Supporters of ousted Kyrgyzstan leader in attempted coup

Buildings seized and official kidnapped in attempt by Kurmanbek Bakiyev's backers to seize power a month after uprising
  • The Guardian,
A supporter of the ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev kisses his portrait in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan,
A supporter of the ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev kisses his portrait in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, during an attempted counter coup. Photograph: D Dalton Bennett/AP

Supporters of the ousted president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, mounted a coup attempt, the interim government said today.

Supporters of Bakiyev, who fled to Belarus a month ago after an uprising, seized buildings in Osh, Jalalabad and Batken, kidnapped the governor of Jalalabad region and tried to take control of the airport in Osh.

"They have one goal: to seize power... But they will fail," said a government spokesman, Farid Niyazov.

There were no reports of deaths but the unrest was the biggest challenge to the interim government, which has struggled to impose order in the impoverished Muslim country of 5.3 million since toppling Bakiyev in a revolt last month.

Any worsening of tensions in the south, at the heart of the Ferghana Valley, Central Asia's most flammable and ethnically divided corner, would be of concern to the United States and Russia, which both operate military bases in Kyrgyzstan.

Unrest during the uprising against Bakiyev on 7 April disrupted troop flights out of the Manas air base which the United States uses to support the war in Afghanistan.

"What is going on in the south will get absolutely no support from us," one US source told Reuters, referring to the uprising. "Bakiyev is corrupt and he is a murderer."

The interim leaders want to extradite Bakiyev and try him for corruption and for letting troops fire into crowds of protesters on 7 April, killing dozens. "We are receiving information and are trying to understand what is happening," said the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Belarus, whose maverick leader Alexander Lukashenko has refused to extradite Bakiyev, said all its diplomats had left the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, for security reasons.

Bakiyev, who is secluded in a country residence in provincial Belarus, has so far made no comment on the unrest.

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