Kyrgyz leaders 'have blood on their hands'

Kyrgyzstan's ousted but defiant President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told AFP Friday he had no intention of resigning and accused the country's new self-proclaimed leadership of causing many deaths this week.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with AFP in the southern Kyrgyz city of Jalalabad, Bakiyev, 60, said he did not give any order for security forces to open fire on protesters in Bishkek this week, where at least 76 people died.
The ousted president also said that neither Russia nor the United States, both of which maintain military facilities in the strategic ex-Soviet Central Asian republic, played any role in the upheaval there this week.
"I am not the one with blood on my hands," said Bakiyev, speaking confidently and appearing tired but relaxed in a blue pin-striped suit with an open collar at a house in Jalalabad.
AFP's meeting with Bakiyev provided the first independent confirmation of his whereabouts after he was forced to flee the capital Bishkek on Wednesday when protesters overwhelmed security forces and stormed government buildings.
"Those people who organised armed men to storm the White House have blood on their hands. It's the opposition whose hands are bloody," Bakiyev said.
Bakiyev insisted he did not give any order to security forces to open fire on protesters, but said they had done so in line with Kyrgyz law which allows such force in the event of attacks on the presidential office building.
"I did not give the order to shoot" in Bishkek on Wednesday, he said.
Bakiyev opponents led by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva claim to have formed a provisional government that is now in charge of the country and have repeatedly demanded Bakiyev formally resign.
He reiterated Friday however that he had no intention either of leaving Kyrgyzstan or of resigning.
"I have no plans to leave the country and I am not resigning from the presidency," Bakiyev stated.
Bakiyev, who was quoted as saying earlier that foreign forces played a role in the upheaval this week, rejected speculation it was fomented in part from Russia.
"I do not believe that Russia or the United States of America had a hand in these issues," he said, declining to elaborate further on his earlier comment.
He also rejected assertions from political opponents and other critics that his rule was marked by corruption and economic mismanagement.