Kyrgyzstan's president attempts to restore peace

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- Opposition supporters and police formed joint patrols to keep order in a southern city of Kyrgyzstan where protesters have seized government offices. President Askar Akayev pledged Tuesday he would not impose a state of emergency despite demonstrations about alleged election fraud.\nAkayev's statement -- a day after opposition protesters took control of the southern city of Osh and several other towns -- appeared aimed at avoiding an escalation of tensions in the country, where memories of police killing six demonstrators in 2002 are still strong.\nThe capital of Bishkek braced for demonstrations that did not materialize. Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, was peaceful, too, after the protesters allowed government workers back into offices the opposition had seized by force Monday in rallies calling for Akayev to resign.\nThe new parliament convened for the first time after the disputed elections that triggered the protests, and Akayev blamed the opposition for trying to destabilize Kyrgyzstan through violence.\n"There are extremists and marginalized forces even in Western countries," Akayev told lawmakers. "Unfortunately, Kyrgyzstan faces such destructive forces. Members of the opposition have made violent attempts to destabilize the situation using force to take over government institutions and block roads."\nDespite speculation he would introduce a state of emergency, Akayev said, "I am fully committed to not taking such measures."\nIn a later address to the nation, Akayev said talks with the opposition were possible, but "the mandatory requirement before we can start talks with those who have organized all illegal actions is restoration of legal order and the work of government agencies."\nThe opposition demonstrations in Osh and four other towns in Kyrgyzstan's impoverished south have increased pressure on Akayev, who has ruled this former Soviet republic in central Asia for 15 years.\nEarlier Tuesday, presidential spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev said the protests sweeping Kyrgyzstan were part of a "coup" designed by criminals.\nThe protests in Osh and Jalal-Abad were controlled by "criminal elements connected to the drug mafia ... struggling to gain power," Seghizbayev said.\nOsh is a major transit point for drugs from Afghanistan and Tajikistan to Kazakhstan and Russia.\nSeghizbayev called the protests "a putsch and a coup," the Interfax news agency reported.\n"The role of extremist and terrorist organizations is increasing in the country's south," Seghizbayev told The Associated Press. "At the moment, the provocateurs' ex-candidates for parliament have fled to Bishkek. They no longer control the situation -- the crowd is being controlled by criminal leaders."\nSeghizbayev would not identify the alleged organizations and said protesters had seized weapons when storming a police station in Jalal-Abad.\nAuthoritarian leaders in central Asia often have blamed any unrest on Muslim militants, but the protest organizers did not voice Islamic slogans, and many of the demonstrators are motivated by bad economic conditions and high unemployment. Ethnicity also may play a role, as about a third of the population in the south are Uzbeks.\nBoth the United States and Russia have bases in Kyrgyzstan. U.S. troops and other anti-terrorist coalition forces are based at the Manas airport near Bishkek for air operations in Afghanistan.\nSouthern Kyrgyzstan has been the scene of a series of incursions in recent years linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group that fought alongside the Taliban against the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.\nThe opposition is angered over what it alleges was widespread manipulation of the Feb. 27 first-round parliamentary elections and the March 13 runoffs. They took control of Osh using clubs and Molotov cocktails to storm government buildings and force police and officials to flee.