Kyrgyz opposition seizes control

**The opposition in Kyrgyzstan says it has dissolved parliament and taken power, after a bloody uprising forced the president to flee the capital.**Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva, an ex-foreign minister, said the interim government was fully in control.

She said President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had not yet resigned but was trying to rally support in the country’s south.

Clashes in the capital, Bishkek and other towns on Wednesday left some 65 dead and more than 400 injured.

It had spread to Bishkek, where demonstrators marched on the government headquarters, and another town, Naryn, after initially breaking out in the provincial town of Talas a day earlier.

There has been no official word from Mr Bakiyev - who himself came to power in a revolution in the central Asian state five years ago - since he was reportedly flown out of the capital to his home region of Jalalabad.

But the news agency fergana.ru said he intended to offer his resignation. That report has not been confirmed.

The scene in Bishkek on Thursday morning was calm, with the opposition apparently in control of the government headquarters.

Speaking at a packed news conference, Ms Otunbayeva said an interim government - which would remain in power for six months - was fully in control of the country and had appointed new ministers.

Mr Bakiyev had not yet resigned, she said, but was believed to have returned to Jalalabad, in the south of the country, to try to rally support.

“We want to negotiate his resignation,” Reuters news agency quotes her as saying. “His business here is over.”

The BBC’s Rayhan Demytrie in Bishkek says Mr Bakiyev has a large support base in the south where Osh, the Central Asian country’s second city, is located.

It has yet to be seen how many people there will turn out for the president and whether Mr Bakiyev will try to fight back with their support.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that the opposition had taken over administration buildings in Osh.

Kyrgyzstan is a strategically important Central Asian state and houses a Russian base and a key US military base that supplies forces in Afghanistan. The US has suspended military flights.

Ms Otunbayeva said these military bases could continue as before.

Reuters news agency reported that Ishmail Isakov had been named as the interim defence minister and had affirmed the country’s armed forces and border guards were under the control of the interim government.

“Military force will be never again be used to solve domestic matters,” he was quoted as saying.

Domestic affair?

The United States said on Wednesday it deplored the violence and urged “respect for the rule of law”.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had played any role in the unrest, saying it was a “domestic affair” and that there should be “restraint”.

A Chinese foreign ministry statement said it was “deeply concerned” about events in Kyrgyzstan, which shares a 533-mile (858km) border with China, and hoped order could be restored soon.

A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon said the UN secretary general was “shocked by the reported deaths and injuries” and had appealed for “dialogue and calm to avoid further bloodshed”.

There was widespread looting and gunfire during the night in Bishkek.

The Kyrgyz health ministry said 40 people had died in Wednesday’s clashes and more than 400 were injured.

But the opposition said that figure was far too low.

In a broadcast on a TV channel it took over, spokesman Omurbek Tekebayev said at least 100 demonstrators had been killed.

Mr Bakiyev came to power amid a wave of street protests in 2005 known as the Tulip Revolution, but many of his allies have deserted him claiming intimidation and corruption.

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