Kyrgyz government 'resigns'

The Kyrgyz opposition said today it had forced the country's government to resign and was demanding the president quit after …

The Kyrgyz opposition said today it had forced the country's government to resign and was demanding the president quit after troops shot at protesters besieging government buildings, killing dozens.

"We have reached an agreement that the government will resign. That has not been signed on paper yet," Galina Skripkina, a senior official in the opposition Social-Democratic Party and member of parliament, told Reuters.

She said president Kurmanbek Bakiyev had left the capital Bishkek - where demonstrators torched the prosecutor-general's office and tried to smash trucks into government buildings - and flown to the southern city of Osh.

"For now we have only achieved the government's resignation. The White House has surrendered. The president himself has not resigned. He must resign and formally submit his resignation to parliament so we can appoint a caretaker government," she said.

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Spokesmen for the government and the president were not available for comment.

Mr Bakiyev himself came to power after 2005 protests which ousted Kyrgyzstan's first post-Soviet president, Askar Akayev. Both men were accused by their opponents of concentrating power in the hands of their associates.

The US State Department said it had no information the government had fallen and for the moment believed Mr Bakiyev was still in power after the clashes that have spread across the ex-Soviet state of 5.3 million people since last month.

The United States has military air base supporting troops in Afghanistan in the Kyrgyz city of Manas and is a major donor to Kyrgyzstan, along with China and Russia, which also has military base there.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said operations at the base - visited by US Central Command chief General David Petraeus last month - appeared unaffected.

"Right now the transit centre at the Manas airport is functioning normally," he said. "It's an important facility connected to our Afghan operations and it's functioning normally."

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin earlier called for calm and denied Russia had played a hand in the clashes.

"Neither Russia, nor your humble servant, nor Russian officials have any links whatsoever to these events," Mr Putin said.

Political unrest over poverty, rising prices and corruption has gripped Kyrgyzstan since early March. About a third of the population live below the poverty line and remittances from workers in Russia have fallen during the global economic crisis.

The opposition said at least 100 had been killed today. The health ministry put the death toll at 40, and said 400 people had been injured.

"There are dozens of dead bodies, all with gunshot wounds," Akylbek Yeukebayev, a doctor at a Bishkek hospital, told Reuters.

Many of the injured had gunshot wounds to their heads. "They are killing us," said one wounded man on the emergency ward.

Reuters reporters could hear gunfire and explosions in Bishkek's main square and armed men were stalking the streets after midnight. Bonfires burnt and shops and restaurants were looted. Thousands of people were on the streets, waving Kyrgyz flags.

Kyrgyz troops earlier shot at thousands of anti-government protesters who tried to smash two trucks through the perimeter fence of government buildings, a Reuters reporter said.

About 1,000 people stormed the prosecutor-general's office before setting fire to the building. Opposition activists also took control of state television channel KTR.

Protesters seized government buildings in three other towns. In Talas, Kyrgyz first deputy prime minister Aklybek Japarov and Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev were beaten. Kongantiyev was forced to shout: "Down with Bakiyev!," two witnesses said.

Kyrgyz prime minister Daniyar Usenov earlier told Reuters by phone that he and the president were working in their offices.

"We daren't even look out of the window," Kamil Sydykov, the prime minister's spokesman, said by telephone from inside the presidential building.

The protests spread to the capital after riots which began in Talas and Naryn the day before and continued into Wednesday.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon visited Bishkek last week and called on the government to do more to protect human rights.

"The secretary-general is shocked by the reported deaths and injuries that have occurred today in Kyrgyzstan. He urgently appeals for dialogue and calm to avoid further bloodshed," Mr Ban's spokesman said.

Reuters