Heightening the rhetoric, Bakiev is reported to have warned against some kind of protracted civil terror… IF they come after him personally. This threat was made in reference to the possibility that the opposition, or perhaps their Russian friends, could send assassins after the deposed president.
“Although they are an illegitimate government, let’s sit at the negotiating table. I would like to warn those who are now hunting for me: don’t be contract killers, because this will only bring huge tragedy to the country. We will drown in blood if they opt for physical elimination. If they use force, then those people surrounding me will not let it happen, and this will mean bloodshed.”
The opposition-cum-sitting-power has likewise upped their rhetoric, laying the deaths of this past week directly on Bakiev’s shoulders.The envoy’s remarks came as thousands of people gathered at Ata Beit cemetery in Bishkek on April 10 for the funeral of 16 people, who died in bloody clashes between antigovernment protesters and security forces earlier this week.
Roza Otunbaeva, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s self-proclaimed new cabinet, and members of her team also attended the funeral.
Addressing some 10,000 mourners, Otunbaeva blamed the deaths on the government of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev who fled Bishkek in the aftermath of the protests.
I’m afraid of where this is heading.
“Let them try to seize me. Let them try to destroy me. I think this will lead to a great deal of bloodshed, which no one will be able to justify,” Bakiev said. “Those who are causing unrest in Bishkek now are trying to divide the country into the north and the south. That should not be allowed to happen.”
Add to this mess those stories mentioned in the comments here and elsewhere, and it becomes increasingly confusing. A Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Naryn reports relative calm, analysts look for Russian and American puppetry, and even the unflappable folks at Eurasia.net have posted two strangely opposing stories (though you may agree that their premises are not mutually exclusive):
Kyrgyzstan wants to be neutral between Russians and Americans
Kyrgyzstan wants to suckle at the teat of the Great Russian Mother Bear
One assumes the next story will be:
Kyrgyzstan would like to continue to suckle at America’s teat, as well…
In any event, I have a story of non-sequitur goodness, though related to Manas:
