Kyrgyz opposition leader given top jobs

President Askar Akayev has fled the country; maybe he is in St Petersburg. The country's Supreme Court annulled the last legislative elections.

Bishkek (AsiaNews) - Kyrgyzstan has begun its first day in opposition hands, after the president and the government of the former Soviet republic were toppled on Thursday. President Askar Akayev has fled the country, unconfirmed reports say.

During the night, gangs of looters roamed the capital, Bishkek, ransacking shops and setting fire to buildings. Three people are reported to have died in the overnight violence.

Opposition leaders in the central Asian state have pledged to stop their victory disintegrating into chaos - and MP Ishenbai Kadyrbekov has already been named acting president. The opposition has now formed a so-called Council of People's Unity in an attempt to bring together various anti-government groups.

Mr Akayev's administration was swept from power on Thursday, when thousands of anti-government demonstrators chanting "Down with the Akayev clans" gathered in Bishkek and stormed the presidential palace. The huge protests were sparked by elections last month, which were widely seen as fraudulent. The country's Supreme Court annulled the results and recognised the outgoing parliament as the legitimate legislature.

The parliament, which was due to be replaced by the winners of the recent election, reconvened in emergency session late on Thursday to appoint a new leadership.

Kyrgyz deputies have appointed opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev as both acting president and prime minister.

A prominent opposition leader, Felix Kulov, who was released from jail by his supporters during the upheaval, was appointed head of the country's security ministries. But it is not clear whether the appointments carry any legal weight.

Meanwhile, ex-president Akayev's hiding place is the subject of a flurry of rumours. According to independent Russian news agency, Interfax, he has fled to Akayev, joining there his family who had escaped separately on board a military helicopter.

Analysts contacted by Asianews say he has likely fled to St Petersburg to take protection under the wing of Russian president and close friend Vladimir Putin.

There are fears of further instability in the mountainous country, and foreign powers are watching the situation closely. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was too soon to know where events in Kyrgyzstan were leading. "This is a process that's just beginning," she said.

Russia's reaction was more sceptical. "I think that the so-called opposition... should have the brains to find enough strength to calm down and bring the situation to the plane of political dialogue and not a dialogue of screams, shattering windows, destroying buildings and freeing prisons of criminals," Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

Kyrgyzstan is of strategic importance to Russia and the United States, both of which have military bases in the country.

• KYRGYZSTAN
• demonstrations
• opposition
• government
• change
• Usa
• russia
• riots
• violence
• exstremism