Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
From hiding, Kyrgyz leader declares state of emergency
MOSCOW — Four days after vanishing during a wave of attacks on government buildings by opposition protesters, the president of Kyrgyzstan declared a state of emergency in the capital of his Central Asian country Friday, ordering the military into the city to halt unrest, confining residents to their homes and banning public gatherings.
The beleaguered president, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, announced the measures in a decree issued from an undisclosed location and posted on his official website.
But it was unclear whether Jeenbekov, who went into hiding after violent protests over a disputed parliamentary election Sunday, would be able to enforce the state of emergency in the absence of a functioning government.
Bowing to pressure from the street, Jeenbekov earlier Friday formally dismissed the prime minister, the head of the armed forces and the country’s security chief.
The dismissed officials had already given up their posts and decrees announcing their departure merely acknowledged a fait accompli dictated by the president’s foes.
In a separate statement early Friday, the president indicated that he, too, could leave office, saying that he was ready to resign once a new Cabinet was appointed and “we are back on the path of lawfulness.” His subsequent declaration of a state of emergency, however, suggested he might try to hang on to power, but many welcomed the move as necessary to prevent the turmoil from escalating into a wider conflict. He named a deputy interior minister as “commandant” of the capital, responsible for enforcing the emergency measures.
Jeenbekov, seeking to reassert his battered authority, reappeared later Friday to attend a meeting in Bishkek with the military leadership and is scheduled to meet with members of parliament today to try to hammer out an agreement on a new prime minister.
The prospects of an orderly transfer of power have dimmed in recent days, largely because the opposition is deeply divided. Lawmakers, who have responsibility for naming a prime minister, have held rival meetings in a hotel and cinema but have been unable to agree on a new lawful government that could fill the power vacuum.
On Friday, supporters of two rival would-be new prime ministers — both of whom were freed from prison earlier in the week — clashed violently in Bishkek. The country’s former president, Almazbek Atambayev, who was broken out of jail by protesters and joined the opposition, said he had been the victim of an assassination attempt.