The FINANCIAL — According to RIA Novosti, a new wave of riots erupted in the capital of the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan when some 2,000 people armed with sticks, stones and torches hit the streets of Bishkek on April 19.
Eyewitnesses say that new riots began when a group of people tried to seize some 700 hectares of land in the suburbs of Bishkek. However, the landowners drove them from the area, which angered the invaders who moved to the capital and started riots. According to some reports, the rioters set several cars on fire and stoned a police building in the village of Mayevka.
Violence broke out in Kyrgyzstan on April 6, spreading across the country. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed and forced to flee the capital and later the country. An interim government was formed under Roza Otumbayeva.
Bakiyev had refused to step down as the interim government was demanding, but reports on Friday said a resignation letter had been faxed from a location in Kazakhstan to the authorities in Bishkek. A statement was published later on Friday by the Kazakh state news agency Kazinform.
The deposed president has taken refuge in Kazakhstan but the new Kyrgyz authorities have said they will initiate an international investigation into the alleged crimes committed by him. A special operation has begun in an attempt to find the former president's brother, and ex-security services chief.
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