BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — A crowd gathered in the burned-out center of the Kyrgyz capital on Friday to mourn at least 75 people killed in an uprising that ousted the government and cast doubt over the future of a U.S. air base in the country.
Vigilante groups organized by Kyrgyzstan's self-proclaimed new government spent the night battling looters to return calm to the city after riots that forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee to his stronghold in the south of the country.
Bakiyev has refused to step down, though he has offered to talk with opposition leaders who have claimed control of the former Soviet state of 5.3 million people that hosts both U.S. and Russian military bases. The opposition has vowed to hold power for six months before a new round of elections are called.
"Bakiyev must be tried and executed for all these crimes," said Fatima Imanaliyeva, a former prosecutor in tears on the main square in Bishkek.
She said two of her friends were among those killed during Wednesday's demonstrations, when security forces opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition.
"We will never forgive him. This is our revolution."
The Kyrgyz uprising, which the new leadership says had Russian support, overshadowed an arms reduction pact signed in Prague by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
While the presidents signed the pact on Thursday as part of an effort to "reset" strained relations, a senior official in Medvedev's delegation urged Kyrgyzstan to close the U.S. Manas airbase that backs U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The new Kyrgyz leadership, fronted by 59-year-old Roza Otunbayeva, said on Thursday that Russia had helped oust Bakiyev and that there were no plans yet to review the lease agreement for the Manas air base, which runs out in July. She said her government would meet U.S. diplomats for talks in Bishkek.
"Give us time, it will take time for us to understand and fix the situation," Otunbayeva said.
U.S. military officials said Kyrgyzstan halted flights for 12 hours Wednesday, confining troops to the air base; they did not say if flights had resumed. Some 1,100 troops are stationed there, including contingents from Spain and France, in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.
The new leadership sent a delegation to Moscow for talks on Friday, Interfax reported, citing an unnamed government source. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Omurbek Tekebayev, a former opposition leader who took charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said on Thursday that "Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev."
"You've seen the level of Russia's joy when they saw Bakiyev gone," he told Reuters. "So now there is a high probability that the duration of the U.S. air base's presence in Kyrgyzstan will be shortened."
Washington, which has not yet stated clearly who it believes is in control of Kyrgyzstan, has played down the threat to the base. "We have an existing agreement with the government of Kyrgyzstan," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
James Nixey, analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House, said concern about the continuation of U.S. operations from the Manas airbase was probably unfounded.
"Any future Kyrgyz government will need the money and shoulder the political flak," he said. "But the situation is inherently worrying in a region that has taken on a new importance since 9/11 and the 'Global War on Terror.'"
Michael McFaul, Obama's senior director for Russian affairs, emphasized that the U.S. did not view the conflict as any kind of proxy struggle between the U.S. and Russia.
"The people that are allegedly running Kyrgyzstan ... these are all people we've had contact with for many years," McFaul said. "This is not some anti-American coup, that we know for sure. And this is not some sponsored-by-the-Russians coup, there's just no evidence of that."
New unrest broke out overnight in Bishkek with gunfire throughout the capital city, apparently from clashes between looters and security forces backed by vigilantes.
The Health Ministry says 67 people sought medical attention for gunshot wounds and injuries from rubber bullets and head injuries after the latest violence.
"No one died overnight," said Interior Ministry spokesman Abdykalyk Ismailov. "There are still some groups of looters, but the city is largely under control."
About 1,000 people gathered in and around the burned-out government building. Rows of men wearing traditional white felt hats knelt to pray, while weeping relatives and friends laid flowers next to a list of those killed during the protests.
Funerals were taking place in the city ahead of a mourning ceremony planned for Saturday.
The self-proclaimed government organized vigilante groups to guard Bishkek overnight and battle looters, who had stripped the main government building and set fire to cars and buildings. Groups of four to five men stood guard at street corners.
"I wasn't sure I was going to survive, but we must guard our own homes, wives and children," 38-year-old volunteer Arman Ospanov told Reuters.
Ismailov, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said groups of looters, some of them drunk, had driven through Bishkek at night shooting randomly from the windows of cars without registration plates. These reports could not be independently verified.
Anti-government protests in Kyrgyzstan, where the average monthly wage is $130 and a third of the population live below the property line, spread to the capital from provincial towns.
Much may now depend on Bakiyev's response. The ousted president spoke to Reuters on Thursday from an undisclosed location in the south of Kyrgyzstan, saying he had no plans to step down. The new government has demanded his resignation.
Otunbayeva, who served as acting foreign minister under Bakiyev after helping propel him to the presidency during the "Tulip Revolution" five years ago, said his overthrow was a response to the "repression and tyranny" of his regime.
(AP, Reuters)