Regional governor says Kyrgyz interim authorities in charge following outbreak of violence

Kyrgyz governor says new authorities in control

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan’s restive south calmed down Saturday after a failed attempt to take control by supporters of the nation’s deposed president in which one person died and dozens were wounded.

Jalal-Abad regional Gov. Bektur Asanov insisted that supporters of the interim government were firmly in control of the city after two days of riots — the worst violence since last month’s forcible government change.

Asanov spoke in an interview with The Associated Press as laborers worked to clear up the aftermath of the seizure of the regional government building. He vowed there will be no repetition of the violence that raised doubts about the new authorities’ ability to control the south, where support for former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev still runs strong.

“I think this attempt to seize power that was made the day before yesterday was the last attempt to destabilize the situation made by destructive forces led by Bakiyev’s brothers,” Asanov told the AP. “The people showed their force and nobody will be able to do this again in the future.”

Several hundred Bakiyev supporters, some with automatic rifles, holed up in the regional government building after capturing it Thursday. Backers of the interim government drove them out Friday after exchanging gunshots, hurling stones and fighting with sticks.

The Health Ministry said that one person was killed and more than 60 injured in the violence. Asanov said most casualties were among interim government supporters.

The interim government’s backers also ejected a pro-Bakiyev crowd Friday from the regional government offices in Osh, the country’s second-largest city about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Jalal-Abad. The two sides threw rocks at one another, but no serious injuries were reported there.

Both cities are in southern Kyrgyzstan, the power base for Bakiyev, who was ousted April 7 amid clashes between government forces and protesters that left at least 85 people dead in the capital, Bishkek.

The prospect of further disturbances in Kyrgyzstan worries Washington and Moscow, which both have military bases in the Central Asian nation.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan has voiced concern about the unrest and urged parties to refrain from violence, while the Kremlin sent former Russian Security Council secretary Vladimir Rushailo as a special envoy to Kyrgyzstan on Friday.

While Jalal-Abad is of slight strategic importance itself, the ease with which a few hundred Bakiyev supporters were able to seize the regional government building, without apparent resistance from local police, prompted alarm over the interim government’s ability to extend its writ over the southern region.

Asanov said measures are being taken to strengthen the city’s defenses against forces allied to the ousted leader.

“As of today, we have started forming people’s defense units; around 300 people will patrol the center and they will receive salaries,” Asanov said.

Bakiyev fled the country last month for Belarus, where he is being offered refuge, but interim authorities say his family is still actively financing disturbances aimed at unseating the provisional leadership.

The security services have singled out Bakiyev’s oldest son, Marat, as a key instigator of the attempt to seize control over government buildings in Jalal-Abad and Osh.

After expelling Bakiyev partisans from Jalal-Abad, interim government supporters marched on the ousted leader’s nearby home village of Teyit and set fire to his family home. On Saturday morning, villagers surveyed the smoldering compound that had acted as Bakiyev’s base in the days after his flight from the capital, Bishkek.