Kyrgyz victims mourned, interim leader says US air base fate not a top priority for new govt

more images

more images

more images

more images

more images

more images

more images

more images

Kyrgyz victims mourned, US base fate on hold

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — As a crowd of thousands mourned the Kyrgyz protesters shot dead by police, many expressed hope Friday that the bloody revolt would bring a better government to the impoverished Central Asian nation. Some said they were counting on Russia’s help.

Flights, meanwhile, resumed at the U.S. base just outside the capital after being halted Wednesday during the uprising. Manas is a key support center for the international military campaign against the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan, but many in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, resent the Americans’ presence.

Covering their eyes and folding their hands in prayer, families and friends sobbed for the lives that were lost in the sprawling Ala-Too Square, where protesters were fired on during an opposition rally as some stormed the main government building in Bishkek, the capital.

Deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital to seek support in his clan’s southern power base, was a focus of their anger.

“We grieve over our heroes. They are real heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the future of Kyrgyzstan,” said Khatima Immamaliyeva, a 44-year-old office worker holding a red carnation and crying. “Bakiyev must bear responsibility for the deaths.”

Another mourner, 26-year-old Azimbek Sariyev, said “my friend Talas perished. I hope he hasn’t died for nothing. We have ousted Bakiyev, and won’t allow the rulers to mock us.”

Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the opposition’s self-declared interim government, said Bakiyev would be guaranteed safe passage out of the country if he were to resign, but “we are not holding any talks with him.”

At least 76 people died in the violence and more than 1,400 were injured, the Health Ministry reported Friday. That figure included 67 people injured overnight in clashes between looters and security forces.

Bishkek was eerily quiet late Friday, with few cars on the streets. Residents turned out the lights to avoid drawing gunfire.

In an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press, U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. John Redfield said normal flights had restarted at Manas as of Friday afternoon. Some 1,100 troops are stationed there, including contingents from Spain and France, in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.

Otunbayeva said Friday the base agreement will be continued at least for the near future. Opposition figures in the past have said they wanted to close the U.S. base, located at the international airport serving the capital.

Russia, which also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan, had pushed Bakiyev’s government to evict the U.S. military. But after announcing that American forces would have to leave Manas, Kyrgyzstan agreed to allow them to stay after the U.S. raised the annual rent to about $63 million from $17 million.

The status of the base has been a significant strategic question since the uprising Wednesday.

“We have no intentions whatsoever to deal with the American base now. Our priority is the lives of the people who suffered. A top priority is to normalize the situation, to secure peace and stability,” Otunbayeva said as she visited a Bishkek hospital Friday that had treated many wounded.

She said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called to offer his help and she told him Kyrgyzstan needs financial aid and dispatched a representative to Moscow for talks.

Some people in Bishkek accuse Bakiyev of selling out to the United States by allowing it to retain its air base, and most appear to welcome close ties with Russia.

“We are thankful to Russia for recognizing the new government and not supporting Bakiyev,” said Bishkek resident Daniyar Bokonbayev, 46. “Kyrgyzstan has no future without Russia.”

Otunbayeva said the interim government would not negotiate with Bakiyev, whose regime the opposition has accused of corruption.

Since coming to power in 2005 amid street protests known as the Tulip Revolution, Bakiyev had ensured a measure of stability. But the opposition said it came at the expense of democratic standards and accused Bakiyev of enriching himself and his family, just like Askar Akayev, the ruler he overthrew.

Akayev, who now teaches mathematics at Moscow State University, said this week’s revolt was a natural outcome of the policies followed by Bakiyev’s government.

“For the last five years he has ruled without heed to the constitution, has reinforced his own power and put in place an authoritarian and repressive regime,” he told The Associated Press in Moscow.

“I think that a very sorrowful fate awaits him because in having given the command to open fire on the population he has signed his own death warrant,” Akayev said.

Bakiyev was in the southern Jalal-Abad region, his political stronghold, which raised concerns he might try to secure his survival by exploiting the split between the more urban north and rural south.

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent a special envoy to Kyrgyzstan to meet “constitutional authorities and representatives of relevant political groups,” U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday.

Associated Press writers Leila Saralayeva in Bishkek, Jim Heintz in Moscow and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.