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Kyrgyz president offers terms for resignation
[Al Arabiya Latest] Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said on Tuesday he might resign if the interim government guaranteed his safety and calmed the turmoil gripping the country since an uprising against his five-year rule."And I want a settlement for the emotional distress it's caused me." Raising for the first time the possibility of ceding power, Bakiyev attached several conditions to stepping down, a sharp shift in tone that could offer a way out of the standoff with the self-proclaimed government which controls Kyrgyzstan. "I want it in small bills..." When asked by reporters under what conditions he could resign, Bakiyev said: "I believe first and foremost if there is a guarantee that the roaming of these armed people ends in Kyrgyzstan, that this redistribution of property and this armed free-for-all stops." "Secondly, if my personal security and that of my family and my relatives is guaranteed," Bakiyev told reporters outside his yurt in his home village. "And also let them start preparing a snap presidential election to be held within two or three months." The self-proclaimed government has said Russia is its key ally and some leading ministers have said the lease on a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, the subject of Russian objections, could be shortened. The base is used for supplying U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. Since fleeing the capital after troops fired on demonstrators in an uprising on April 7 that brought his opponents to power, Bakiyev had warned of a bloodbath, refused to resign and tried to rally followers in his southern stronghold. Posted by: Fred 2010-04-14 |
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