Kyrgyz President Defiant as Transitional Gov’t Forms

Although he fled the capital city of Bishkek on Wednesday, Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Thursday from an unknown locale that he wasn’t stepping down, despite the apparent takeover of the Krgyz government by opposition politicians, according to The New York Times.

The New York Times:

Opposition politicians, speaking on state television after it was seized by protesters Wednesday, said they had taken control of the government after a day of violent clashes that left 68 people dead, officials said, and more than 400 wounded.

Ms. Otunbayeva said an interim government would rule for six months to replace the repressive rule of Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

“You can call this revolution,” she said. “You can call this a people’s revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy.”

Ms. Otunbayeva offered to talk with Mr. Bakiyev to negotiate his formal departure from power. She insisted that, with several provinces under the opposition’s control, Mr. Bakiyev’s rule was over. “His business in Kyrgyzstan is finished,” she said.

Read more

Wikimedia Commons / Steele C.G. Britton, U.S. Air Force

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, seen here in calmer times, is reportedly unwilling to relinquish power to the opposition.