Global General

Former Kyrgyz president leaves Kazakhstan for Belarus

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-17 14:53

BISHKEK - Former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who announced resignation on Thursday, left the southern Kazakh city of Taraza Saturday morning for Minsk, capital of Belarus, the Interfax news agency reported.

The departure came only two days after Bakiyev arrived in Kazakhstan under the mediation of Russia, Kazakhstan and the United States.

Bakiyev confirmed in a televised address on Friday that he was in Kazakhstan.

"I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for your help and care about me," Bakiyev said to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the address.

Bakiyev fled to southern Kyrgyzstan last week after thousands of protesters supportive of the opposition clashed with security forces throughout the country, driving out local governments and seizing government headquarters in Bishkek.

The opposition has formed an interim government led by former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva.

In another development, Miroslav Jenca, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Central Asia and head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), is scheduled to visit Kyrgyzstan on Sunday to continue UN efforts to help the new interim government achieve peace and development in the Central Asian country

"The secretary-general has asked Mr.Jenca to continue UN efforts to assist the authorities in Bishkek in ensuring conditions for the peaceful, prosperous, and democratic development of the country," the UN Spokesperson's Office said in New York on Friday in an e-mail message to the press.