Deposed Kyrgyz president says he’ll resign if his security is guaranteed

Kyrgyz leader says he’ll go if security guaranteed

TEYIT, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president said Tuesday he is willing to resign if his security is guaranteed.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital amid bloody protests last week, made the statement hours after holding a rally with about 5,000 supporters that seemed aimed at gauging his ability to resist the self-declared provisional government.

Later, at a news conference In his home village of Teyit, he said “I will go into retirement if security is guaranteed for me and my relatives.”

He also proposed that Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the interim government, come to his southern home base for talks and guaranteed safety for her and other officials.

But Otunbayeva’s chief of staff, Edil Baisalov, rejected that idea, saying “we are not holding talks with bloody dictators.”

It was not immediately clear if that refusal also constituted a rejection of Bakiyev’s call for security guarantees. The interim authorities previously had previously offered Bakiyev safe passage out of the country; however, he has given no hint that he is prepared to leave Kyrgyzstan.

Although the crowd of supporters that greeted Bakiyev on Tuesday was highly emotional, there have been persistent doubts about how much backing he has and whether he commanded enough loyalty in the security forces to mount serious resistance.

In turn, Bakiyev appeared unwilling to push the stalemate into new violence, warning his supporters that “the whole world is watching us.”

The bloodshed in Bishkek last week, in which 83 people died after a protest in the capital exploded into gunfire and chaos, severely stained Kyrgyzstan’s world prestige, which already had declined under Bakiyev as pressure grew against independent news media and opposition activists.

Earlier Tuesday, the vice-premier of the interim government said Bakiyev must return to the capital or face arrest by special forces.

Azymbek Beknazarov also said Tuesday that his government has ordered Bakiyev stripped of the usual presidential immunity. He also said the country’s constitutional court has been suspended because of unspecified violations and that the chairman of the Supreme Court had been dismissed.

The tensions in the impoverished, strategically important former Soviet Central Asian country worry the United States and Russia, both of which have military bases in Kyrgyzstan.

The U.S. base, at the capital’s international airport, is a key piece in the NATO military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The base provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and is a transit point for troops.

Associated Press Writers Yuras Karmanau in Bishkek and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.