention of changing these relations, we only aim to develop
them,” he said, adding that Bishkek needed Russian investment.
Bakiyev
also asserted he had no plans to review the status of strategic
Russian and US military bases on Kyrgyz soil.
Significantly,
Russia made it clear it was ready to work with the new Kyrgyz
leadership, which President Vladimir Putin said was attuned to
Moscow's interests.
Though
recognizing the regime change as “illegitimate”, he laid at least
some of the blame on Akayev and said Moscow hoped to establish
positive relations with the new leaders.
The
US said it supported “a peaceful outcome to the political future of
Kyrgyzstan”.
“We
will continue to work to support the efforts of the Kyrgyz people as
they endeavor to build a stable democracy,” State Department
spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.
But
the US State Department said there was no question yet of recognizing
the country's new leadership.
Rumors
Meanwhile,
Interfax said Akayev, who had ruled this impoverished mountainous
country since 1990, was in the Russian capital Moscow.
The
60-year-old deposed leader earlier insisted he had not resigned.
“The
rumors about my resignation are not true,” he said in an e-mail
message to a Kyrgyz news agency, his first public comments since
Thursday's protests swept aside his regime in what he called “an
unconstitutional coup d'etat.”
Akayev
confirmed he had left the country but insisted it was only temporary
“in order to avoid bloody excesses” and that he would return.
“The
attempt to rid me of presidential powers via an unconstitutional route
is a crime against the state,” he added.
“My
current stay outside the country is temporary.”
Kyrgyzstan
has become the third ex-Soviet state in two years, after Georgia and
Ukraine, where a revolt after disputed elections has ousted the
entrenched leadership.
And
events there could raise questions for other Central Asian governments
in neighboring Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
