KYRGYZSTAN: The leaders of last week's coup in Kyrgyzstan glossed over their differences yesterday, resolving a row between rival parliaments and confirming Kurmanbek Bakiyev as acting president and prime minister.
But the new leader of the central Asia state was immediately accused of betrayal by some erstwhile supporters, who condemned his decision to accept the legitimacy of a parliament elected in recent polls that he had previously denounced as rigged.
Complaints over the ballot sparked last week's revolt, which forced veteran leader Askar Akayev to flee the country.
But Mr Bakiyev now insists the election results should stand to allow Kyrgyzstan to move on from last week's convulsion.
"I can be reproached for saying earlier that the polls were not legitimate. I did say that. But in this parliament we only have to question some 15 or 20 constituencies - no one is saying that all deputies have to go," Mr Bakiyev said, after most members of the previous parliament agreed to step down and their successors confirmed him as interim premier and president.
"The old parliament has . . . passed all responsibility to the new one. They do not want friction," deputy Nikolai Bailo told reporters.
The danger of continuing unrest and even civil war had prompted the old parliament to back down, according to its speaker, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov. "The decision was taken to defend stability, and in the interest of the nation . . . so that the acting president will not face two rival legislatures," Mr Kadyrbekov said.
But some protesters outside parliament were furious at this change of tack by former opposition leaders: "The new parliament is illegitimate," said one demonstrator, Adylbek Kasimov. "The dirty election is on their conscience."
"After all the looting and destruction that we've had I do not recognise my own city. If this new leadership had not come along none of this would have happened. We need to change the leadership again," said Zarina Anarbekova, a student.
Felix Kulov, another opposition leader who is now security chief in this state of five million, insisted all was well between him and Mr Bakiyev.
"We have no difference of opinion," he said, while the speaker of the new parliament warned that the "rule of the Kalashnikov" could result if former opposition leaders allowed a power vacuum to develop while they quarrelled.
Mr Kulov and his colleagues spent their first days in power trying to halt looting that followed Thursday's unexpected revolution, when demonstrations in southern Kyrgyzstan suddenly sparked riots in the capital, Bishkek.
Mr Akayev, who ruled the strategic nation since 1990 and became synonymous with cronyism and corruption, escaped the besieged government building and fled to Kazakhstan, before going on to Russia.
He was reported to be in both those countries yesterday, as his vanquishers said they were negotiating with him to formally step down, clearing the way for presidential elections that are planned for June 26th.
"The revolutionaries . . . want to grab power. They have not only ruined our nation's reputation for the entire world but have also caused irreparable damage to the national economy," Mr Akayev railed in an e-mail to Kyrgyzstan's state news agency.
