Kyrgyzstan’s interim leader has condemned Belarus’ decision to provide refuge to ousted Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, calling him a “criminal” and demanding his extradition.
“Kyrgyzstan’s people may not react positively to Belarus taking in such a man, who has the lives of many people on his conscience,” interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva told reporters late on Tuesday.
“This criminal must be handed over back to our country. If that does not happen, there is Interpol,” said Otunbayeva, whose interim government took power two weeks ago after the popular uprising which ousted Bakiyev.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed on Tuesday that Bakiyev was in Belarus, ending days of uncertainty over the toppled leader’s whereabouts.
Bakiyev and several members of his family had arrived in Minsk and were “under the protection of our state and personally of the president,” Lukashenko told the Belarussian parliament.
The ousted Kyrgyz leader was flown to Belarus by Lukashenko’s own personal security service, the head of the service, Andrei Vtyurin, told the Interfax news agency yesterday.
“We should give special thanks to the pilots for landing the plane in severe weather conditions, when the airport was practically closed in connection with the volcanic cloud covering the territory of Belarus,” Vtyurin said.
Lukashenko, a strongman leader who has ruled Belarus since 1994 and is often criticized in the West for tolerating no dissent, had voiced anger at the uprising which overthrew Bakiyev.
Bakiyev left Kyrgyzstan last week for Kazakhstan. The Kazakh foreign ministry said Monday that he had left, without specifying his destination.
The Kyrgyz interim government wants to put Bakiyev on trial for the shooting of demonstrators during the popular uprising that led to his overthrow, in which 85 people were killed.
Meanwhile, Otunbayeva warned looters and armed assailants that police would use deadly force against them, following ethnic riots near Bishkek that killed five people earlier this week.
“In accordance with law, law enforcement officials will use deadly force in case of armed assaults against civilians, their homes and private property, attempts on their health and life, as well as attacks on civilian and military objects,” she said.
The interim government has struggled to impose order in recent days as mobs of angry, impoverished people have descended on the Kyrgyz capital to demand plots of land. On Monday, five people were killed when a huge mob surged into the village of Mayevka, just outside Bishkek and attempted to seize land from ethnic Russian and Turkish residents.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered his defense minister to take steps to guarantee the safety of Russian citizens in Kyrgyzstan following the attempted land grabs.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday the EU was ready to offer the interim Kyrgyz government political and financial help if it embraced democracy.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS