Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won the mandate he sought to begin work on the country's abundant problems after voters handed the former opposition leader and interim president a landslide victory in a presidential election on Sunday.
Bakiyev's overwhelming victory marked a consolidation of the revolution this spring that forced out the former president, Askar Akayev.
"It was a persuasive victory of our people," he said at a news conference. "The trust that people displayed in us is high, and obliges us to do many things."
Bakiyev faces pressing tasks, both domestically and abroad.
The most pressing is the fate of more than 400 Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyz soil after surviving a bloody crackdown in May following a prison break and anti-government demonstrations in Andijon, Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has been pressing to have 131 of the refugees returned. Western governments and human rights organizations warn that would violate international conventions and endanger the refugees.
As interim president, Bakiyev equivocated on the question of the refugees' fate. He is under intense pressure from Uzbekistan, upon which Kyrgyzstan depends in part for fuel and trade.
Jerzy Skuratowicz, the UN resident coordinator here, said the country's reputation is at stake.
"The way that Kyrgyzstan will deal with the refugees will basically be part of the image that will make the world understand whether Kyrgyzstan is one of the countries that will do what it says, and whether it is a country that will live within the rule of law," he said.
Bakiyev must also make a decision about a US military base at the airport outside the capital. The base supports the Pentagon's operations in Afghanistan.
Last week the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an alliance of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, demanded that the US set a date for the withdrawal of its military from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
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