Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev emerged from the Parliament building yesterday and said he had been named Kyrgyzstan's acting leader a day after protesters drove President Askar Akayev's government from power and unleashed widespread looting.
"Freedom has finally come to us," Bakiyev told a crowd in the central square of the capital, Bishkek.
Bakiyev's appointment as acting president was endorsed by a newly restored parliament of lawmakers who held seats before this year's disputed elections, which fueled protests against longtime leader Akayev and his government.
PHOTO: EPA
The move set Bakiyev squarely at the helm of the leadership emerging from the fragmented former opposition.
Kyrgyzstan became the third former Soviet republic in the past 18 months, after Georgia and Ukraine, to see popular protests bring down long-entrenched governments widely accused of corruption.
Another opposition figure, Felix Kulov, who was released from prison during Thursday's turmoil and appointed head of law enforcement, said Akayev had fled to a foreign country after being turned away by Russia. The Russian news agency Interfax said Akayev and his family were in neighboring Kazakhstan.
"He had a chance to resign, but he fled," Kulov said in televised comments. "He wanted to go Russia, but the Russians didn't accept him."
The new leadership faced an immediate challenge in halting vandalism and looting that left major stores in the capital, Bishkek, gutted and many others damaged by rowdy youths who roamed the city overnight, with few police to be seen.
Lawmakers met early yesterday to consider the country's new leadership but were interrupted by youths throwing stones at the Parliament building. Bakiyev then emerged and told about 1,000 demonstrators in the central square that he had been appointed "acting prime minister and acting president" and would seek to form a Cabinet.
The crowd shouted his name in support.
Bakiyev urged opposition supporters not to allow looting, and stressed that the popular opposition figure Kulov would coordinate law enforcement. Bakiyev proposed that former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva be named the country's top diplomat.
Bakiyev said he would fight corruption -- a major complaint against Akayev's regime -- and the clan mentality that roughly splits the country between north and south.
"I will not allow the division of the people into north and south," he said. "We are a united nation."
The square was the scene of swift political change Thursday, when opposition protesters seized control of the presidential and government headquarters. The takeover followed weeks of protests over disputed parliamentary elections the opposition said were aimed at keeping Akayev in power.
The Red Cross reported dozens injured in the turmoil, while lawmaker Temir Sariyev said three people had been killed.
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