AP interview: Kyrgyz president refuses to step down, saying he’s not to blame for bloodshed

Ousted Kyrgyz leader: not to blame for bloodshed

TEYIT, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president has defended the legitimacy of his rule and urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to help stabilize the Central Asian nation.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told The Associated Press Sunday in an interview at his home village in the south of the country that he had not ordered police to fire at protesters in the capital.

Bakiyev fled the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after a protest rally against corruption, rising utility bills and deteriorating human rights exploded into police gunfire and chaos that left at least 81 people dead and sparked protesters to storm government buildings.

Bakiyev told the AP that police fired shots to defend the government headquarters. He angrily rejected the self-proclaimed interim government’s demand to step down.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The head of Kyrgyzstan’s interim government said Sunday that the Central Asian country’s deposed president must face trial, rescinding an earlier offer of security guarantees for him.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (Koor-mahn-BEK Bah-KEE-yev) warned from his home village in the south against any attempt to arrest him, saying it will trigger bloodshed

Roza Otunbayeva (ROH-zah Oh-toon-BAH-yeva)’s statement reflected the toughening of the new authorities’ stance as they grow increasingly impatient with the ousted Bakiyev’s refusal to step down. Otunbayeva and others had earlier offered Bakiyev a safe passage out of the country if he resigned voluntarily.

The stalemate has left Kyrgyzstan’s near-term stability in doubt, a worry for the West because of the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan that is a crucial element in the international military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“People are criticizing me for being too soft and saying there should be no security guarantees for him,” Otunbayeva said in televized remarks. “People are demanding that Bakiyev face trial.”

Bakiyev fled the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after a protest rally against corruption, rising utility bills and deteriorating human rights exploded into police gunfire and chaos that left at least 81 people dead and sparked protesters to storm government buildings.

Speaking to the Russian RIA Novosti news agency from his home Jalal-Abad region in southern Kyrgyzstan, Bakiyev urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to Kyrgyzstan to prevent unrest from spreading.

“The police have been paralyzed, the military is so-so, and if, God forbid, there is some hotbed we won’t manage to deal with it on our own,” he said. “It’s necessary to deploy the U.N. peacekeepers in Kyrgyzstan today.”

Bakiyev said he wants an international commission to investigate the circumstances of violence in Bishkek and would be ready to face responsibility if it determines he was to blame. He dismissed an investigation launched by the interim authorities as biased.

“I don’t trust the probe, it’s going to blame me for everything,” he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

Bakiyev added that he feels a “deep pain” for the victims in Bishkek. “Of course, I feel responsibility for what has happened,” he was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying. “I can’t say that I’m not to blame.”

He added that he doesn’t trust personal security guarantees offered by the new authorities and fears being lynched by the mob.

Bakiyev said that his supporters will fight back if the interim rulers try to arrest him. “If they try, we shall resist,” he said.

Omurbek Tekebayev, a deputy head of the self-declared interim government, warned Bakiyev against using force.

“If he attempts to destabilize the situation and shed blood, he would put himself outside the law and we would conduct an operation to destroy him as a terrorist and a criminal,” Tekebayev told The Associated Press.

In taking power Thursday, the interim leaders said they controlled four of Kyrgyzstan’s seven regions. By Saturday they claimed to have expanded their control throughout the country.

Kyrgyzstan’s society is strongly clan-based, but there are few signs that Bakiyev could muster any significant tribal support in the south to challenge the self-declared interim government. Some analysts say that a hike in utility prices and massive corruption has set many southerners against Bakiyev.

“Bakiyev has poisoned lives of southerners as well as people in the north,” said Toktogul Kakchekeyev, an independent political analyst based in Bishkek. He predicted said that Bakiyev will try to bargain with the interim government to receive immunity for all members of his clan in exchange for stepping down.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday spoke with Otunbayeva to offer humanitarian aid and discuss the importance of the U.S. air base. Otunbayeva reaffirmed the country would abide by previous agreements regarding the base.

The U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and serves as an important transit point for troops. U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. John Redfield said that although normal flight operations at the base were resumed Friday, military passenger flights were being temporarily diverted.

Russia, which also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan, had pushed Bakiyev’s government to evict the U.S. military. But after announcing that American forces would have to leave the Manas base, Kyrgyzstan agreed to allow them to stay after the U.S. raised the annual rent to about $63 million from $17 million.

Associated Press Writers Peter Leonard in Jalal-Abad and Leila Saralayeva in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.