Toppled Kyrgyz leader insists he is still president

Kyrgyzstan's toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, currently in exile in Belarus, lashed out at the interim government which replaced him and insisted that he remains the country's legally elected leader.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Kyrgyzstan's ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev insisted Wednesday that he was still the rightful leader of his country, breaking several days of silence after his flight into exile.

"I, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, am the legally elected president of Kyrgyzstan and recognised by the international community," he said, speaking to reporters in Belarus where he took refuge earlier this week

"I do not recognise my resignation. Nine months ago the people of Kyrgyzstan elected me their president and there is no power that can stop me. Only death can stop me," Bakiyev said in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

Bakiyev was toppled by a popular uprising in Kyrgyzstan two weeks ago that brought a new interim government to power in the former Soviet republic.

After holding out in his stronghold in southern Kyrgyzstan for about a week, Bakiyev flew to neighbouring Kazakhstan, and the interim government announced that he had submitted his resignation.

On Monday he and several family members left Kazakhstan and arrived in Belarus at the invitation of strongman Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Speaking in the Minsk-based headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet republics, Bakiyev lashed out at the interim government which replaced him.

"Everyone must know the the bandits who try to take power are the executors of a external force and have no legitimacy," he said with steely determination.

"I call on leaders of the international community: do not set a precedent and do not recognise this gang as the legitimate authorities," he said.

"Kyrgyzstan will be nobody's colony. My people want to be free and will become free," Bakiyev added.

The exiled leader arrived in the room surrounded by bodyguards, and left immediately after reading a short statement, without taking questions from reporters.

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.