Now it seems that was a lie?
"Ousted Kyrgyz leader leaves Kazakhstan for parts unknown; Exit eases worries he’d mount revolt; unrest still evident" by Associated Press | April 20, 2010
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The deposed president of Kyrgyzstan left Kazakhstan yesterday, ending four days of refuge in the country after he was driven from power in a violent uprising, a Kazakh official said.
A spokesman for the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said he didn’t know where Kurmanbek Bakiyev was headed. “He’s left Kazakhstan,’’ Ilyas Omarov said by telephone from the Kazakh capital, Astana. “There are no details on his planned destination.’’
Bakiyev’s departure from Kyrgyzstan was seen as reducing the possibility that a civil war could break out between his supporters and backers of the opposition figures who declared themselves the interim government. But tensions in the impoverished country remain high.
On the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital, hundreds of young men armed with sticks and metal bars rampaged through a village yesterday, beating residents and burning several houses, and the Health Ministry said at least two people were killed and 11 injured. The Interior Ministry said dozens of arrests were made before the situation was brought under control
It was unclear what set off the rampage, but witnesses said the men were seeking to seize arable land. The village, Mayevka, is populated largely by Meskhetian Turks, descendants of an ethnic group deported from Soviet Georgia in 1944. Also yesterday, unidentified attackers tried to seize the main police station in the southern city of Jalal-Abad and were driven off by police fire, the Interior Ministry said.
The authoritarian leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said Sunday that Bakiyev would be welcome in his country, which could exacerbate Belarus’s tensions with the West as well as its difficult relations with neighboring Russia. Another possible destination is the United Arab Emirates, where Bakiyev is thought to own property. Bakiyev left Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan on Thursday after he was driven from power in a bloody revolt.
Some observers have suggested that Russia played a role in Bakiyev’s downfall, angry that he backed off his promise last year to evict the United States from its air base in Kyrgyzstan. Russia also has a base in the former Soviet Central Asian nation. Both the United States and Russia were involved in the deal under which Bakiyev was allowed to fly to Kazakhstan. The arrangement appeared aimed largely at pulling Kyrgyzstan back from violence.
At least 83 people died when an April 7 protest rally in Bishkek exploded into gunfire and protesters stormed government buildings. Bakiyev fled to his native village in the country’s south, where he tried to marshal support to resist the opposition figures who declared themselves the country’s interim leaders. Bakiyev left for Kazakhstan hours after he fled a rally amid gunfire that witnesses said came from his guards.
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So where is he headed next?
"Ousted Kyrgyzstan president in Belarus" by Associated Press | April 21, 2010
MINSK — Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president was in exile in Belarus yesterday, as the interim authorities controlling the Kyrgyz capital warned he would be imprisoned if he tried to return to the Central Asian country....
Well, we can always hope, huh?
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And what is with the MSM focus on the guy?
"Exiled Kyrgyz leader clings to presidency; From Belarus, Bakiyev retracts his resignation" by Yuras Karmanau, Associated Press | April 22, 2010
MINSK, Belarus — The ousted leader of Kyrgyzstan said yesterday from exile in Belarus that he is still president, desperately clinging onto power despite having lost most of his credibility and support in the Central Asian country.
He's hoping the U.N., CIA, anybody, will come restore him.
Kurman Bakiyev’s renewed defiance may have more to do with politics in Belarus, his host country, than with any realistic expectations of reclaiming the presidency.
I can't take it anymore.
Bakiyev, who was deposed in an April 7 uprising that left 85 people dead, fled last week to neighboring Kazakhstan and arrived in the Belarusian capital earlier this week.
In his first comments from exile, Bakiyev told reporters yesterday that he is still “the legitimate president of Kyrgyzstan’’ and described the interim government controlling the Kyrgyz capital as “executors of a foreign will.’’
Yeah, maybe.
“Kyrgyzstan will be nobody’s colony,’’ he said. Many observers have suggested that Russia supported or even aided Bakiyev’s ouster, angered that he reneged on a promise last year to evict a US air base.
But they have their own base there. Thus that cover story does not make sense.
Now, if they chucked him because he was CIA....
Interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan claim Bakiyev signed a letter of resignation before leaving the country. The United States and Russia helped broker the agreement for his departure.
“Aware of my responsibility for the future of the people and the preservation of the integrity of the state . . . I herewith submit my resignation,’’ the letter shown to journalists by interim leader Roza Otunbayeva said.
But yesterday, Bakiyev retracted any resignation. “I don’t recognize my resignation. Only death will stop me,’’ he said.
Well, if it must be so.... sigh.
People that gain power stink.
Bakiyev said he was “ready to bear legal responsibility,’’ but it was unclear if he meant he would answer for the violence in Bishkek, as the new authorities are urging. The provisional authorities have said they expect Belarus to protect Bakiyev until extradition proceedings can be initiated.
“Bakiyev is taking a very destructive position,’’ Temir Sariyev, a deputy leader of the interim coalition, said in Bishkek.
Bakiyev called on the world to refrain from recognizing the provisional government, which has announced parliamentary and presidential elections in six months and the drafting of a new constitution.
I don't see them running for the door, do you?
Bakiyev’s supporters at his stronghold in southern Kyrgyzstan also refused to admit defeat, and yesterday clashed with hundreds of activists loyal to the interim government. Witnesses told The Associated Press that scuffles broke out on Jalal-Abad’s central square. The town is one of the few remaining places where support for the toppled leader is still visible.
Related:
"Covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden"
That's why it gets a sentence or two three-quarters of the way through the piece.
The shaky interim coalition is struggling to restore stability, and developments are being watched with concern by the United States and Russia, which also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan.
If they have a base why would they care about us using one for Afghanistan?
Related: Russian drug chief blames U.S., NATO for Afghan drug production
Oh!!!
Running drugs through the base!
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MINSK, Belarus — Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president said from exile yesterday that he does not intend to return to his homeland as its leader, but that his resignation was invalid because officials there are reneging on a promise to protect his family.
Going to be hard being president then.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed in an April 7 uprising that left 85 people dead in the Kyrgyz capital. He fled last week to neighboring Kazakhstan and arrived in the Belarusian capital earlier this week, where he is now staying. Bakiyev said his resignation, signed before he left Kyrgyzstan, was not in force because interim officials reneged on a promise to protect his relatives....
WTF is this s*** and why is it "news?"
While at his stronghold in the south of Kyrgyzstan, where he went in the heat of the uprising in Bishkek, Bakiyev said he was told by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that he would not be blamed for the violence of the revolt but would face justice if he tried to regroup and reclaim power militarily.
“There was the threat to me and my relatives and a threat of civil war,’’ Bakiyev told reporters in Minsk. Bakiyev said one of his brothers has been kidnapped....
Some other members of Bakiyev’s close circle have fled to Kazakhstan, and authorities have voiced hope that Kazakh authorities would hand them over....
--more--""Kyrgyzstan wants deposed leader extradited" by Associated Press | April 27, 2010
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan have called for the deposed president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to be extradited from Belarus to face trial back home for allegedly sanctioning gunfire on a crowd of protesters.
Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan after being overthrown amid violent clashes between government troops and demonstrators on April 7 that left at least 85 people dead. He has taken refuge in Belarus.
Kyrgyzstan’s interim government adviser, Dzhoomart Saparbayev, said yesterday that officials adopted a resolution stripping Bakiyev of his authority and presidential immunity, and promising extradition efforts. The State Security Service said yesterday that it had arrested the former interior minister on unspecified charges. It was the highest-profile arrest to date of a member of the Central Asian country’s recently deposed government.
The security service said Moldomusa Kongantiyev was extradited from Russia over the weekend in a joint operation with Russia’s Federal Security Service.Looks like Russia had a hand in it after all -- and who can blame them?
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After all, the guy is a CRIMINAL!
"Mass murder charges leveled against ousted Kyrgyz leader" by Michael Schwirtz, New York Times | April 28, 2010
MOSCOW — Kyrgyzstan’s new authorities have charged the country’s former president with mass murder for his role in the deaths of scores of antigovernment protesters earlier this month, an official in the provisional government said yesterday.
Some who could testify at trial:
Kyrgyz mourners prayed yesterday at the graves of protesters who were shot dead by police April 7 at a protest rally. (Nina Gorshkova/Associated Press)
Police and presidential guards opened fire on thousands of demonstrators on April 7, killing at least 85 people. They failed, however, to stop the protesters, who commandeered weapons and an armored personnel carrier and overran the government. Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the former president, was forced to flee the country and is currently in Belarus, where the president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has guaranteed his security.
The interim government has struggled to return order to Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian nation that hosts a US airbase that serves as a transit hub for troops and equipment for the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The new government has made prosecuting Bakiyev a priority and has vowed to seek his extradition from Belarus....
Russia, which has pledged its support to the new Kyrgyz government, has already extradited Bakiyev’s former interior minister, who was recovering in Moscow after being severely beaten in the protests earlier this month.
He's lucky that's all it was.
On Monday, the provisional government said that the former minister would also face charges in the deaths of the demonstrators. Officials in Belarus have given no indication that they intend to send Bakiyev back to Kyrgyzstan. Since arriving in the country last week, Bakiyev has appeared at news conferences with Lukashenko and challenged the authority of the new government in Bishkek, declaring that he remains president despite having announced his resignation in a letter to the new government.
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I wonder what he will be up to tomorrow. I'm sure the Glob will tell me all about it -- while hiding the instability of the country (which is the whole point, right?).
