Kyrgyzstan in crisis after police raid fails to catch ex-leader

BISHKE: Kyrgyzstan was on the brink of a full-blown political crisis Thursday after special forces failed to capture the former president during a raid on his compound which left one officer dead and a police chief in a critical condition.

The Central Asian state, which has seen two revolutions in less than two decades, has been roiled by a standoff between ex-leader Almazbek Atambayev and his protege-turned-foe President Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

Parliament in June stripped Atambayev of his immunity as a former president and the state prosecutor brought corruption charges against him — moves that supporters of the one-time leader say are politically motivated.

Atambayev has ignored police summonses for questioning and on Wednesday the confrontation escalated when the security service announced an operation to seize him from his compound outside Bishkek, capital of the Muslim-majority nation of six million people.

On Thursday Atambayev announced a rally for later in the day, in the same area of the capital where his supporters gathered at the start of a popular uprising in 2010.

Kyrgyzstan’s people “will never live on their knees, will not be collective farm sheep, will not be slaves of the ruling clan,” he said in a broadcast on the television channel he owns.

Atambayev also pledged to release police special forces officers held by his supporters following a night of clashes at his residence in the village of Koi-Tash.

An AFP correspondent saw police and hundreds of Atambayev supporters hurl stones at each other in Koi-Tash late Wednesday, where internet and mobile networks appeared to have been cut by authorities.

The correspondent saw some supporters forcibly disarm and beat special forces officers whom they then took hostage.

The health ministry said a special forces officer had died from a gunshot wound and the head of the Chui province police department was in a critical condition after being concussed during the clashes.

The ministry said 52 people had been injured in the clashes, around half of whom were law enforcement.

Early Thursday President Jeenbekov convened a meeting of the state security council, after talks between Atambayev’s representatives and the interior minister broke down.

Jeenbekov said during the meeting that Atambayev had “rudely flouted the Constitution and laws of the Kyrgyz Republic” by resisting detention.

Parliament also called an emergency session.