Bishkek, April 8 (Inditop.com/RIA Novosti) The opposition in Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday it has taken full power in the country after two days of unrest that left at least 47 people dead.
“(Prime Minister Daniyar) Usenov has signed a letter of resignation. Power is fully in the control of the opposition,” said Rosa Otunbayeva, the opposition-nominated premier.
Otunbayeva said the opposition in the ex-Soviet Central Asian state was not yet forming a new cabinet but has divided areas of responsibility for ruling the country.
Protests, which started in the northwestern Kyrgyz town of Talas Tuesday, spread to other regions of the country, including the capital Bishkek. Some 400 people were injured, according to health authorities. Opposition leader Omurbek Tekebayev said the toll was about 100 people.
“Today we went to a meeting with the government so they would lay down their arms and transfer power,” Tekebayev, who leads the Ata-Meken opposition party said on national television, which is now controlled by protestors.
He added that special volunteer groups would be set up to ensure order in the country.
Another Kyrgyz opposition leader claimed Wednesday that the official government has resigned and that President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has left the capital Bishkek. There has, however been no official confirmation of this.
“We went into the government building for talks; (Premier) Usenov wrote a declaration stating the government’s resignation,” Temir Sariyev told Russian journalists. “Bakiyev left the building. It is not known where he went. He is not in Bishkek.”
A source in Bakiyev’s entourage denied claims by the opposition that Bakiyev left the country and that premier Usenov has resigned.
Kazakhstan has not confirmed media reports that Bakiyev and his family arrived in the country, and a source in the Russian government said Russia was “not expecting” Bakiyev.
Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz news agency Kabar reported that Bakiyev is in his southern residence at the Kyrgyz city of Osh.
Police estimated that there were several thousand protestors on the streets of the capital.
Opposition supporters seized a number of state organizations in Bishkek. The government and opposition leaders held talks, but the Kabar news agency reported that they failed.
“Preliminary consultations between the official authorities and oppositional leaders on halting the clashes have started,” Elmurza Satybaldiyev, the state advisor on defense and security told Kyrgyz news agency 24.
“We have received several proposals (for talks). The opposition leaders are now getting together to discuss the possibility of negotiations,” Sariyev, the leader of an oppositional party Ak-Shumkar, told journalists.
President Bakiyev declared a state of emergency earlier Wednesday and the Kyrgyz parliament urged citizens to be reasonable and condemned the destructive activities, local media said.
Most of the opposition leaders, detained earlier during protests in Talas have been released, a human rights activist said.
Kyrgyz protesters seized the building of the state television channel KTR in Bishkek earlier Wednesday. Broadcasting was interrupted for approximately one hour, after which opposition representatives and human rights activists appeared on air, giving information about the clashes.
State TV employees told RIA Novosti that protestors seized the building, which had been ransacked. They said some staff had escaped but others were trapped inside.
Some reports say that protesters have also seized government buildings in the Chuysk, Narynsk and Issyk-Kul regions.
