Kyrgyzstan's new leaders have ratcheted up the pressure on ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, threatening a special operation but also hinting at an offer that may allow him to leave the country.
Mr Bakiyev told reporters that any attempt to kill him would result in bloodshed in the impoverished Central Asian nation where the US operates a military air base that is key for fighting the war in Afghanistan.
‘Let them try to seize me. Let them try to kill me,’ Mr Bakiyev said after calling on supporters to join rallies in the southern regions of Osh, Jalalabad and Batken, his power base in a country with a north-south political divide.
‘I believe this will lead to such a great deal of bloodshed which no one will be able to justify,’ he said at the rally of at least 2,000 supporters in his home village of Teyyit, where he has been staying in his villa.
It was his first public appearance since troops fired on protesters calling for his resignation outside his Bishkek offices on 7 April, killing at least 82 people and wounding hundreds more.
Mr Bakiyev's opponents - who seized power after he fled and now lead a self-proclaimed interim government - raised the spectre of using force against Mr Bakiyev but also hinted at a way out of the deadlock by offering him a way to leave the country.
‘We are preparing a special operation (against Bakiyev),' Almaz Atambayev, the first deputy leader of the interim government, told reporters in Bishkek. ‘We hope we can carry it out without the deaths of civilians.’
Later, Roza Otunbayeva, the leader of the interim government, said Mr Bakiyev must leave the country, a move that would help cool the turmoil and pave the way for the formal recognition of her government by global powers.
‘Everyone is calling on him to leave the Kyrgyz people alone, for Bakiyev to find himself a place outside Kyrgyzstan,’ she said.
The interim government has said Russia is its key ally and some leading ministers have said the US lease on its air base could be shortened, raising speculation that Moscow could try to use the base as a lever in relations with Washington.
The transit of troops to and from Afghanistan through the air base, halted earlier due to the political upheaval, has resumed, said the US embassy in a statement. It added it had no plans to shelter Mr Bakiyev or help him leave Kyrgyzstan.
