Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, facing violent protests in the south over a disputed election, on Tuesday defiantly backed the poll as legitimate but ruled out massive use of force to end the unrest. Akayev broke silence over the protests, in which opposition supporters have seized control of two southern towns in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country, telling newly elected deputies they were part of a body of "high and indisputable legitimacy".
Dismissing the unrest as temporary and led by marginal opposition groups encouraged by unnamed foreign forces, he refused to quit, saying that was not a decision "to be taken by rallies".
But, while taking a strong line, he ruled out using force to crush the protests. "I want to state firmly that I, as a president, will never resort to such steps," he said.
Akayev, by backing the elected deputies, rejected the views of international observers who had criticised the parliamentary polls in February and March as flawed.
His comments, however, drew scorn from protesters who kept up pressure on the long-serving leader to step down by keeping control of two southern towns and asserting their authority by organising joint patrols with police.
One opposition leader, Anvar Artykov, who has set himself up as de facto governor in the country's second city of Osh, refused any suggestion of compromise with Akayev.
"The only compromise would be guaranteeing his safety after his resignation," he said.
Akayev mocked the opposition leaders.
"The people who set themselves up as leaders of the opposition cannot formulate acceptable conditions for talks," he said in a televised speech.
"As far as my resignation is concerned, a decision on this is not to be taken by rallies ... this can be taken only by the people or parliament."
MASS PROTESTS: Kyrgyzstan, which borders China and three Central Asian states, is poor in natural resources. But it lies in an energy- rich region in which the United States and Russia are vying for influence. Both powers have air bases near Bishkek.
The violent anti-Akayev protests followed peaceful revolutions in two other former Soviet republics - Ukraine and Georgia - that brought Western-leaning leaders to power.
Mass protests against the polls that routed the opposition have been confined to the ethnically mixed south, which is poorer than northern regions around Bishkek. The capital itself has been quiet.
On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters armed with petrol bombs and sticks drove police out of Osh, having earlier gained control of nearby Jalal Abad.
Osh is located in an area that brings together an ethnic cocktail of Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz and saw ethnic clashes in the early 1990s in which hundreds of people were killed.
Tension remained high there on Tuesday. When a crowd of about 50 men marched into an already ransacked police station to set up joint patrols, police fled in fear.
Unlike the upheavals in Ukraine and Georgia, the unrest in Kyrgyzstan appears to lack a central opposition rallying figure and demonstrators have resorted to violence.
The opposition fears Akayev could use his majority in parliament to change the law and extend his 14-year-old hold on power beyond the legal maximum, although he says he intends to step down in October as the constitution demands.
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