Russian news agency Thursday reported that Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev had signed an official resignation statement and the outgoing parliament elected two opposition leaders as the new speaker and head of security agencies of the Central Asian country.
About 1,000 protesters managed to clear riot police from their positions outside the fence protecting the building, and about half that number entered the compound and went into the building through the front entrance.
Protesters later entered the headquarters of the national television station.
The Interfax news agency reported President Askar Akayev had left the country with his family for neighboring Kazakhstan.
Earlier news reports claimed the president left his presidential office and arrived at a Russian airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev was also said to have resigned.
The opposition protesters had taken control of administration buildings in three of Kyrgyzstan's seven regions and the administration buildings of smaller districts within two other regions. Authorities publicly admitted the situation in some places had "gone out of control."
Earlier, Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev appealed to the protesters to refrain from violence, saying peaceful demonstrators would not be the target of police anti-riot action.
"We ask (the protesters) not to destroy, not to loot, not to storm state buildings and shops. I will never give an order to use arms against peaceable people," Keneshbek Dushebayev told reporters.
At a closed emergency session of the parliament Thursday, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov was named the parliament speaker, who will serve as interim president and prime minister in their absence according tothe Kyrgyz constitution, Interfax reported. Kadyrbekov was speaker of the previous parliament.
The parliament also elected another opposition leader Felix Kulov, released from prison Thursday, as the new head of the country's security agencies. Kulov, 56, was jailed on corruption charges.
Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is deputy head of the People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan, will head a coordinating council of national unity, which will act as an interim government.
The opposition started rallying after the February 27 parliamentary election, saying the poll was flawed.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2005)
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