Kygryzstan’s interim government said yesterday it was not holding talks with the Central Asian state’s ousted president and would use force if he tried to undermine it, one of its leaders said.
Kygryzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, hiding in his southern stronghold since last week’s violent uprising, has offered to negotiate but no meeting has taken place, Omurbek Tekebayev, a former opposition leader in charge of constitutional matters, said by telephone yesterday.
“We are not holding talks ... Bakiyev must resign and announce his decision to the people,” Tekebayev said.
An envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Saturday that the provisional government had held talks with Bakiyev on ways to end the crisis.
Bakiyev told Russian Newsweek magazine he was prepared to resign but needed to discuss his future with his opponents, who have offered him safe passage if he steps down.
Tekebayev said yesterday: “If he tries to destabilize the situation we will use force to contain him. If he just sits there quietly then we will not use force.”
Though relative calm has returned, the interim government says Bakiyev’s supporters continue to stoke violence in the country of 5.3 million, a third of whom live below the poverty line.
The US, which stopped all military flights to Afghanistan via its crucial air base in Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, has urged restraint.
Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by phone on Saturday she would honor the previous government’s agreements on the Manas base, Clinton’s spokesman said in a statement.
The interim government had previously suggested it might align itself more closely with Russia, which regards Kyrgyzstan as being in its sphere of influence, and shorten the US lease.
“She [Clinton] expressed hope that stability returns to Kyrgyzstan soon and condemned the shootings against civilians,” Tekebayev said.
At least 78 people were killed when troops loyal to Bakiyev fired into crowds of thousands of protesters on Wednesday in the capital Bishkek. Mourners at funerals on the outskirts of Bishkek last week showed little sympathy for Bakiyev.
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