Originally published by Reuters, 13 Apr2010

By Dmitry Solovyov

TEYYIT, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) – 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.

Raising for the first time the possibility of ceding power, Bakiyev attached several conditions to stepping down, in a sharp shift in tone that could offer a way out of his standoff with the new self-proclaimed government which controls Kyrgyzstan.

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 tent in his home village.

“And also let them start preparing a snap presidential election to be held within two or three months.”

By offering the prospect of resignation, Bakiyev could open up a way out of turmoil that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday threatened to turn into a “second Afghanistan”.

“As I understand it Kyrgyzstan is on the verge of civil war,” Medevedev told an audience at a think-tank in Washington, where he was attending the global nuclear security summit.

Medvedev — whose government has close ties with the new interim leaders in Kyrgyzstan — suggested it was time for Bakiyev to make way. “Certain political figures should take responsible decisions,” he said.

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.

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

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.

He called on the head of the interim government, Roza Otunbayeva, to join talks in the southern city of Jalalabad because he said the government could not guarantee his safety in Bishkek.

“I can guarantee full security while they cannot guarantee any for me,” said the president, looking tired. “Why on earth should I go there, especially if they cannot guarantee my security?”

The interim government also said it was ready for talks.

“Our representatives are there with Bakiyev. He should say himself when and in what format (the talks should start),” Azimbek Beknazarov, an interim deputy prime minister in charge of security, told Reuters.

Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers have ordered Bakiyev, who swept to power five years ago in a coup that removed Kyrgyzstan’s first post-Soviet ruler Askar Akayev, to surrender by the end of Tuesday or face arrest.

“We have abolished his presidential immunity,” said Beknazarov. “We have opened a criminal case against the former president. If he does not show up today after the rally we will hold an operation to detain him.”

Bakiyev brushed aside those threats, saying that a military unit had reached the nearby town of Uzen before turning back.

“No, I am not afraid of any special operations … the forces they have at their disposal are not able to fulfill this,” he told reporters. “It’s not worth trying to intimidate me or the population of the South with the use of armed forces.”

A few dozen men armed with Kalashnikov rifles, some wearing dark glasses and camouflage jackets, guarded the president and villagers squatted by the roadside ready to block roads with makeshift obstacles if necessary.

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday a spokesman for Bakiyev said there was no sign of government forces near the president’s hideout. Some locals said they were leaving the area because they feared violence would break out.

DARK GLASSES

Earlier in the day, about 7,000 Bakiyev supporters rallied in the nearby city of Jalalabad, many waving banners and shouting: “Down with the bloody interim government”.

The unrest in Kyrgyzstan has shifted the balance of great power rivalries in the poor mountainous state of 5.3 million people.

A U.S. military official said the Manas base would not be used as a hub for sending troops into Afghanistan in the near term, in case it is needed for humanitarian aid or other logistical purposes.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there were viable alternatives to Manas to support Afghan operations but said he saw a willingness in Kyrgyzstan to keep the base open.

The United States says the interim government has pledged to abide by its agreements on Manas.

Political analysts say Moscow, given the pro-Russian sympathies of the interim government, may try to use the base as a lever in its relations with Washington. But Medvedev said Russia was not plotting to oust the base.

“When I met with President Bakiyev I always told him it is necessary to help our American partners in solving problems in Afghanistan — the question is how to give this help, how effective it is,” Medvedev said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake will visit Bishkek this week to meet the interim government, the highest-level visitor U.S. visit since Bakiyev fled the capital.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6363CR20100413