Russia urges Kyrgyz authorities to prevent violence
15:5913/05/2010 MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - The interim Kyrgyz government must work to avoid further tension and possible violence, the Russian foreign minister said on Thursday.
"We believe that the most important thing today is to prevent a new surge in political tension, establish legitimate bodies of state power and return the country to normalcy as soon as possible," Sergei Lavrov said.
He said it was also essential to deal with pressing socio-economic issues and that the Kyrgyz interim government was working along those lines.
Meanwhile, protesters opposed to the new government have seized a provincial administrative building in Osh, and say they are heading to other large cities in the south of the country to hold demonstrations and replace regional administrators appointed by the new authorities in Bishkek.
Ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev took refuge in Belarus after fleeing Kyrgyzstan last month. The interim authorities, who took power amid violent unrest in early April, accuse him of involvement in the shooting of civilians during the riots in the Central Asian country.
Earlier this week, Kyrgyz authorities formally requested the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office to extradite Bakiyev. An official said the request was under consideration, but a Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested it would not be resolved quickly.
"This is a legal process and it requires the completion of a very serious legal procedure," Andrei Savinykh said.
The Kyrgyz Prosecutor General's Office has accused top officials and Bakiyev's relatives of involvement in the deaths of more than 80 people shot by security forces during the April unrest. The prosecutor general has put them on an international wanted list and the interim government has promised awards of up to $100,000 for their detention.
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