Global General
Kyrgyz president refuses to admit defeat or resign
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-09 00:27
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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - The president of Kyrgyzstan insisted Thursday that he is not admitting defeat and he will not resign despite a bloody uprising and the formation of an interim government by the opposition.
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 Roza Otunbayeva (L), the interim government leader, speaks as she sits next to Vice Premier Omurbek Tekebayev during a news conference in Bishkek April 8, 2010. Kyrgyzstan's opposition said on Thursday it had taken power and dissolved parliament in the poor but strategically important Central Asian state after deadly protests forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the capital. [Agencies]
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Resistance from President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has fled the northern capital of Bishkek for the south, could raise the prospect of continued instability in the Central Asian nation, home to both a US air base key to the Afghan war and a Russian military facility.
"I don't admit defeat in any way," Bakiyev said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, but also recognized that "even though I am president, I don't have any real levers of power."
Earlier Thursday, opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva said parliament was dissolved and she would head an interim government that would rule for six months until elections were held. She said the opposition controlled four of the country's seven provinces and urged Bakiyev to resign.
"His business in Kyrgyzstan is finished," she said.
She also said there were no immediate plans to revisit the current one-year lease on the Manas US air base, which runs out in July. US military officials said Kyrgyzstan halted flights for 12 hours Wednesday at Manas during the uprising, and were evasive Thursday when asked if flights had resumed.
Bakiyev was emphatic Thursday that he was still the elected leader of the nation of 5 million people.
"I do not intend to relinquish power. I see no point," he said, adding that his re-election nine months ago proved he still had popular support.
Even though his security forces fired into crowds of demonstrators a day ago, killing dozens and wounding hundreds, Bakiyev seemed to rule out further violence.
"You think the president elected by the people will take up arms against the people? What nonsense," he said.
Asked why he fled Bishkek, he said: "I wouldn't have left, but when they started firing on my windows, it was only by chance that I avoided injury."
Otunbayeva, the former foreign minister, said the president was in the southern region of Jalal-Abad, the heart of his political stronghold. This raised concerns that Bakiyev could try to secure his own survival by exploiting the country's traditional split between the more urban north and the rural south.
Eyewitnesses in southern Kyrgyzstan told The Associated Press that the situation there was tense and unstable, and the region had both armed men who appeared to be still supporting Bakiyev along with opposition supporters.
The new interim defense minister, however, said the armed forces have joined the opposition and will not be used against protesters.
