Kyrgyz Parliament Tries to Restore Order

03/27/2005

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - Police and volunteers’ efforts to restore order to Bishkek after the overthrow of Kyrgyzstan’s president appeared to be making progress Sunday after an end to the nighttime mass disorder that had seized the Kyrgyz capital.

Kyrgyzstan’s parliament scrambled Saturday to do its part to calm anxiety in this ex-Soviet republic by setting June 26 as the date for new presidential elections, putting the nation back on a political course after Thursday’s uprising toppled unpopular President Askar Akayev.

But in a sign of continuing tension, acting leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev changed the location of his first news conference at the last minute, saying he had been threatened with assassination.

And in Parliament competing groups met in separate chambers, each claiming to represent the people.

Akayev, who disappeared on Thursday after protesters stormed the presidential and government headquarters in a swelling protest demanding his resignation, had taken refuge in Russia, the Kremlin confirmed on Saturday.

The Kremlin press service declined to give details on Akayev’s location or when he arrived. Russia has a military base near Bishkek, and there was speculation Akayev initially found safety there; later reports said he had gone to neighboring Kazakhstan.

Bakiyev, apparently aiming to placate pro-Akayev forces, said a law granting immunity to the ousted president remained in force. He pledged not to seek vengeance and even found words of praise for the man he had once served as prime minister and later came to vehemently oppose.

“I have no intention of persecuting Askar Akayev. He has done much for democracy and building a sovereign Kyrgyzstan,” Bakiyev told reporters. “It’s his right to come back or not.”

Kyrgyz in Bishkek awoke Sunday after the first largely calm night since Thursday’s protest action; temperatures had cooled and a blanket of snow covered the streets.

A duty officer at the Interior Ministry’s press office said there were still reports of thefts and car thefts, but “none of the mass disorder.” The officer, who declined to give his name, also said that three people were killed in Bishkek overnight. The circumstances of the deaths were still under investigation, but at least one of those killed appeared to have been an attempted “pillager,” he said.

Some 2,000 volunteers have joined police in trying to keep order in the capital, where many stores were looted and some burned in the first night’s mayhem after Thursday’s government collapse.

Bakiyev, the acting leader, quickly declared himself a likely candidate for the presidency after the date for polls was announced.

“I think I should run in the presidential elections. God willing, I will,” he said.

Bakiyev, who has emerged as the key figure among the disunited anti-Akayev forces, was named acting president and acting prime minister by members of one of two groupings claiming to be the legitimate parliament.

His appointment was the work of members of the parliament that had been in session until mid-March. Allegedly fraudulent elections to replace that parliament set off the rising wave of protests against Akayev, who had convened the new parliament early last week.

The Supreme Court declared the election results invalid late Thursday, ruling in favor a parliamentarians who had been in power and are now mainly backing Bakiyev. But parliamentarians who won in the now-voided February and March balloting still contend they are the legitimate parliament. Each group held sessions in separate parliamentary chambers Saturday.

“Our opinion is that we should be the legitimate lawmakers because the people have chosen us,” said Roman Shin, elected in the most recent vote that was struck down by the Supreme Court. He said the former lawmakers who have returned to parliament “don’t want to abandon power.”

“The revolution was made by (only) 5,000 people,” he said, referring to the crowd that gathered outside the presidential and government compound before the building was stormed. He said that he and his allies could gather at least five times as many.

Meanwhile, there’s no sign that Akayev had resigned, and a purported Akayev statement e-mailed to media Friday quoted him as denying reports he had stepped down.

That raised the prospect that Akayev could try to organize a counterinsurgency from afar aimed at restoring him to power. On Saturday, news reports said hundreds or even thousands of Akayev supporters were believed to be heading for the capital, but by nightfall they had not materialized.

Akayev’s departure made Kyrgyzstan the third former Soviet republic in the past 18 months - after Georgia and Ukraine - to see long-entrenched governments widely accused of corruption fall under massive protests.

The 60-year-old Akayev had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained independence in the Soviet collapse. He was long considered the most democratic leader among the five ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, but he was accused of employing increasingly tough measures against dissent in recent years.

Bakiyev said Russian President Vladimir Putin called him Friday night and asked how Russia could help the people of Kyrgyzstan. “I’m very grateful to him for that,” he said.

He also said U.S. Ambassador Stephen Young was “one of the first people who came to congratulate me.”

The U.S. Embassy said Young met with Bakiyev on Friday, but did not reveal the nature of their conversation. Both the United States and Russia have military bases in Kyrgyzstan, not far from Bishkek.