New Leader Seeks to Calm Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan’s new leaders moved swiftly Friday to assert power a day after taking the reins of government, while police and former protesters worked together to guard against renewed looting in this Central Asian nation’s capital.

Ousted President Askar A. Akayev, widely believed to have fled the country, was reported by Kyrgyz media to have issued an e-mail statement denouncing his political foes and claiming that he still held office. But few here believed he had any chance of returning to power.

Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, appointed acting president Friday by the parliament, said his top priority was quickly restoring order.

“We have to form a government which is going to resolve all the problems,” Bakiyev told reporters. “Above all, we need to preserve stability. You can see what kind of unrest started yesterday, and we cannot allow this.”

As police stood by Thursday night, the city was hit by looting that largely targeted department stores and supermarkets owned by Akayev’s relatives and associates. By Friday evening the police were back at work, backed up at some locations by ad-hoc security forces organized by the former opposition.

Shortly after dark Friday, a rowdy crowd of about 1,000 gathered at a main downtown intersection and appeared to threaten a department store that had escaped major damage the previous night.

The crowd of mostly young men, some drunk and many from small towns, ignored orders to disperse. Police fired warning shots, apparently blanks, and drove them back.

There were reports of similar incidents elsewhere in Bishkek later Friday night. Police exchanged fire with would-be looters among about 500 people who had been trying to break into a bank office, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

The Health Ministry said two people were killed and 360 wounded in the looting spree Thursday night.

As of dawn today, the city was calm again, and it appeared that there had been much less damage than the previous night. Many stores and restaurants sought to protect themselves with signs saying, “We are with the people.”

The United States and Russia maintain military bases in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous republic of 5 million. The country is strategically located near Afghanistan, China and key oil-producing nations of the Caspian Sea region.

Akayev was regarded as one of the less authoritarian leaders in a part of the world known for strongman rule. Pro-democracy activists had hoped he would peacefully transfer power to the winner of a presidential election scheduled for late this year, which would have set a precedent for the region.

Instead, Kyrgyzstan followed the path of the largely nonviolent popular revolutions that swept aside governments in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine last year.

Bakiyev, who was also named prime minister Friday, announced appointments of Cabinet ministers later in the day. Roza Otunbayeva, another key former opposition leader, was named acting foreign minister. She said a new presidential election would be held in June.

Otunbayeva has served twice before as foreign minister and has been ambassador to the United States, Britain and the United Nations.

The takeover of government buildings followed widespread protests over alleged fraud in parliamentary elections held Feb. 27 and March 13. Bakiyev’s appointment as acting president and prime minister was endorsed by a gathering of the lawmakers who held seats before the disputed parliamentary elections, which have now been ruled invalid by the nation’s highest court.

Bakiyev chose other prominent opposition figures as defense and finance ministers and chief prosecutor. For the post of interior minister, overseeing the national police force, he picked Myktybek Abdyldayev, whom Akayev had fired Wednesday as chief prosecutor.

Akayev and his family, believed to have fled to neighboring Kazakhstan, flew out of that country Friday, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. It quoted an anonymous source who suggested that Akayev had gone to Russia.

The e-mail statement attributed to Akayev said that a “bunch of irresponsible political adventurers and conspirators has taken the path of seizing power with force.”

“An unconstitutional coup d’etat has been staged,” the statement said. “My current stay outside the country is temporary. Rumors of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.... I had sufficient forces at my disposal, which were ready to prevent the unrest. But as you recall, from the very beginning of the unrest in the southern areas of the country, I firmly stated that I would not use force against my people.”

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, speaking to reporters Friday during a visit to Armenia, said, “It’s unfortunate that yet again in the post-Soviet space, political problems in a country are resolved illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and human victims.”

He urged the new Kyrgyz authorities to quickly restore order.

Damir Kamalov, 21, a student who joined the ad hoc security units working with police to restore order in Bishkek, said the effort was aimed at “protecting the people and the government.”

“Three days ago, the police were on the government side,” Kamalov said. “Now they’re on the people’s side.”

It was at times difficult to distinguish, however, between law-and-order vigilantes and hoodlums. As a group of tough-looking young men strode by, one carrying a heavy pole and another swinging a bicycle-lock chain, Kamalov said they were part of the new security forces.