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KYRGYZSTAN TO FACE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ACID TEST

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan is feeling like taking an exam before the international community, Kyrgyz acting foreign minister Roza Otunbaeva told the press conference in Moscow.

"We are sitting an examination of the international community", she said. She explained that Kyrgyzstan is going to conduct an honest presidential election (set for July 10) and demonstrate that the country is developing along the lines of the law and building a democratic state. "Our people demand restoration of justice", Otunbaeva said.

She views the March 24 events as a popular revolution. "On March 24 a popular revolution was made. We call it so, no matter what you call it", she said.

She describes the current setup in Kyrgyzstan as tending to stability. Specifically, the government has restored the vertical of power, which has been wrecked in some regions, Otunbaeva said.

She recalled that Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the European Union and China have given Kyrgyzstan humanitarian aid. "In foreign policy, the Kyrgyz republic has not proved isolated in front of the wind of change. The heads of many foreign policy establishments, above all Russian, Chinese and the United States', have expressed support and sympathy", she said.

As to economic cooperation with Russia, Otunbaeva said: "Russian investors are vigorous today. We welcome business coming to our unstable soil despite risks it may face".

The acting foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan expressed regret over how the career of the first Kyrgyz president Askar Akaev has ended.

"His (Akaev's) decision to go was hasty. A president who has done much for the country over 14.5 years should not have ended his political career like that", Otunbaeva said.

She believes that in recent time Akaev had been living "far from reality" without getting trustworthy information. "Other members of his family were running the republic", Otunbaeva maintains.

As regards Akaev's property, Otunbaeva said that a special commission will be set up in Kyrgyzstan. "A property commission will be set up. Much of the property of the former president was entered for others' names and the commission will have to find out ownership", she said.

She also recalled that Akaev has been stripped of all the privileges and benefits of the first president, though the inviolability status remains.

On the same day, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation Nikolai Bordyuzha has had a meeting with Roza Otunbaeva.

"The firm and consistent position of Kyrgyzstan to fulfil in full volume its obligations, agreements and decisions worked out within the framework of the CSTO has been confirmed", the CSTO press service has said.

The CSTO is made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.