08 April 2010
Photo: AP
Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva gesture during a news conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 08 Apr 2010
Kyrgyzstan's opposition has proclaimed an interim government to replace the administration of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. At least 65 people were killed in violent protests that forced the president to flee the capital, Bishkek.
The opposition coalition announced a new interim government for Kyrgyzstan and said it would rule until elections are held in six months.
Former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva says Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov has resigned, parliament has been dissolved, and she will lead the new government.
Speaking from a parliament building, Otunbayeva demanded the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has fled the capital.
"Certainly we want to locate him and we want to negotiate with him, negotiate just regarding the resignation not about other things," she said. "And so the appeal like now, ex-speaker appeal that he should resign - his business is finished in Kyrgyzstan and so all those people who have been killed and who got wounded they are victims of this regime."
Otunbayeva says the new government controls four of the seven provinces in the former Soviet republic. She says Kyrgyzstan's armed forces and border guards support the new government.
Otunbayeva says if President Bakiyev tries to take on the interim government it will react. "I think we will see how the dynamics of these events will go. If President Bakiyev will continue to do such destructive actions, then we will react," she said.
The collapse of the Bakiyev government follows days of riots between demonstrators and police in several cities. The demonstrators say they are upset over rampant corruption, nepotism and rising prices.
About one third of Kyrgyzstan's 5.3 million people live below the poverty line.
Witnesses say demonstrators entered the government building after President Bakiyev fled, and smashed computers, threw papers and waved the country's flag.
An unidentified protester described the situation. He says Bakiyev's administration is corrupt and the criminal government robbed their people. He says that is why the people started this protest, no one told them to do so, they did it themselves, and they took power without help of the political opposition.
Otunbayeva also said a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan that supports military operations in Afghanistan will remain open.