Kyrgyz president signs resignation
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-04 15:44

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, who fled the country last month after demonstrators stormed his offices, signed a resignation agreement Monday, a Kyrgyz lawmaker said.

Akayev signed the agreement a day after it was worked out in talks with a delegation representing Kyrgyzstan's interim leadership, said lawmaker Sadyr Japarov.

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, who fled the country last month after demonstrators stormed his offices, reacts while speaking to the media after his meeting with a delegation representing Kyrgyzstan's interim leadership at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Moscow, Sunday, April 3, 2005. Akayev said he will resign on Monday. [AP]

The resignation is effective Tuesday, Japarov said outside the Kyrgyz Embassy. He was one of several lawmakers in the delegation that negotiated with Akayev.

The resignation is likely to be a significant step toward restoring political order to the ex-Soviet Central Asian state, which was plunged into uncertainty after an anti-Akayev demonstration on March 24 exploded into a clash outside the presidential administration building. Riot police guarding the building fled and protesters rushed into the building.

Akayev surfaced in Russia several days later.

By stepping down, he would remove the last major obstruction to holding new presidential elections, which the interim government has tentatively scheduled for June 26. If Akayev did not step down, the legitimacy of such elections would be open to question.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
'Murdered' wife lives, proves husband's innocence         Vice-governor gets 12 years for taking bribes         No change in sight for Renminbi rate         Guessing game in battle for papal succession         Gov't urges increased mine safety spending         Beijing moves to put private cars in check	Guessing game in battle for papal succession       Iraqis tap Sunni for parliament speaker       Sudan rejects U.N. resolution on Darfur       All Syrian forces to leave Lebanon by April 30       Abbas moves to challenge militant groups       Al Qaeda says 7 suicide bombers struck Iraqi prison