Kyrgyz opposition capture capital after uprising

BISHKEK - The opposition has taken control of Kyrgyzstan’s government and infrastructure, news reports said Thursday, a day after deadly clashes between opposition protesters and security personnel.

The parliament, police, media and airports were under the control of the opposition, the news agency Akipress reported.

The opposition Wednesday announced the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and the introduction of a transition government under former foreign minister Rosa Otunbayeva.

Bakiyev reportedly fled the capital, Bishkek, for the southern part of the country, and Kyrgyz media reported that he had resigned. They cited authorities in Zhalal-Abad in the south, from which Bakiyev hails, for the report.

The situation was stabilising after Wednesday’s unrest in Bishkek left around 100 people dead, Ata-Meken opposition party leader Omurbek Tekebayev said on national television.

The Health Ministry early Thursday confirmed 65 deaths from the clashes. More than 500 are estimated to have been injured across the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic.

Around 40 blazes broke out in Bishkek as the opposition set fire to vehicles and government buildings. Kyrgyz media reported widespread looting in business and museums.

In a Twitter message posted on the internet, Otunbayeva said citizens patrols would be instigated shortly. She also said the transition government would work to produce a new constitution within six months.

Otunbayeva was a leading figure five years ago in the so-called Tulip Revolution, which toppled Askar Akayev and brought Bakiyev to power in the Central Asian country, before she defected from the new government to the opposition.

Since then, outside observers have said that democracy and economic development have suffered under Bakiyev’s rule even as he was re-elected in 2009.

The mass protests against Bakiyev began Tuesday in the regional centre Talas and spread rapidly into violent clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators.

Russia, still influential particularly in the north of Kyrgyzstan, denied any involvement in the uprising, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

Bakiyev’s government had said it suspected the opposition movement had foreign support and had been criticized by Russian state media.

The US, which uses a military base near Bishkek to supply its troops in Afghanistan, called on both sides to refrain from further violence. The European Union, the United Nations and neighbouring China have also expressed concern and called for restraint.

Kyrgyzstan, which borders the troubled Chinese province of Xinjiang, achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The bulk of its population of 5.3 million are Sunni Muslims.