Ousted Kyrgyz President May Resign From Abroad

Kyrgyzstan President Askar A. Akayev has agreed in principle to resign, a move that would clear the way for the nation’s revolutionary government to proceed with a new presidential election in June, authorities said Saturday.

In a development that signaled a possible end to the political impasse that has threatened the Central Asian nation with instability since Akayev was driven from power March 24, parliamentary leaders said they would meet with the ousted president today in Moscow to discuss his formal abdication.

“A verbal agreement has been received from the president that he will relinquish power,” parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev said. “He has a sober view on the situation that has taken shape in the republic and, as head of state, he is fully aware of his actions and acts only in the people’s interests.”

Akayev, Kyrgyzstan’s president since shortly before the country gained independence in 1991, had hoped to return to the capital, Bishkek, and address parliament before stepping down. But he is near agreement on making his formal resignation in Russia, to which he fled late last month, to avoid an array of political, security and legal problems that might arise if he returned, Kyrgyz officials and analysts said.

On Friday, new Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva warned that if Akayev reappeared in Bishkek, he could be “torn apart by crowds” of the kind that forced their way into government headquarters March 24.

Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev also said he could not guarantee Akayev’s safety if he returned. “He shouldn’t come to Kyrgyzstan, whether it’s for five or 10 minutes. It will cause a huge amount of negative feeling and discontent,” he told the Interfax news agency.

Tekebayev said Akayev was told he would be offered “all privileges” if he resigned voluntarily but would face a relatively simple process of impeachment if he refused.

Orozbek Moldaliyev, an independent political analyst in Bishkek, said Akayev had been told he was assured of immunity from criminal prosecution for alleged corruption if he agreed to resign.

The new government has been willing to offer immunity in order to remove Akayev’s large shadow as the country attempts to move forward, he said.

“No matter what everyone is saying, we still have Hamlet’s father’s ghost, as Shakespeare said. Akayev is the ghost, still existing, and his term has not expired yet,” Moldaliyev said in a telephone interview.

At the same time, he said, the new interim government has won the tentative support of surrounding nations, including Russia, Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and is prepared to move ahead with a presidential election June 26.

“Certainly, there are some political forces who are ready to use Akayev’s refusal to resign, people who are saying we already have a president and we’re not going to accept another one. But there is little chance of serious confrontation or instability, because they are only one voice,” Moldaliyev said.

On Friday, new government officials said they were prepared to seize the property of the deposed president and some of his relatives, many of whom acquired substantial wealth during Akayev’s presidency. Otunbayeva, noting that Akayev always claimed to own only “an old car,” said the new government would take him at his word.

“We are ready to send this car to Moscow at any time. Let the rest go to the people of Kyrgyzstan,” she said.

A committee of parliamentary deputies headed by Tekebayev was scheduled to meet with Akayev today in Moscow, with the goal of securing the president’s signed resignation before witnesses.

But even if he ultimately refuses, the head of the nation’s constitutional court, Cholpon Bayekova, said Saturday that a presidential election could legally proceed in June as planned.